David Henry Hwang

David Henry Hwang
David Henry Hwang at home in Brooklyn in 2013.
Born	(1957-08-11) August 11, 1957 (age 59) Los Angeles, California
Occupation	Playwright, screenwriter, television writer, librettist, lyricist
Nationality	American
Period	1980–present
Genre	Drama
Subject	Asian-American Identity Gender Politics
Literary movement	Contemporary Drama
Notable works	FOB The Dance and the Railroad Family Devotions M. Butterfly Golden Child Flower Drum Song (revival) Yellow Face Chinglish
Spouse	Ophelia Y. M. Chong (1985-1989) Kathryn Layng (1993–present; 2 children)

David Henry Hwang (simplified Chinese: 黄哲伦; traditional Chinese: 黃哲倫; pinyin: Huáng Zhélún; born August 11, 1957) is a Tony Award-winning American playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and theater professor.

He was born in Los Angeles, California to Henry Yuan Hwang, a banker, and Dorothy Hwang, a piano teacher. The oldest of three children, he has two younger sisters. He received a Bachelor's degree in English from Stanford University and attended the Yale School of Drama, taking literature classes. He left once workshopping of new plays began since he already had a play on in New York. His first play was produced at the Okada House dormitory at Stanford after he briefly studied playwriting with Sam Shepard and María Irene Fornés.

Hwang's early plays concerned the role of the Chinese American and Asian American in the modern day world. His first play, the Obie Award-winning FOB, depicts the contrasts and conflicts between established Asian Americans and "Fresh Off the Boat" newcomer immigrants. The play was developed by the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and premiered in 1980 Off-Broadway at the Joseph Papp Public Theater. Papp went on to produce four more of Hwang's plays, including The Dance and the Railroad, which tells the story of a former Chinese opera star working as a coolie laborer in the nineteenth century, and the Drama Desk Award-nominated Family Devotions, a darkly comic take on the effects of Western religion on a Chinese family. Those three plays added up to a "Trilogy of Chinese America" as the author described.