Leah Newsom

Ayanna Thompson is a Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University. She is the author of numerous books about Shakespeare, race, and performance.

Thompson became a Shakespeare Scholar in Residence at The Public Theater in 2020, and in 2021, she was appointed to the board of trustees of the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon. She has served on the Council of Scholars at Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn, NY, since 2017, the board of Play On Shakespeare since 2020, and the board for Woolly Mammoth Theater in Washington, DC from 2017-2018.

She has worked as a textual and consultant on many productions, including Sam Gold's MACBETH, starring Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga.