Tanya Saracho

Tanya Selene Saracho is a playwright and television writer.

She was born in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico and is a current Chicago-based playwright and actress. After her parents divorce, her childhood was split between Reynosa, Mexico, where her father lived and McAllen, Texas, a region between Mexico and Texas by the border where she and her mother chose to reside. She went back and forth between the countries often, but went to middle and high school in McAllen, until Saracho enrolled in Boston University, where she studied theater and earned her BFA.

Her career started when she moved to Chicago in 1998 with her college roommate. She first tried working mostly as an actress, but found her opportunities as a Latina were limited. In 2000, after having met Coya Paz at an audition, the two founded Teatro Luna, a self-proclaimed all Latina theater group. After working as a co-artistic director for 10 years, having taken part in the creation of numerous works, including Machos, The Maria Chronicles and S-E-X-Oh!, Saracho parted with Teatro Luna in January 2010. 

The transition into more independent work was easy for Saracho, having already done some, such as her adaptation of The House on Mango Street at the Steppenwolf Theater and her pieces Kita y Fernanda at the 16th Street Theater and Our Lady of the Underpass at Teatro Vista, which both received nominations for the Joseph Jefferson Award Citation for New Work of a Play, all in 2009. She even had the chance to do some outside acting during her time at Teatro Luna, in Electricidad by Luis Alfaro at the Goodman Theater in 2004. One of the first things done after leaving Teatro Luna was El Nogalar for the Goodman Theater, co-produced with Teatro Vista, as a reconstruction of Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard set in Mexico. Despite moving from storefront theaters to larger scaled stages such as the Goodman and Steppenwolf, Saracho still kept true to her storefront start, referring to herself in an interview in 2010 as "Storefront Saracho".  

Overall her theater career has led her plays to be put on at many different theaters, including The Goodman Theater, Steppenwolf Theater Company, Teatro Vista, Teatro Luna, Fountain Theater, Clubbed Thumb, Next Theater Company, The Oregon Shakespeare Festival and 16th Street Theater. She has also had commissions at some of these theaters, and others, including the Goodman Theater, Steppenwolf Theater Company, Two rivers Theater, Denver Theater Center, and South Coast Rep.

More of her current plays include Mala Hierba at the Second Stage Uptown and Hushabye as part of Steppenwolf's First Look in 2014. Saracho's additional involvements include being a member of The Kilroy’s and SAG-AFTRA and has worked as a voice over actress.

Saracho’s career transitioned in 2012 when she began working in television. Thus far she has written for Lifetime’s Devious Maids, HBO’s Girls and Looking, the latter of which she is currently writing for, along with ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder. She has even pitched her own work, Mala Hierba', to HBO as a television show.

Saracho was named Best New Playwright by Chicago Magazine, one of the 9 national "Luminarios" by Café Magazine and given the first "Revolucionario" award in theater by the National Museum of Mexican Art. She has also won the Goodman’s Ofner Prize, a 3Arts Artists Award and an NEA Distinguished New Play Development Project Grant with About Face Theater.