'Purpose' Tony nominee Kara Young is making Broadway history

Amid a string of theatre successes, she is now the first Black performer, and only the second performer ever, to be nominated for Tony Awards four years in a row.

The hard work never stops for Broadway star Kara Young — but she's not the type to meticulously map out career goals. She avoids "prescribing a moment," she said, instead wanting to stay open to all opportunities. It's a testament to Young's talent that plum ones seek her out again and again and again.

The Harlem native made an instantly memorable Broadway debut in Lynn Nottage's Clyde's in the 2021-22 season, earning a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play to boot. She then did the same in every Broadway season since. That means as of 2025, she's been nominated in four consecutive years — making her the first Black performer, and only the second performer ever besides Laurie Metcalf, to do so.

"Every year has been a surprise," Young humbly said. "Every year I have felt an overwhelming amount of gratitude."

She's not just a nominee, for the record — Young won in 2024 for Purlie Victorious. This year's nod is for Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's Best Play nominee and recent Pulitzer Prize winner Purpose, a family drama set at a reunion dinner for the illustrious Jasper family. Young plays Aziza, a free-spirited guest who gets trapped in the crossfire of the family's exploding tensions.

Amid back-to-back Broadway successes, she's still found time to return to her Off-Broadway roots — she most recently led the rom-com Table 17 this past fall — and has also appeared in films and TV shows like Boots Riley's I'm a Virgo. That's what makes Young such an exciting performer to watch — her next move could be anything, and she's just as curious as anyone about what it might be.

"The hope is that you are going to evolve, the hope is that you are going to grow," Young said. "But it's about taking in the new in order to do that."

Ahead of the Tony Awards ceremony on June 8, Young looked back on her historic Broadway run, shared why she and audiences connect with Purpose, and celebrated the community of actors, writers, directors, and theatregoers who lift her up.

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How does it feel to be the first Black performer to be Tony-nominated four consecutive times?

I don't think anything has actually settled in. I'm still doing the work. We're still doing Purpose eight shows a week. I imagine that when I do have a moment to to really take it all in, the last four years, that will be a moment.

Has each nomination felt different at each stage of your career?

This year, what makes it different is that I'm actually in production while all of this has been happening. Clyde's, Cost of Living, Purlie Victorious — all were closed before the nominations came out.

There's a different energy around talking about the play you're currently in and promoting the play [...] because it is happening, and you can come see it!

How has it been to celebrate with your company amid Purpose's many nods and awards?

We are an incredibly tight-knit group. We pray together every day right before we are about to get on stage for our fight call. We are very well-connected spiritually and energetically. It's been great to be in their company because most of the cast — LaTanya Richardson Jackson and myself are the newbies to this crew — they have done Purpose at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. They welcomed us with open arms.

What about Aziza do you connect with?

She [and] I went to a very hippie elementary school. But there's also some things about Aziza I wish I was. She's been raised to be this very unapologetically free woman and has such agency over herself and does not code-switch, does not fall into the boxes of the way a young woman is supposed to be.

I want to honor her personhood. It's about continuing to evolve, continuing to to pour into her story and pour into her as a human as I am taking her spirit on.

Have any responses from audiences to your performance particularly stuck with you?

The first memory that came to mind was, I was talking to my high school, [whose students] came to see the show, and somebody [...] mentioned to me that they really identified with Aziza, and they saw themselves up there.

For a young Black person to say that about Aziza really touched my spirit. I've heard from the stage door, from some of the audience members, "I know that girl. I know her so well."

What else do you hope people take away from the character and Purpose, even if they don't come from that lived experience?

I don't have one specific or concrete thing that I would be like, "I wish you heard this or felt this." But [...] as human beings, we have so many different kinds of levels. We have the ability to be incredibly loving, and we have the ability to be incredibly not-so-loving, and that might not be appealing.

The beauty of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's writing is that he is able to lay down his pen and give us all the levels of the fire that exists within us, whether it's a spark or a burning flame. All those parts of us should be honored. When we see Purpose, there are so many different themes: family dynamics, conversations around sexuality [...] conversations around choice, conversations around mental health, etc. What is beautiful to me is when you see people for who they are, and they're still worthy of being loved.

Do you hope to be on Broadway for a fifth season in a row?

I dream, but [...] I wouldn't say that is not the next thing or that is. But who knows? Anything is possible. I didn't know none of this was going to go down. This is crazy. I'm just over here loving being honest on a stage and loving to be a storyteller.

To be able to have been a part of it [with] incredible writers and directors: C. A. Johnson and Kate Whoriskey [of All the Natalie Portmans off Broadway], Lynn Nottage and Kate Whoriskey [of Clyde's], Martyna Majok and Jo Bonney [of Cost of Living], Ossie Davis and Kenny Leon [of Purlie Victorious], now Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Phylicia Rashad, Douglas Lyons and Zhailon Levingston [of Table 17]...

Having been on Broadway so much, I love that you still seek out Off-Broadway work in small spaces, too.

That's the foundation! It doesn't get any realer than a 200-seat or 99-seat theatre, when people are right there and they can see you. How Douglas constructed [Table 17], I had to be looking into people's eyes. [I remember thinking,] "Okay, there's Lena Waithe. Lynn Nottage is right there. Hey, how you doing?" It was quite a vulnerable but really, really special experience.

A lot of people loved that show so much. It was really beautiful to see the elders of our theatre community, or elders of color, walk out the theatre like they had never seen anything like that before.

How do you find that same sense of community in big Broadway venues?

It's interesting because [Purpose is] in the smallest theatre on Broadway. No matter where I've been, when I walk out, I see the same people I've been seeing since [I was in] Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven by Stephen Adly Guirgis, directed by John Ortiz, or The New Englanders [by] Jeff Augustin, directed by Saheem Ali. Some are my peers, some are people who love theatre.

And then there have been new people who have been like, "Oh my god, we saw you in Purlie Victorious. We're coming to see you in Purpose." That's special. The community grows.

What about your career are you most proud of?

I'm proud of every moment. Every time I'm in a show, when the play is over that night, you're like, "Wow."

Maybe I'm most prideful when I'm in rehearsal, because it's the time where you really get to stretch your instrument in all the ways and fail deeply and try things that might not work. I don't know if the word is pride, but if there was a word that was pride, gratitude, and an overwhelming love for for something, and mesh those together, that would be the word.

Have you ever had a theatre experience as an audience member that really moved you?

Francis Jue in Yellow Face. That was a remarkable performance. But the entire play, Daniel Dae Kim, the entire ensemble, Greg Keller, Marinda [Anderson] — this cast was super stacked, and they were incredible.

[More recently,] I got to see Jade Milan in Hell's Kitchen. [She] completed her final show, and I got the chance to witness again the remarkable, one and only Kecia Lewis, whose voice and spirit is shooting from that stage. I was in the [mezzanine] watching, but her voice is like medicine to me. I also got to see Jessica Vosk do her thing. The control she has over her instrument is insane. It's like butter.

[Previously,] I was at opening night with my mom. First of all, best opening night party I've ever been to my life because Swizz Beatz was spinning all night. But me and my mom were holding hands the entire show, crying.

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This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.

Top image credit: Kara Young. (Photo courtesy of production)
Photo credit: Purpose on Broadway. (Photos by Marc J. Franklin)