Christine Toy Johnson

Biography

Christine Toy Johnson is a Tony honored, multi award-winning writer, actor, director, filmmaker, and advocate for inclusion based in New York City. She is the Treasurer of the Dramatists Guild and host of the guild's podcast TALKBACK, distributed on the Broadway Podcast Network.

For theatre, her first play, THE NEW DEAL, was the inaugural play to be developed in Charles Randolph-Wright’s "Different Voices" program at the Roundabout Theatre Company in NYC and subsequently developed through Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Going to the River Playwriting Unit. Other plays and musicals include BROKEN GROUND (book & lyrics with composer/lyricist Jason Ma, a commission for Village Theatre, 2023 O'Neill Conference Finalist, Musical Theatre West's 2024 New Works Festival, Goodspeed Musicals' 2024 Writers Grove Retreat), A LITTLE MORE BLUE (Alvin Epstein Memorial Prize for solo performance, Abingdon Theatre's One Night Only Series), FUSONG (book and lyrics with composer Cecilia Lin, based on "The Lost Daughter of Happiness" by Geling Yan, independent producers), EMPRESS MEI LI LOTUS BLOSSOM (Greater Boston Stage Company, Abingdon Theatre Company, National Women's Theatre Festival Fringe, current semi-finalist for the O'Neill Playwriting Conference), TRUTH AGAINST THE WORLD: THE LIFE AND LOVES OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT (developed in a residency at the O’Neill Theater Center, world premiere at the Kennedy/McIlwee Studio Theatre in Raleigh, NC), TILL SOON, ANNE (book & lyrics with composer Bobby Cronin, developed in residencies at the O’Neill Theater Center, 2023 Larson Grant Award finalist and honorable mention for libretto), THE SECRET WISDOM OF TREES (featured in Applause Books’ LATER CHAPTERS Anthology, developed at Florida Studio Theatre and in residence at The Barrow Group Theatre Company), BARCELONA (book & lyrics with composer/lyricist Jason Ma, developed at residencies at the Weston Playhouse, CAP 21 and as part of Village Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals), GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT (starring GRIMM’s Reggie Lee and Bree Turner), DIARY OF A DOMESTIC GODDESS (with Kevin Duda), MY BOYFRIEND IS AN ALIEN (AND I’M OKAY WITH THAT) (book & lyrics, with composer Bobby Cronin, commissioned and produced by Prospect Theater Company, Theatre Elision), ADVENTURES OF A FAUX DESIGNER HANDBAG (Leviathan Lab, Women's Theatre Festival #OccupyTheStage), PEACE PLAZA (Leviathan Lab, National Women's Theatre #OccupyTheStage), PAPER SON (Diverse City Theatre Company, Queens Theatre in the Park), INTERNAL BLEEDING (Atlanta Black Theatre Festival, developed with ReImagined World Entertainment and Crossroads Theatre Company), “EVER SEE A FAT CHINESE?” (New Perspectives Theatre Company), HALO HALO BIRTHDAY (Leviathan Lab), WELCOME TO TELEVISION (Barrow Group Theatre Company), TANFORAN (Barrow Group Theatre Company), DO THESE GENES MAKE ME LOOK FAT? (A-Squared Productions) and EXPRESSION OF REGRET (365 Women a Year Playwriting Project). Her work has been published by NoPassport Press, Rowman & Littlefield, Smith & Kraus, and Applause Books.

Screenplays include NO WAVE (with Charles Randolph-Wright), JUMPING THE THIRD RAIL (winner, 2016 Meryl Streep/IRIS Writers Lab Fellowship, now titled LOOK UP), RIDING OUT THE STORM (screenplay & lyrics with composer Michael Mott, produced by Moongate Productions), WINNING NEW YORK (screenplay & lyrics with composer Bobby Cronin, produced by New York Film Academy), FOOD LIKE LOVE (screenplay & lyrics with composer Bobby Cronin, produced by New York Film Academy), and OLD, FAT & UGLY. An anthology of her work (including her award-winning documentary "Transcending - the Wat Misaka Story") was inducted into the Library of Congress Asian Pacific American Performing Arts Collection in 2010. She is an alumna of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and the founder of The Asian American Theatre Artists Collective (as an inaugural recipient of the Dramatists Guild Foundation's Catalyst for Change Fellowship).

An avid advocate for inclusion, Christine is Treasurer of the Dramatists Guild of America and serves as Chair of their Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access Committee. She is a founding member of the Tony honored and Obie Award winning AAPAC (Asian American Performers Action Coalition), served on the Board of the Tony honored Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts for over 15 years and the Council of Actors' Equity Association for 28 years (chairing their Equal Employment Opportunity Committee for 22 years).

As an actor, Christine has appeared extensively on Broadway, Off-Broadway, at some of the top regional theaters across the country and on film and television.

Christine was honored by the JACL (the nation’s largest and oldest Asian American civil rights organization) in 2010 for “exemplary leadership and dedication”, the “Wai Look Award for Service in the Arts” from the Asian American Arts Alliance in 2012, the Rosetta LeNoire Award for “outstanding contributions to the universality of the human spirit” from Actors’ Equity Association in 2013, and has received over 25 competitive grants in support of her work. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and the Certificate of Screenwriting Program at NYU. She has been a Guest Lecturer in Acting at the Yale School of Drama and the National Theatre Institute at the O'Neill.