Paul Robeson Award
Latest Recipients:
The 2025 recipient of the Paul Robeson Award is Leslie Ishii.
This year’s honoree courageously advocates for and implements equity and inclusion of multiracial and BIPOC artists in every space she curates and engages in as a director, performer, arts educator, activist, and community organizer. Leslie Ishii is the artistic director of Perseverance Theatre, a 45-year-old company dedicated to creating professional theatre by and for Alaskans. She is the 2024 winner of the prestigious Zelda Fichandler Director Award, and the number of advocacy groups and committees she serves on is vast.
For the press release click here
https://actorsequity.org/news/PR/2025/04/08/RobesonAnnouncement2025
Previous recipients of the Paul Robeson Award include: Paul Robeson; Maya Angelou; Harry Belafonte; Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee; James Earl Jones; Athol Fugard; Lena Horne; Joseph Papp; Sidney Poitier; Pete Seeger; and, in 2014, Baayork Lee.
Past Recipients: 1989-Present
| Year | Recipient |
| 2025 | Leslie Ishii |
| 2023 | The Black Repertory Theatre of Kansas City |
| 2022 | Pearl Cleage |
| 2021 | Dale Ricardo Shields |
| 2019-20 | Carmen Morgan and Futaba Shioda |
| 2018 | Independent Shakespeare Co. |
| 2017 | Jamal Joseph |
| 2016 | Mary-Mitchell Campbell |
| 2015 | Arthur French |
| 2014 | Baayork Lee |
| 2013 | Shauneille Perry |
| 2012 | William Greaves |
| 2011 | James Earl Jones |
| 2010 | Charles Randolph-Wright |
| 2009 | Micki Grant |
| 2008 | Sidney Poitier |
| 2007 | Mercedes Ellington |
| 2006 | Bill Cosby- Rescinded |
| 2005 | Carl Harms |
| 2004 | Judith Jamison |
| 2003 | Woodie King, Jr. |
| 2002 | Gertrude Jeanette |
| 2001 | Brock Peters |
| 2000 | Rosa LeNoire |
| 1999 | Loften Mitchell |
| 1998 | Leonard Etienne de Paul |
| 1997 | Athol Fugard |
| 1996 | George C. Wolfe |
| 1995 | Gil Noble |
| 1994 | Lloyd Richards |
| 1993 | Katherine Dunham |
| 1992 | Art D'Lugoff |
| 1991 | Gordon Parks |
| 1990 | Maya Angelou |
| 1989 | Bill Ross & Dr. Margaret Burroughs |
| 1988 | Jacques D'Amboise |
| 1987 | Joe Papp |
| 1986 | Vinie Burrows |
| 1985 | Arthur Mitchell |
| 1984 | Lena Horne |
| 1983 | John Henry Faulk |
| 1982 | Ed Asner |
| 1981 | Studs Terkel |
| 1980 | Alice Childress |
| 1979 | Harry Bellafonte |
| 1978 | Sam Jaffe |
| 1977 | Pete Seeger |
| 1976 | Lillian Hellman |
| 1975 | Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee |
| 1974 | Paul Robeson |