Tanzanian playwright Gloria Majule's award-winning production lights up New York billboards
Award-winning Tanzanian playwright and filmmaker, Gloria Peter Majule, whose acclaimed production earned global recognition during the 2025/26 awards season, with her work showcased on billboards across major US cities in the United States, including New York.
Dodoma. Tanzanian playwright and screenwriter Gloria Majule is enjoying international acclaim after her award-winning production Malaria earned widespread recognition, with promotional billboards featuring her work appearing in major US cities, including New York.
The striking billboards, displayed in some of America's busiest streets and landmarks, celebrate the production's success during the 2025/26 awards season, further cementing Majule's growing reputation on the global stage.
In Malaria, Majule explores the devastating impact of the disease and the fight against it through compelling storytelling, drawing on the experiences of people in developing countries. Her work is widely recognised for placing Black lives and identities at the centre of powerful, thought-provoking narratives.
Majule is the daughter of Dodoma Special Seats MP Dr Neema Majule, who said she had received news of her daughter's achievement with immense pride.
She said the recognition marked the fulfilment of a dream that Gloria had pursued tirelessly since her university days.
According to a biography confirmed by her mother, Majule graduated summa cum laude from Cornell University, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Performing and Media Arts with a concentration in Spanish.
She is also recognised as the first African woman to obtain a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Playwriting from the prestigious Yale School of Drama.
Her distinguished career includes being a three-time finalist for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference's Blackburn Prize and a MacDowell Fellow.
Majule has received commissions and professional engagements from organisations including Audible, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Atlantic Theater Company, and Princeton University/The Civilians. She has also participated in renowned artists' residencies at Yaddo, Art Omi, The New Harmony Project, and New York Stage and Film.
Among her acclaimed works are My Father Was Shot in the Back of the Head, a finalist for the Relentless Award; Culture Shock, winner of the Leah Ryan Prize; Mara Aria, recognised by Premiere Stages; Uhuru; and Fifteen Hundred.
Her play Uhuru follows Mshale, a Mount Kilimanjaro tour guide who dreams of marrying a white woman and moving to the West. Through his journey, the play examines themes of colonialism, identity and belonging.
Majule currently serves as Assistant Professor of Playwriting at Cornish College of the Arts in the United States, where she continues to inspire the next generation of playwrights while building an internationally celebrated body of work.
