Theatre & dance / Film & TV / Literature
Ruben Santiago-Hudson
born 1956 · actor, playwright, director
Tony-winning actor, playwright of Lackawanna Blues and August Wilson director, who earned his master's degree at Wayne State University, which later gave him an honorary doctorate.
- Born
Lackawanna, New York
age 69- Birth name
- Ruben Santiago Jr.
- Detroit years
- 1980s
- Field
- Theatre & dance, Film & TV, Literature
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Ruben Santiago-Hudson grew up in Lackawanna, near Buffalo, New York, the son of a Puerto Rican father and an African American mother, and was raised largely by a boardinghouse owner he would later immortalize on stage. After a bachelor's degree at Binghamton University he came to Detroit for graduate training at Wayne State University, where he earned his master's degree in theater. In New York he won the 1996 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in August Wilson's Seven Guitars. His autobiographical solo play Lackawanna Blues (2001), in which he plays some twenty characters from his childhood, became an HBO film and later a Tony-nominated Broadway production. As a director he is a leading interpreter of Wilson, earning a Tony nomination for Jitney (2017). Television viewers know him as Captain Roy Montgomery on Castle. Wayne State awarded him an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.
Highlights
- Tony Award for Seven Guitars (1996)
- Wrote and performed Lackawanna Blues (stage 2001, HBO film 2005, Broadway 2022)
- Tony nomination for directing Jitney (2017)
- Master's degree and honorary doctorate from Wayne State University
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · 1980s
Wayne State University
Santiago-Hudson earned his master's degree here and later received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.