Eisa Davis

is an award-winning actor, writer, and singer-songwriter working on stage and screen. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her play Bulrusher (Best of Bay Area Theater 2023), and wrote and starred in Angela’s Mixtape, named a best of the year by The New Yorker. Other plays include Ramp (Ruby Prize winner), The History of Light (Barrymore nomination), Paper Armor, Umkovu, Six Minutes, Warriors Don’t Cry, ||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :||, and Mushroom. Angela’s Mixtape + The History of Light are now published together in a volume from 53rd State Press/TCG. Collaborations include AFROFEMONONOMY // WORK THE ROOTS, Maze at The Shed, The House on Coco Road, Active Ingredients, Hip Hop Anansi, and Cirque du Soleil’s first ice show, Crystal. Current projects include a sound art installation/performance piece entitled The Essentialisn’t, and songs for a musical version of Devil In A Blue Dress. Eisa wrote for both seasons of the Netflix series She’s Gotta Have It, and co-wrote two episodes for the FX series Justified: City Primeval.

As an actor, she is an Obie Award winner for Sustained Excellence in Performance. Eisa’s recent work includes a microplay by Lynn Nottage in the virtual series Theatre For One, the role of June in the musical adaptation of The Secret Life of Bees (AUDELCO award, Lortel nomination), Kings at the Public (Drama League nomination), the 2017 Shakespeare in the Park production of Julius Caesar, and Preludes created by Dave Malloy and Rachel Chavkin, for which she received her second Lucille Lortel nomination. Other theatre performances include Antigone in Ferguson, Luck of the Irish (Lucille Lortel and AUDELCO nominations), the world premieres of This and The Call, the first revival of The Piano Lesson at Yale Rep (also composer and music director), and the acclaimed Broadway rock musical Passing Strange, captured on film by Spike Lee. Current television work includes The Madness opposite Colman Domingo (upcoming), Ahsoka, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Kindred, Mare of Easttown, Pose, Betty, Bluff City Law, God Friended Me, Rise, Blindspot, Condi Rice on The Looming Tower, and Succession. Eisa played Cynthia Driscoll on House of Cards, and was Bubbles’ sister on The Wire. She has guest starred on Falling Water, The Family, Elementary, Madam Secretary, American Odyssey, Gotham, The Blacklist, The Good Wife, Mercy, and Damages, and recurred on Soul Food, Smash and Hart of Dixie. Film work includes Ex-Husbands opposite Griffin Dunne, Relay opposite Riz Ahmed (upcoming), After The Wedding, First Match, Free Angela, Welcome to the Rileys opposite James Gandolfini, In The Family, Robot Stories, The Architect, Confess, Happenstance, Pretty Bird, Apparition of the Eternal Church, Brass Tacks, The Letter and The Volunteer.