David Cromer

David Cromer is an American theatre director and actor born on October 17, 1964, in Skokie, Illinois, where he was raised as the third of four sons of Richard and Louise Cromer. He left high school before completing his junior year, later earned a GED, and attended Columbia College Chicago, where he subsequently taught directing.

Cromer built his early career in Chicago, earning Joseph Jefferson Award recognition for his work on several productions, including Angels in America Parts I and II in 1998, The Price in 2002, and The Cider House Rules in 2003. His 2005 Off-Broadway debut came when he directed Austin Pendleton's Orson's Shadow at the Barrow Street Theatre, a production that had originated at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago. A 2008 musical adaptation of The Adding Machine similarly moved from Chicago to Off-Broadway, drawing six Lucille Lortel Award nominations in that season and a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Director of a Musical.

In 2009, Cromer both directed and performed the role of the Stage Manager in an Off-Broadway revival of Our Town at the Barrow Street Theatre, a production that had begun in Chicago the previous year. That work earned him the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Director and the Obie Award for Directing. Later in 2009, he directed a Broadway revival of Brighton Beach Memoirs featuring Laurie Metcalf, Santino Fontana, Noah Robbins, and Dennis Boutsikaris. He followed that with the Broadway revival of The House of Blue Leaves, starring Ben Stiller and Edie Falco, which ran from April to August 2011.

Cromer directed A Streetcar Named Desire at the Williamstown Theater Festival in the summer of 2011 and Nina Raine's Tribes at the Barrow Street Theatre from February to September 2012. That same year he directed Sweet Bird of Youth in Chicago with Diane Lane. In October 2013, he returned to Chicago to star as Ned Weeks in TimeLine Theatre Company's production of The Normal Heart. His Broadway acting credits include appearances in A Raisin in the Sun and The Waverly Gallery, the latter between 2014 and 2018.

In 2016, Cromer directed The Band's Visit, which transferred to Broadway in 2017 and won ten Tony Awards, among them Best Musical and Best Direction of a Musical. Cromer received the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical in 2018 for that production, as well as the Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Musical in 2017. He also received the 2017 Obie Award for Directing for The Band's Visit. In 2017 he directed The Treasurer at Playwrights' Horizons. His 2019 production of The Sound Inside at Studio 54 earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Direction of a Play.

Alongside his stage work, Cromer has appeared on screen, including a small role in the pilot of The Newsroom in 2012 and a role in Billions in 2015. In 2022 he directed Camp Siegfried at the Tony Kiser Theatre and A Case for the Existence of God Off-Broadway, and in 2023 he appeared in the title role of Uncle Vanya Off-Broadway. He directed Prayer for the French Republic on Broadway in 2024 and Dead Outlaw on Broadway in 2025, and was announced to direct the stage adaptation of Good Night, and Good Luck. Cromer was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2010, with the foundation citing his work on productions including The Adding Machine and Our Town.