Daniel Kaluuya to Make U.S. Stage Debut in New Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Play

Daniel Kaluuya will make his U.S. stage debut in a new play by Pulitzer Prize winner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.

Kaluuya will star in Grass, which was commissioned by Park Avenue Armory and the National Black Theatre, and is set to premiere in February. The play, which was written specifically for the Armory’s 55,000-square-foot stage in New York, follows Kaluuya, who goes on a “fantastical, picturesque” road trip with his mother through the American South in order to reconstruct their family tree, with encounters with historical and allegorical figures along the way.

Kaluuya won an Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe for his performance in Judas and the Black Messiah and was Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominated for his lead role in Jordan Peele’s Get Out. He has also appeared in Peele’s Nope, Steve McQueen’s Widows, Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario, Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror, Lena Waithe’s Queen & Slim and Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther. He is currently starring in Chris Rock’s feature Misty Green, which premiered at Toronto Film Festival, New York Film Festival and London Film Festival.

His London stage credits include appearing in Roy Williams’s Sucker Punch and in Levi David Addai’s Oxford Street, for which he was nominated for an Olivier.

Jacobs-Jenkins won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for his play, Purpose. In 2024, he won a Tony Award for best revival of a play for Appropriate.

The production reunites the creative team behind the Jacobs-Jenkins’ Obie award-winning production of An Octoroon, with direction by Sarah Benson and set design by Mimi Lien.

Park Avenue Armory’s upcoming 2027 season will also include Peace Camp: A Vigil, an artist installation of glowing tents that contain recordings of love poems, a reimagination of Philip Glass and Robert Wilson’s opera, Einstein on the Beach, wordless theatrical triptych Guernica Guernica and concert installation Audience Plant 2027.