Gloria Oladipo

About Gloria Oladipo

Gloria Oladipo is a playwright, critic, and journalist proudly hailing from Chicago, Illinois. Gloria’s work investigates the complications of thick, sticky, overwhelming love. Often, she writes Black comedies about Black families who do not know how to love one another but do the very best they can. Her work is unsentimental, acerbic, and genre-blending: a kick in the gut followed by the lingering static of a bear hug. 

Born to two Nigerian immigrants, both educators, Gloria spent much of her childhood surrounded by language and literature. Her parents encouraged her early interest in the arts: enrolling her in free art classes at Marwen and (politely) asking Chicago Public Librarians to hang up her artwork.    

Growing up, Gloria had a limited exposure to theater as a child. Her first foray into performance was by acting in her white church’s musical productions (non-union). She later learned about professional theater after joining the Steppenwolf Young Adult Council, a critical artistic home, and from watching bootleg online Broadway performances, falling in love with theater’s possibility. As a college junior, Gloria created the Veterans’ Playwriting Program (VPP), a playwriting initiative for women of color veterans, in collaboration with Steppenwolf Theatre. Founding and leading the program taught Gloria the importance of centering those overlooked in storytelling spaces and how playwriting helps process personal experiences.

Gloria later worked as a reporter with the Guardian US for nearly four years after graduating from Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in Government. In her roles as a Breaking News reporter as well as a Race and Equity reporter, Gloria covered everything from the war in Ukraine to the most recent election cycle. As a freelance writer, Gloria covered arts and theater criticism, profiling acclaimed artists such as Branden Jacob-Jenkins, Suzan-Lori Parks, and more. Her work has been published in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian, American Theatre Magazine, and other publications. She is also the 2023 recipient of the American Theatre Critics Association's Edward Medina Prize for Excellence in Cultural Criticism. 

Gloria continues to build a robust career as a playwright. She is a 2023 to 2025 Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group Fellow and a 2025 Velvetpark Writers Fellow. Gloria is also the 2024 recipient of the Dramatists Guild Foundation Thom Thomas award. Gloria’s work has been in residence or developed by New York Stage and Film in Poughkeepsie, New York; the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York, New York; Boston Court Pasadena in Pasadena, California; Workshop Theater in New York, New York; the Fresh Ground Pepper Group; and other institutions.  

Gloria now attends the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University, a leading drama institution, where she is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in playwriting. Inspired by actress and writer Michaela Coel, Gloria’s ultimate goal is to be a ‘genre-less artist,’ someone working in multiple mediums (theater, film, television) while maintaining creative control over her projects and path. 

Gloria would like to thank the Posse Foundation and the Yale University Office of Fellowships for their guidance during this process. She would also like to thank her family and friends for their support as well as her beloved pet rabbit, Pretzel, who served as a loyal roommate, companion, and emotional buttress for nearly six years—including through her first semester of graduate school.