James Ijames () (born 1980) is an American playwright originally from Bessemer City, North Carolina. His play Fat Ham, adapted from Hamlet, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He is a professor at Columbia University and former co-artistic director of the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia.
Early life Ijames grew up in Bessemer City, North Carolina. He received his BA in Drama from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, and his MFA in Acting from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Career After graduating from Temple, Ijames performed in plays in Philadelphia, including at the Arden Theatre Company, Philadelphia Theatre Company, People's Light, and The Wilma Theater.
He began writing The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington in 2012 while performing in a production of Angels in America at The Wilma.
Ijames is a founding member of Orbiter 3, Philadelphia's first playwright producing collective.
Ijames' work has been produced by Flashpoint Theater Company, Orbiter 3, Theatre Horizon, The National Black Theatre, Ally Theatre Company (Washington, DC), and others.
Kill Move Paradise had its premiere at the National Black Theatre in 2017. Ben Brantley of The New York Times noted that "Mr. Ijames's play has no sense of an ending, or of resolution. It takes place in a nightmare of history, in which events are repeated, fugue-like, into eternity." He compared Ijames' work to the early works of Suzan-Lori Parks.
White was produced at the Theatre Horizon. In his review, Jim Rutter of the Philadelphia Inquirer remarked on the play's ending and how it "adds a surreal twist by driving home Ijames' exploration of black women's exploitation by feminism, by contemporary culture and white women."
Moon Man Walk was produced by Orbiter 3 in Philadelphia. Bryan Buttler writing for Philadelphia Magazine praised the quality of the new work, stating "there's a lot of talk about "new work" in theater and opera in this town, but Moon Man Walk provides the kind of artistic quality that the Philadelphia arts community needs to not only achieve with new works but invest in."
From 2020 to 2023, Ijames was co-artistic director of The Wilma.
His adaptation of Hamlet, titled Fat Ham, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2022 after premiering as a "digital production" at the Wilma in 2021. A second production ran at The Public Theater during the summer of 2022, before opening on Broadway in April 2023.
Ijames directed King Hedley II by August Wilson at the Arden in 2025.
In 2025, Ijames left Villanova University, where he began teaching in the 2010s, to teach playwriting at Columbia University.
Personal life Ijames is gay. He is married to Joel Witter.
Plays The Threshing Floor The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington (Flashpoint Theater Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Moon Man Walk (Orbiter 3 Playwrights Collective, 2015) White (PlayPenn New Play Conference, Theatre Horizon, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Matter Out of Place (InterAct Theater Company and Available Light Theater, Columbus, Ohio) History of Walking (Theatre Exile, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Kill Move Paradise (National Black Theatre, 2017) Youth TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever (Ally Theatre Company, 2020) Fat Ham (Wilma Theater, 2021) Reverie (Azuka Theatre, 2022) Abandon (NEA supported, Theatre Exile, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Good Bones (Commissioned by Studio Theatre, Washington, D.C., 2023) Wilderness Generation (2026)
Awards and nominations Year Award Category Work Result Ref. 2011 F. Otto Haas Award Emerging Artist Barrymore Award Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play Superior Donuts 2012 Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches 2014 Outstanding Direction of a Play The Brothers Size 2015 Terrence McNally Award New Play White Pew Fellowship in the Arts Playwriting 2017 Whiting Award Drama 2018 Kesselring Prize Playwriting Miz Martha 2022 Pulitzer Prize Drama Fat Ham 2023 Tony Award Best Play 2024 Lambda Literary Award Drama
References