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Tracy S. Letts (born July 4, 1965) is an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter. He started his career at the Steppenwolf Theatre before making his Broadway debut as a playwright for (2007), for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play. As an actor, he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for the Broadway revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (2013).
As a playwright, Letts is known for having written for the Steppenwolf Theatre, Off-Broadway and Broadway theatre. His works include Killer Joe, Bug, Man from Nebraska, , Superior Donuts, Linda Vista, and The Minutes. Letts adapted three of his plays into films, Bug and Killer Joe, both directed by William Friedkin, and , directed by John Wells. His 2009 play Superior Donuts was adapted into a television series of the same name. As a stage actor, Letts has performed in various classic plays with the Steppenwolf Theatre since 1988. He made his acting Broadway debut as George in the revival of Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which earned him a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. He continued acting on the Broadway stage in The Realistic Joneses, All My Sons, and The Minutes.
In film and television, he is known for his portrayal of Andrew Lockhart in seasons 3 and 4 of Showtime's Homeland, and Bernie Madoff Nick on the HBO comedy series Divorce. In 2017, he starred in three critically acclaimed films: Azazel Jacobs' The Lovers, Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird, and Steven Spielberg's The Post. Lady Bird earned Letts a nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. In 2019, he portrayed Henry Ford II in James Mangold's Ford v Ferrari and Mr. Dashwood in Gerwig's Little Women, the two also receiving Best Picture nominations.
Letts moved to Chicago at the age of 20, working 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, Michael Shannon, 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 Evanston, Illinois, followed by the 29th Street Rep in New York City. Since then, Killer Joe has been performed in a number of countries in 12 languages.
His mother, Billie Letts, said of his work, "I try to be upbeat and funny. Everybody in Tracy's stories gets naked or dead." Letts's plays have depicted 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 states that he considers sounds to be effective "storytelling tools" for theater.
Letts has written over ten plays. His most famous, , premiered at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago on June 28, 2007. It had its Broadway debut at the Imperial Theatre on December 4, 2007; the production transferred to Broadway theatre's Music Box Theatre on April 29, 2008. The Broadway show closed on June 28, 2009, after 648 performances and 18 previews. The show went on to receive seven Tony Award nominations, winning six, including Best Play. The play won Letts the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2008. Letts has also been a finalist for the Pulitzer drama prize for his plays Man from Nebraska and The Minutes; the Pulitzer committee described The Minutes as a "shocking drama set in a seemingly mundane city council meeting that acidly articulates a uniquely American toxicity that feels both historic and contemporary." "Finalists Tracy Letts" pulitzer.org, retrieved April 16, 2018 Letts starred in the Broadway production of The Minutes, his first time acting in one of his own plays.
In 2016, Letts joined HBO's marital comedy-drama Divorce. In 2018, Letts was cast in the second season of USA Network's anthology crime drama series The Sinner, opposite Bill Pullman and Carrie Coon. He played Jack McKinney in HBO's 2022 series .
In 2019, Letts portrayed Henry Ford II in James Mangold's sports drama film Ford v Ferrari, and played Mr. Dashwood in Little Women, a film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. Letts has written screenplays for three feature films based on his plays: Bug (directed by William Friedkin), Killer Joe (also directed by Friedkin); and (directed by John Wells). He also wrote the screenplay for the 2021 Netflix feature film The Woman in the Window, starring Amy Adams, based on the eponymous psychological thriller by A.J. Finn.
