From Hudes's website:
"After graduating from public school in Philadelphia, Hudes went on to receive a B.A. in music from Yale University and an M.F.A. in playwriting from Brown, where she studied with Paula Vogel. She was recently inducted into the Central High School Hall of Fame--in the first group of women to receive this honor since the school’s founding in 1836."
"Originally trained as a musician, Hudes has authored musicals as well, most notably the book for the Broadway musical In the Heights, which received the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical, a Tony nomination for Best Book of a Musical, and was a 2009 Pulitzer Prize finalist. For the original Off-Broadway incarnation of Heights, Hudes won the Lucille Lortel and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Musical. In the Heights has been produced around the globe including London’s Southwark Playhouse, Puerto Rico’s Centro Bellas Artes, LA’s Pantages, Tokyo’s International Forum, and Atlantis Productions in the Phillippines."
"Other works include Barrio Grrrl!, a children’s musical written for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; 26 Miles which premiered at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre in 2009 and was published in American Theatre Magazine; Lulu’s Golden Shoes, the raunchy comic-book journey of a Latina’s sexual awakening; and Yemaya’s Belly, Hudes’ first play, which premiered at Portland Stage Company and received The Clauder Prize."
"Hudes’s honors include the United States Artists Fontanals Fellowship, the Joyce Fellowship at the Goodman Theatre, the Aetna New Voices Fellowship at Hartford Stage, the Roe Green Award at the Cleveland Playhouse, fellowships at Sundance Theater Institute and the O’Neill Theater Center, and a residency at New Dramatists."
"Hudes is on the board of Philadelphia Young Playwrights, which produced her first play in the tenth grade."
"She lives in New York with her husband and children."
"March 16, 2014 was named “Quiara Alegría Hudes Day” in the City of Philadelphia and Mayor Rahm Emmanuel declared April 27, 2013 “Quiara Hudes Day” in Chicago."
*****You can listen to Hudes give a key note for Girls Write Now! here.