Anna Deavere Smith
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Factsheet
- Worked for an airline to support herself when she first moved to New York City.
- Interviewed more than 50 people from Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood about their experiences to create her 1992 one-woman show Fires in the Mirror.
- Portrays cyclist Lance Armstrong as one of the characters in her stage show Let Me Down Easy.
- Has taught at academic institutions including New York University, Yale University, the University of Southern California at Los Angeles, and as a tenured professor at Stanford University.
- Has been an Artist in Residence for the Ford Foundation, MTV Networks, the Aspen Institute, the Center for American Progress, and Grace Cathedral.
- Has received honorary degrees from academic institutions including the Juilliard School; the School of Visual Arts, University of Pennsylvania; Wesleyan College; and Bryn Mawr College.