| 1993 | Killer Joe | ||
| 1996 | Bug | ||
| 2003 | Man from Nebraska | ||
| 2007 | |||
| 2008 | Superior Donuts | ||
| 2009 | Three Sisters | Adaptation | |
| 2015 | The Stretch | ||
| 2016 | Mary Page Marlowe | ||
| 2017 | Linda Vista | ||
| 2017 | The Minutes | ||
| 2006 | Bug | Adaptation of his play |
| 2007 | Cop Show | Short film |
| 2011 | Killer Joe | Adaptation of his play |
| 2013 | Adaptation of his play | |
| 2021 | The Woman in the Window | |
| 1988 | The Glass Menagerie | Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre | |
| 1991–1995 | Bang Bang Spontaneous Theatre | Various characters | Chicago, No Exit Cafe |
| 1994 | Picasso at the Lapin Agile | Freddy | Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre |
| 1999 | Three Days of Rain | Walker | Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre |
| 2001 | Glengarry Glen Ross | John Williamson | Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre |
| 2002 | The Dazzle | Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre | |
| 2002 | Miracle on 34th Street | Lawyer | Chicago Center for Performing Arts |
| 2003 | Homebody/Kabul | Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre | |
| 2004 | The Dresser | Norman | Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre |
| 2005 | Last of the Boys | Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre | |
| 2005 | Orson's Shadow | Kenneth Tynan | Off-Broadway, Barrow Street Theatre |
| 2005 | The Pain and the Itch | Cash | Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre |
| 2006 | The Pillowman | Tupolski | Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre |
| 2006 | The Well-Appointed Room | Stewart | Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre |
| 2007 | Betrayal | Robert | Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre |
| 2009 | American Buffalo | Walter "Teach" Cole | Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre |
| 2010 | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | George | Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre |
| 2012 | Broadway, Booth Theatre | ||
| 2014 | The Realistic Joneses | Bob Jones | Broadway, Lyceum Theatre |
| 2019 | All My Sons | Joe Keller | Broadway, American Airlines Theatre |
| 2020 | The Minutes | Mayor Superba | Broadway, Cort Theatre |
| 2022 | Broadway, Studio 54 |
| 1988 | Paramedics | Van Owner | |
| 1992 | Straight Talk | Sean | |
| 1998 | Chicago Cab | Sports Fan | |
| U.S. Marshals | Sheriff Poe | ||
| 1999 | Guinevere | Zack | |
| 2007 | Cop Show | Michael Cooke | Short film |
| 2015 | The Big Short | Lawrence Fields | |
| 2016 | Wiener-Dog | Danny | |
| Christine | Michael Nelson | ||
| Elvis & Nixon | John Finlator | ||
| Indignation | Hawes D. Caudwell | ||
| Imperium | Dallas Wolf | ||
| 2017 | The Lovers | Michael | |
| Lady Bird | Larry McPherson | ||
| The Post | Fritz Beebe | ||
| 2019 | Ford v Ferrari | Henry Ford II | |
| Little Women | Mr. Dashwood | ||
| 2020 | French Exit | Franklin "Small Frank" Price (voice) | |
| 2021 | The Woman in the Window | Dr. Landy | Uncredited |
| Jack | Uncredited | ||
| 2022 | Deep Water | Don Wilson | |
| 2023 | Eric Larue | Bill Verne | |
| 2024 | McVeigh | Richard Snell | |
| Saturday Night | Herb Sargent | ||
| 2025 | A House of Dynamite | Post-production | |
| TBA | Rosebush Pruning | Post-production |
| 1995 | Home Improvement | Henry | Episode: "Jill's Surprise Party" |
| 1996–1997 | Early Edition | Jonathan / Marksman | 2 episodes |
| 1997 | Seinfeld | Counterguy | Episode: "The Strike" |
| 1998 | The Drew Carey Show | Lomax | Episode: "Drew and the Conspiracy" |
| 1999 | Judging Amy | Mr. Kleinman | Episode: "Pilot" |
| 2000 | Profiler | Mr. Adams | Episode: "Train Man" |
| 2001 | Strong Medicine | Ken | Episode: "Wednesday Night Fever" |
| 2001 | The District | Brad Gilroy | Episode: "Melt Down" |
| 2006 | Prison Break | Peter Tucci | 2 episodes |
| 2013–2014 | Homeland | Senator/Director Andrew Lockhart | 17 episodes |
| 2016–2019 | Divorce | Nick | 17 episodes |
| 2017 | Comrade Detective | Vasile (voice) | Episode: "No Exit" |
| 2018 | The Sinner | Jack Novack | 7 episodes |
| 2022–2023 | Jack McKinney | 9 episodes | |
| 2024 | Mr. Throwback | Mitch Grossman | 5 episodes |
| 2024 | The Simpsons | Himself (voice) | Episode: "Desperately Seeking Lisa" |
| 2025 | The Paper | Upcoming series | |
| 2025 | The Lowdown | Upcoming series | |
| TBA | East of Eden | Cyrus Trask | Upcoming series |
| 2004 | Pulitzer Prize | Drama | Man from Nebraska | ||
| 2008 | |||||
| 2008 | Tony Awards | Best Play | |||
| 2008 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Play | |||
| 2013 | Tony Awards | Best Leading Actor in a Play | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | ||
| 2013 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | |||
| 2018 | Pulitzer Prize | Drama | The Minutes | ||
| 2022 | Tony Awards | Best Play | |||
Film and television awards
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