Christine Toy Johnson

Christine Toy Johnson is an award-winning playwright, actor, and filmmaker.
As a performer, she has appeared extensively on Broadway, off-Broadway, in regional theatres across the country, in film, television, and concerts worldwide for over 25 years. Highlights include the New York revivals of THE MUSIC MAN, MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, PACIFIC OVERTURES, and FALSETTOLAND, the national tours of CATS, FLOWER DRUM SONG and BOMBAY DREAMS, and leading roles at theatres including the New York Shakespeare Festival, Williamstown, the Huntington, Yale Rep, The Denver Center Theatre Company, The Minnesota Opera and New York City Opera. Almost 100 television/film appearances include two years as "Lisa West" on ONE LIFE TO LIVE, SMASH, 666 PARK AVENUE, 30 ROCK, UGLY BETTY, THE BIG C, ROYAL PAINS, FRINGE, CROSSING JORDAN, NUNSENSE 1 and 2, and many episodes of various LAW AND ORDERS.

As a playwright, her first play, THE NEW DEAL, was the inaugural play to be developed in the "Different Voices" program at the Roundabout Theatre Company in NYC (2006) and was part of Wesleyan University's 2011 Playwriting Curriculum. Its prequel, PAPER SON, was in Diverse City Theatre Company's 2008 Green Room Reading Series and the Queens Theatre in the Park's 2009 Asian Heritage Festival, and is an ongoing part of the University of Michigan's Multi-cultural Drama curriculum as well as Wesleyan University's 2009 Playwriting curriculum. Other plays: INTERNAL BLEEDING (2012 Atlanta Black Theatre Festival, Crossroads Theatre Company 2010 "Genesis Festival", ReImagined World Entertainment's 2011 NYC Workshop starring Daryl "Chill" Mitchell), ADVENTURES OF A FAUX DESIGNER HANDBAG (developed with Leviathan Lab, and a part of Wesleyan University's 2011 Playwriting Curriculum), "EVER SEE A FAT CHINESE?" (produced by NYC's New Perspectives Theatre Company), TANFORAN (produced by NYC's Barrow Group Theatre Company, presented in Leviathan Lab's Asian American Female Playwrights 2011 Short Play Festival, and included in the 2011 International Art of Public Memory Conference), DO THESE GENES MAKE ME LOOK FAT? (commissioned by the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance), HALO HALO BIRTHDAY (commissioned by Leviathan Lab), PEACE PLAZA (Leviathan Lab "Dark Nights" Series), EMPRESS MEI LI LOTUS BLOSSOM (commissioned by Gorilla Rep) and WELCOME TO TELEVISION (for the Barrow Group Theatre Company). She is currently developing a play with dance, SECONDARY IMPACT, with Broadway choreographer JoAnn M. Hunter and writing book and lyrics to BARCELONA, with composer/lyricist Jason Ma. The Christine Toy Johnson Portfolio, a collection of her work, is included in the Library of Congress Asian Pacific American Performing Arts Collection.

Screenplays: NO WAVE WITHOUT WIND (with Charles Randolph-Wright), JUMPING THE THIRD RAIL, DULLY FOR PRESIDENT and OLD, FAT AND UGLY. Her short film about inadvertent discrimination, ALL AMERICAN EYES, (which she also starred in and produced) was the winner of the Audience Award at the Waves International Film Festival, and played the Hearts and Minds and New York International Film and Video Film Festivals.

Awarded three grants from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program, Christine executive produced and co-directed a documentary film with her husband, filmmaker Bruce Johnson, about the first person of color to be drafted into what is now the NBA, Japanese American basketball star Wat Misaka, of the 1947 Knicks. TRANSCENDING � THE WAT MISAKA STORY received the "Gold Kahuna" Award from the Honolulu International Film Festival, the "Emerging Eye Directorial Discovery Award" from the Roving Eye Documentary Film Festival, was an official selection of the Rhode Island International Film Festival, the Carmel Art and Film Festival, RightsFest, the Chicago Asian American Showcase, the San Diego Asian Film Festival, and opened the Houston APA Film Festival.

An active advocate of diversity in the industry, she is an officer and board member of the Alliance For Inclusion in the Arts (which received a 2011 Tony Honor for Excellence in Theatre), and as part of the elected leadership of Actors' Equity Association, is co-chair of the union's Eastern Regional Equal Employment Opportunity Committee and a founding member of AAPAC (Asian American Performers Action Coalition). She was honored by the JACL (the nation's largest and oldest Asian American civil rights organization) in 2010 for "exemplary leadership and dedication" and by the Asian American Arts Alliance for Outstanding Service in the Arts, in 2012.