She’s broken Broadway records, won numerous awards, and is one of the 2025 EBONY Power 100 recipients in the “Artist In Residence” category. But the unstoppable Kara Young is all about giving her fellow awardees their accolades.
“To be with my colleagues: there’s Whitney White, who I not only admire but who I’m also absolutely inspired by, how she moves through the world as a mother, wife and incredible director,” Young gushed to EBONY at the African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) Broadway Luncheon, where she received the 2025 Spotlight Award.
“And if you’re ever in the presence of Jonathan McCorry, you automatically feel like you’re in the presence of royalty, just in the way that he moves.”
White, a theatre triple threat who’s receiving rave reviews for directing Broadway’s new play sensation, Liberation; McCorry, the visionary executive artistic director of the National Black Theatre and Young are all being recognized this year for reshaping the cultural landscape through groundbreaking artistic expression.
“It’s a testament to how we’re all sticking true to the work,” Young noted.
But let’s take a moment to review this petite powerhouse’s impressive resume.
Young has been nominated for a Tony Award consecutively for the past four years. She won back-to-back Tony Awards for Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play for her work in the revival of Purlie Victorious (2024) and in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play Purpose (2025), making her the first African American woman to achieve this honor.
Speaking about the process of her mesmerizing presence on stage, Young still gives flowers to those around her. “I don’t know what the ingredients are, except perhaps community, family and the incredible support of all the theater of the people who work in the theater: the writers, the directors. It’s the stories that come from these magical artists,” she revealed. “I feel like that’s a part of the ingredients, you just let it take you.”
It’s obvious that Young has done her homework, as she shared how she feels about being one of POWER 100’s deserving awardees. “I’m still shocked. It’s an important, pivotal thing for me because of EBONY’s history. I spoke to Whitney and Jonathan about the recognition from this iconic publication, and I feel incredibly honored to even be thought of in that light,” she declared.
“I was looking up the history of Power 100, when it returned in 1971 with the 100 most influential Black Americans. The people who were on that list: Amiri Baraka, Muhammad Ali, Angela Davis, James Brown and more…to be following in that line, there’s something incredibly powerful there.”
And there’s something incredibly powerful and humble about Kara Young.
Follow EBONY’s Instagram and the Power 100 hub for up-to-the-minute coverage of the 2025 EBONY Power 100 Awards Gala on Tuesday, November 4.