very serious artist portrait // photo by kae bragg
the orange terror cycle, part 1 (november 2018, the tank) // photo by carly hoogendyk
“the man that got away” (september 2019, tuesdays at 54, 54 below)
mr ratburn is here to give a stump speech (june 2019, fgp 10th anniversary gala, here arts center) // photo by marcus middleton
“Berry makes theater to his own order: Verbally gymnastic. It grabs you and doesn’t let go. It pushes you away with relentless grotesqueness, but your eyes are glued. He makes you stop breathing and second-guess everything you thought you knew.”
Kev Berry is a New York-based playwright, performer, public health worker, and life of the party. He’s also currently a student in Hunter College’s MFA Playwriting cohort, graduating in May 2026.
His work, both as a writer and a performer, has been seen at The Tank, Joe's Pub, Feinstein’s/54 Below, The Green Room 42, 3-Legged Dog, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Judson Memorial Church, HERE Arts Center, New York Live Arts, the New Ohio Theatre, The Duplex, the Dramatists Guild Foundation, Dixon Place, The Brick Theater, Access Theater, Littlefield, The 9 Studios, Otto's Shrunken Head, The Cobra Club, Skidmore College, and across the harsh North Country of upstate New York.
Kev is an Associate Artist at The Tank, the September 2018 Artist-in-Residence at Judson Memorial Church, a 2017 Artist-in-Residence with Fresh Ground Pepper, a January 2019 resident with Hot Bread, a 2019-2020 INKubator Resident Playwright at Art House Productions, and the former Artistic Associate at 3LD. He was an inaugural member of the Fresh Ground Pepper Process Accountability Lab. Alongside his collaborative partner and director Alex Tobey, he was a 2019-2020 Full Access Resident Artist with Access Theater. Kev formerly served as the curator and producer of the series Fast and Furious: Rapid Responses to Current Events at The Tank.
His play Rough Trade has the highest attendance of any show in The Tank’s history, playing to 16 sold-out houses in March and April 2023. His play Harsh Cacophonies I & II was a Semi-Finalist for the Princess Grace Award in 2022. His play Peter was a Semi-Finalist for the Princess Grace Award in 2019, and a Semi-Finalist for the Playwrights Realm Writing Fellowship in 2020. He was the recipient of a Pet Project Grant from the Bushwick Starr. In 2021, he was a recipient of a NYFA City Artist Corps Grant. In 2022, he was a recipient of the Creatives Rebuild New York Guaranteed Artists Income fellowship grant.
His performance in Nadja Leonhard-Hooper and Dan Nuxoll’s Eat the Devil was hailed by the New York Times as “vehemently campy.” His cabaret Kev Berry Is Diana the Musical was acclaimed as “Genius"(?)” and “utterly wonderful” by the UK-based Shenton Stage.
Member: New Play Exchange, The Playwrights’ Center. B.Sci Theater, B.A. Gender Studies, Skidmore College.
Landing page photo credit: Juan Quimper