His latest play opens this week at the Arden.
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James Ijames / Photograph by Justin DeWalt
South Philly’s Pulitzer-winning playwright James Ijames returns with not one, not two, but three local shows this season – one starting at the Arden this Thursday. We caught up with him to learn about life, love and his strange relationship with The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
My last name is pronounced … like times without the t.
I grew up in … Bessemer City, North Carolina. Everybody knows each other.
I came to Philly in … 2003 to get my MFA at Temple. I just moved to Manhattan in July, in part because I’m now tenured at Columbia, where I’m the new head of playwriting. But I still have my house at 4th and Wolf, which is where I stay when I’m back in town.
My first theater role was … as Hamlet, when I was a 19-year-old student at Morehouse.
My desire to return to the stage is … zero, zilch. It’s too anxiety-inducing for me to be an actor. And I just don’t enjoy it enough to suffer through that anxiety. Writing and directing is where I belong.
When I’m in Philly, I always go to … as many restaurants as I can. You have to work real hard to find a bad meal in Philadelphia. For quick bites, I regularly do Federal Donuts and P’unk Burger. And I do a lot of shopping at Head House Books. I love that store, and it’s on my walk from my house to the Arden.
My relationship status is … married. My husband is an educator who works for the Philadelphia School District.
When I won the Pulitzer for Drama in 2022 for my play Fat Ham, I celebrated by … having cake and lots of champagne at my house in Philly with my husband and two friends. It was actually quiet. Nice.
The most famous friends in my cell phone are … Cynthia Erivo and Colman Domingo, both of whom were producers of Fat Ham.
James Ijames (center) with theater director Saheem Ali (right) at a pre-Tonys party hosted by actor Colman Domingo (left)
The most beautiful space in Philadelphia is … my living room. It’s so maximalist. There’s way too much art on the walls. As soon as people walk in, their shoulders drop. And I love 30th Street Station, a relic of another time. I admire the grandeur.
My current bingeing obsession is … The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. It’s fascinating for me to look at such a, um … homogenous environment. It’s just insane. I can’t justify anything they do or so. I violently disagree with so much of what they do and say. But it all helps me understand something about the world. I only watch garbage TV. When I watch prestige TV, that feels like work, because it’s something I very much want to be writing myself in the near future.
This season, I am … having three plays produced by three different Philly theaters, something I had to leave Philly to have happen. The Arden is doing the regional premiere of Good Bones, the Wilma is doing a revival of The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington from 2014, and Philadelphia Theatre Company is presenting the world premiere of Wilderness Generation.
My parents taught me to be … honest, on time, hardworking, and just.
If you really want to annoy me … approach me with small talk.
If you’re pouring me a cocktail, I’ll take a … Boulevardier, please.
One bad habit I cannot break is … ordering in. They make it way too easy. I need to get back to cooking.
When I want to relax … I walk for hours.
The thing I love most about South Philly is … that if anything is going on in front of my house, my neighbor will let me know about it. Immediately.
Since winning the Pulitzer, my life has become … busier! But the nice thing is that being a writer, you get to hang on to a kind of anonymity. Most people have no idea what you look like.
My current playlist includes … Ariana Grande, Minnie Riperton, Teedra Moses, vintage Toni Braxton, Kehlani, Stevie Wonder, and Aretha. I’m a 45-year-old Black gay man, and everybody you expect to be here is here. I am a cliché.
Published as “One of Us: James Ijames” in the February 2026 issue of Philadelphia magazine.