MANSA RA made his debut as a playwright with TOO HEAVY FOR YOUR POCKET, a moving drama about a 1960s college student who shocks his family when he joins the extremely dangerous Freedom Rides. The New York Times named Ra a “Marquee Name, Now in the Making” while New Yorker praised him as “a gifted writer who will be amazing to watch as his work grows.” His plays have won numerous awards including the Laurents / Hatcher Foundation Award, Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition, Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, and the Fellowship of Southern Writers' 2017 Bryan Foundation Award for Drama.
Ra has written and produced on over two thousand hours of network television. Most notably, “A Seat at the Table” (New Amsterdam Season 1 Episode 11) which took his own experience with police to reveal why Dr. Reynolds (played by Jocko Sims) chose to be a surgeon.
His latest Off-Broadway production …WHAT THE END WILL BE (NYT Critics’ pick) premiered at the Roundabout Theater in New York City. The New York Times applauds it as “everything that is meant when we say that Black lives matter” while The Wall Street Journal calls it “an undeniable pleasure.” …WHAT THE END WILL BE stars Keith Randolph Smith (Broadway's JITNEY, Spike Lee's MALCOLM X) as an estranged father trying to reconcile with his son before he dies of cancer.
Mansa Ra was educated at Memphis Central High School, Morehouse College, Spelman College, Emory University, and earned an M.F.A. in Playwriting from the Yale School of Drama. He credits Sarah Ruhl and Dr. Alison Ligon as the most influential teachers of his academic journey.