Thomas Kail Bio, Age, Career, Quotes, Theatre, and Awards

Thomas Kail Biography

Thomas Kail (age 42) is an American award-winning film and theatre director. He is best known for directing the Broadway and Off-Broadway productions of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musicals In the Heights and Hamilton. Also, he is noted for creating Freestyle Love Supreme, a freestyle hip-hop group with Lin-Manuel Miranda.

He attended the Sidwell Friends School and graduated in 1995. Subsequently, he joined Wesleyan University where he graduated in 1999. Soon after, he started working as a stage manager at New Jersey’s American Stage Company.

Thomas Kail  Age

He was born on the 20th of January 1977 in Alexandria, an independent city in Virginia, United States.

Thomas Kail  Career

His first known directing role came in 2006 when he wrote, directed, and produced the Television pilot for “Critical Hours”. In 2007 and 2008, he directed the ’24 Hour Plays’. He also directed Julia Jordan’s ‘A Bus Stop Play’ and Beau Willimon’s ‘Zusammenbruch’ in 2008. That same year, he directed hit Broadway musical ‘In the Heights’. In 2009, he directed ‘Broke-ology’. His work here got him an AUDELCO Award nomination as well as great recognition.

Also, in 2009, he served as director for the New York City Center’s Encores! production of the musical The Wiz. The year after, he directed Eric Simonson’s play, ‘Lombardi’. The play is based on Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi through a week in the 1965 season. In 2012, he came across Eric Simonson, again, in his play ‘Magic/Bird’ that chronicles the lives of basketballers Larry Bird and Earvin “Magic” Johnson.

Thomas Kail collaborated with his long-time friend Lin-Manuel Hamilton in 2015 in directing the musical titled ‘Hamilton’. For 2016, Thomas directed ‘Grease: Live’ for Paramount TV; ‘Dry Powder’ with Hank Azaria, Claire Danes, John Krasinski and Sanjit De Silva; and ‘Tiny Beautiful Things’.

Thomas Kail Awards

  • Kennedy Center Honors (with Andy Blankenbuehler, Alex Lacamoire, and Lin-Manuel Miranda) in 2018
  • Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special in 2016
  • Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Program in 2016
  • Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical in 2016
  • Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Direction of a Musical in 2015
  • Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Director in 2015
  • NAACP Award for Best Director of a Musical in 2011
  • SDC Joseph A. Callaway Awards for Best Director in 2007

Thomas Kail Quotes

Humanity is more important to me than talent… if there’s a choice to make, I’ll go humanity over talent every time.

Fundamentally, one of the things I tend to migrate toward when I’m working is a story about people whose stories aren’t told in theater

My job is the same if I’m making a new musical or making a play for sixty-five people or doing a live television broadcast. The job is to take care of the actor; the job is to create an environment where they can excel and try to access all their attributes.

One of the greatest compliments anyone could ever give a director is, ‘Everybody was in the same show.’ That’s something I think about constantly.
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/thomas_kail

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You May Also Like

Hugh Douglas’s net worth, biography, fact, career, awards and life story

Hugh Douglas Net Worth: Hugh Douglas is a former American football player who has a net worth of $10 million. Born Hugh Lamont Douglas on August 23, 1971, in Mansfield, Ohio, he played defensive end in the National Football League and has served as football analyst for the ESPN television network. In his decade-long career, he got the chance to play for the New York Jets, Philadelphia Eagles (twice), and the Jacksonville Jaguars. Athletically gifted Douglas first showed his football skills at the Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, form which he majored at elementary education. While at college, he led his team to an NAIA national championship as a sophomore and he was named Defensive Player of the Year by The Pigskin Club of Washington, D.C. as a senior. Plus, he was a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. A first-round draft choice of the Jets in the 1995 NFL Draft, Douglas was named Defensive Rookie of the Year by the Associated Press the same year. Prior to the 1998 season, he was traded to the Eagles for two draft choices. Then he spent the 2003 campaign with the Jaguars before getting back to Philadelphia in 2004. A year later, Owens retired from the sport, right after he was reportedly involved in an altercation with former Eagles teammate Terrell Owens. Ranked fourth on the Eagles’ all-time sack list with 54.5 during his six seasons, Dougles went on to serve for a while as an on-air reporter with WTXF-TV in Philadelphia and became a regular personality on Philadelphia’s sports radio station 610 WIP. He did several broadcasting engagements, eventually joining Jalen Rose as a full-time analyst on ESPN2’s Numbers Never Lie in September 2012. However, he was reportedly fired few months later, after using racist language and getting into an altercation with colleague Michael Smith.
Read More