Daniel Koa Beaty
An award-winning actor, singer, and writer, Daniel Koa Beaty’s critically acclaimed plays Through the Night, Emergency, Mr. Joy, Breath & Imagination, and The Tallest Tree in the Forest – Paul Robeson, have been performed at venues ranging from the Public Theater and Lincoln Center to the White House and maximum-security prisons. He has garnered numerous awards including an Obie award for writing and performance and five NAACP Theater Awards. For television, Beaty has written for network and premium cable including The Good Fight, Your Honor, Law & Order, & Supergirl. A graduate of Yale University (BA) & American Conservatory Theatre (MFA), Beaty has developed original scripted television shows with Imagine/Fox, Fox/Showtime, UCP/USA, CBS & WB Studios. In 2010, Beaty began I Dream, a movement of artists, activists, and
entrepreneurs committed to public good. I Dream’s core strategy is using the tools of the arts to help heal trauma and build coalitions to address urgent social justice issues. Beaty recently completed a documentary about the impact of mass incarceration on children and families called Behind the Glass. A child of an incarcerated parent himself, Daniel’s poem Knock Knock has become an Internet sensation receiving over 30 million views and has been made into a children’s book, also titled Knock Knock, published by Little Brown Books. Penguin-Random House published his memoir Transforming Pain to Power. Beaty second children’s book, Future Ancestor, releases in ’25, and his second memoir, Love Warrior, releases this summer. For more information, please visit insta/tiktok/youtube: @danielkoabeaty or www.DanielKoaBeaty.com.
Photo Credit: Leland Durond Thompson