Tarell Alvin McCraney

American actor and playwright

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July 16, 2026

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Tarell Alvin McCraney is an American actor and playwright, best known for his semi-autobiographical play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue. This work served as the basis for the critically acclaimed 2016 film Moonlight, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The film, directed and cowritten by Barry Jenkins, tells the story of a young Black man's journey of self-discovery and his struggle with his attraction to other men. McCraney and Jenkins also shared an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for their work on the film.

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Barry Jenkins
…an unproduced play written by Tarell Alvin McCraney. The semi-autobiographical work, entitled In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, was set in the same place and time that Jenkins had grown up in, which appealed to the filmmaker, and he began working on a screenplay. The resulting film, Moonlight (2016), was,…
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…an unproduced play written by Tarell Alvin McCraney. The semi-autobiographical work, entitled In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, was set in the same place and time that Jenkins had grown up in, which appealed to the filmmaker, and he began working on a screenplay. The resulting film, Moonlight (2016), was,…
Read More