Carlyle Brown is a playwright, actor, and artistic director of Carlyle Brown & Company, which he founded in Minneapolis in 2002. Known for his historical works about African Americans, Brown’s most famous play is The African Company Presents Richard the Third (premiered in 1987), about the first African American theatrical company’s staging of the first black public performances of Shakespeare. Brown has received commissions from Arena Stage and the Houston Grand Opera, among others. He is the 2006 recipient of the Black Theatre Network’s Winona Lee Fletcher Award for outstanding achievement and artistic excellence.