Life and career

Letts was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to best-selling author Billie Letts (née Gipson) and the late college professor and actor Dennis Letts. He has two brothers, Shawn, a jazz musician and composer, and Dana. Letts was raised in Durant, Oklahoma and graduated from Durant High School in the early 1980s. He moved to Dallas, where he waited tables and worked in telemarketing while starting as an actor. He acted in Jerry Flemmons' O Dammit!, which was part of a new playwrights series sponsored by Southern Methodist University.

Letts moved to Chicago at the age of 20, and worked for the next 11 years at Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Famous Door. He is still an active member of Steppenwolf. He was a founding member of Bang Bang Spontaneous Theatre, whose members included Greg Kotis (Tony Award-winner for Urinetown), Michael Shannon (Academy Award-nominee for Revolutionary Road), Paul Dillon, and Amy Pietz. In 1991, Letts wrote the play Killer Joe. Two years later, the play premiered at the Next Lab Theater in Chicago, followed by the 29th Street Rep in NYC. Since then, Killer Joe has been performed in at least 15 countries in 12 languages.

His mother Billie Letts, also a writer, has said of his work, "I try to be upbeat and funny. Everybody in Tracy's stories gets naked or dead." Letts' plays have been about people struggling with moral and spiritual questions. He says he was inspired by the plays of Tennessee Williams and the novels of William Faulkner and Jim Thompson. Letts considers sound to be a very strong storytelling tool for theater.

Letts married actress Carrie Coon, a co-star in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, in September 2013.

Awards, accolades and nominations

In 2008, Letts won a Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for August: Osage County. It had premiered in Chicago in 2007, before moving to New York. It opened on Broadway in 2007 and ran into 2009.

In 2004, Letts was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play, Man from Nebraska.

For his screenplay of Killer Joe, Letts was nominated for a Saturn Award for "Best Writing."

In 2012-2013, Letts appeared in the 50th Anniversary Broadway revival of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, as originally presented by the Steppenwolf Theater Company. On June 9, 2013, he received the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play (Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play) for his performance as George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

In 2013, Letts was nominated, along with the rest of the cast of Showtime's Homeland, for an "Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series" Screen Actors Guild Award.

Screenwriting

Letts has written the screenplays for the feature films Bug (directed by William Friedkin and based on the play of the same name he wrote), Killer Joe (also directed by Friedkin based on a play of the same name that he wrote), and August: Osage County (directed by John Wells and based on the Pulitzer-Prize and Tony Award winning play of the same name that he wrote).

For Killer Joe, Letts was nominated for a Saturn Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA, for "Best Writing." In 2007, Letts also wrote, executive produced and starred in a short film entitled Cop Show, directed by Leo Benvenuti and Steve Rudnick and also starring Danny Pudi. The film is about two oddly erudite Chicago cops (one of them named "Michael Cooke", played by Letts) who try their best to not do too much at their jobs.

Acting

Letts played Andrew Lockhart on Season 3 of Showtime's Homeland. He was nominated, with the rest of the cast, for an "Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series" award from the Screen Actors Guild (the Screen Actors Guild Awards) in 2013. He reprised the role in Season 4.

Letts has also appeared on episodes of the TV show Prison Break (as Peter Tucci), The District (as Brad Gilroy), Strong Medicine (as Ken), Profiler (as Mr. Adams), Judging Amy (as Mr. Kleinman), The Drew Carey Show (as Lomax), Seinfeld (as counter man), Early Edition (as Jonathan/Marksman), Home Improvement (as Henry), and other shows.

In feature films, Letts has appeared in Audrey Wells' Guinevere (as Zack), Stuart Baird's U.S. Marshals (as Sheriff Poe), Chicago Cab (as the sports fan), Straight Talk (as Sean), and Paramedics (as the van owner).

Letts will co-star in Indignation, an adaptation of Philip Roth's 2008 novel of the same name.

Work

Writer

Plays 1993 Killer Joe 1996 Bug 2003 Man from Nebraska 2007 August: Osage County 2008 Superior Donuts 2009 Three Sisters 2015 The Stretch 2016 Mary Page Marlowe

Screenplays 2006 Bug 2012 Killer Joe 2013 August: Osage County

Actor

Stage 1988 The Glass Menagerie 1991-1995 Bang Bang Spontaneous Theatre 1994 Picasso At The Lapin Agile 1999 Three Days of Rain 2001 Glengarry Glen Ross 2002 The Dazzle 2002 Miracle on 34th Street 2003 Homebody/Kabul 2004 The Dresser 2005 Last of the Boys 2005 Orson's Shadow 2005 The Pain and the Itch 2006 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 2006 The Pillowman 2006 The Well-Appointed Room 2007 Betrayal 2009 American Buffalo 2012 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 2014 The Realistic Joneses

Filmography 1988 Paramedics - Van owner 1992 Straight Talk - Sean 1995 Home Improvement - Henry (TV) 1996 Early Edition - Jonathan / Marksman (TV) 1997 Seinfeld - Counterguy (TV) 1998 Chicago Cab - Sports fan 1998 The Drew Carey Show - Lomax (TV) 1998 U.S. Marshals - Sheriff Poe 1999 Guinevere - Zack 1999 Judging Amy - Mr. Kleinman (TV) 2000 Profiler - Mr. Adams (TV) 2001 Strong Medicine - Ken (TV) 2001 The District - Brad Gilroy (TV) 2006 Prison Break - Peter Tucci (TV) 2013-2014 Homeland - Senator/Director Andrew Lockhart (TV) 2015 The Big Short - Lawrence Fields 2016 Elvis & Nixon - John Finlator 2016 Wiener-Dog - Danny 2016 Christine - Michael 2016 Indignation - Hawes D. Caudwell 2016 Divorce - Nick (TV) TBA Imperium - Dallas Wolf

Awards and nominations

Awards

• 2008 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play - August: Osage County
• 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama - August: Osage County
• 2008 Tony Award for Best Play - August: Osage County
• 2013 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Nominations

• 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Drama - Man from Nebraska
• 2013 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series - Homeland

[ Source: Wikipedia ]