Mfoniso Udofia

Mfoniso Udofia is a Nigerian-American playwright, storyteller, actor, and educator whose work centers on the Nigerian immigrant experience in the United States. She is best known for her nine-play series, the Ufot Family Cycle (also known as the Ufot Cycle), which chronicles three generations of a Nigerian-American family navigating identity, culture, and belonging. Celebrated plays from the cycle include Sojourners, Her Portmanteau, runboyrun, The Grove, and In Old Age. Udofia has also contributed to television as a writer and producer, with credits on series such as Lessons in Chemistry (Apple TV+, 2023; Emmy-nominated and WGA-nominated), Pachinko (Apple TV+; Peabody Award winner), A League of Their Own (Amazon), Let the Right One In (Showtime), Little America (Apple TV+), Away (Netflix), and 13 Reasons Why (Netflix). Her film work includes co-writing You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty with Tarell Alvin McCraney for Outlier Society and Amazon, as well as developments for HBO and Legendary.

From 2024 to 2026, Greater Boston is hosting a landmark citywide festival producing all nine Ufot Family Cycle plays in Udofia's intended order, involving over 35 organizations. This includes seven productions completed by October 2025 and two forthcoming premieres, marking the cycle's first full presentation and emphasizing community engagement in immigrant-heavy areas like Worcester.

Early Life and Education

Udofia was born to Nigerian immigrant parents who arrived in the United States in the 1970s, initially settling in Houston, Texas, before relocating to Worcester, Massachusetts, where she attended kindergarten through fifth grade. She later grew up in Southbridge, Massachusetts. Her mother was a biologist, and her father a scholar of West African studies, which influenced her thematic focus on immigrant family dynamics.

Udofia earned a B.A. in political science from Wellesley College, where she discovered her passion for acting. She then pursued an M.F.A. in Acting from the American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) in San Francisco. While at A.C.T., she co-founded The Nia Project, a youth initiative providing artistic outlets for underserved San Francisco youth in neighborhoods like Bayview-Hunters Point. After graduating, she moved to New York City to pursue acting but soon transitioned into playwriting, centering her work on the Nigerian immigrant experience. She briefly mentored rapper Marcus Orelias during his time at A.C.T. Udofia also holds training as an opera singer, which informs her forthcoming folk opera Adiaha and Clora Snatch Joy.

Work

Udofia's debut play, The Grove, became the second installment in her Ufot Family Cycle. The series explores intergenerational trauma, cultural hybridity, and resilience through the Ufot family, led by matriarch Abasiama. Her plays have received readings and productions at venues including New York Theatre Workshop, American Conservatory Theater, Magic Theatre, The Playwrights Realm, Boston Court, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Portland Center Stage, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, National Black Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, MCC Theater, McCarter Theatre, and The Huntington Theatre Company. Development opportunities include Hedgebrook, Sundance Theatre Lab, Space on Ryder Farm, New Black Fest, and the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference (finalist).

Outside the cycle, Udofia penned a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello for the PlayOn! Festival and curated On Love, an evening of short plays for MCC Theater. She has also written for alternative formats, including the radio play The Human Experiment and the Instagram play New Math.

In television, Udofia began as a staff writer on season 3 of 13 Reasons Why (2019) and has since contributed to over eight series, often as a co-executive producer. She teaches drama from kindergarten to collegiate levels and serves as a professor of Global Drama at The New School's College of Performing Arts.

Ufot Family Cycle Plays

The Ufot Family Cycle comprises nine interconnected plays. As of October 2025, seven have been fully produced or staged as part of the Boston festival:

Forthcoming premieres:

• Lifted (Winter 2026 Wellesley Repertory Theatre featuring songs by Nehemiah Luckett, directed by Tamilla Woodard)
• Adiaha and Clora Snatch Joy (Summer 2026 Boston Lyric Opera / Huntington Theatre Company folk opera finale for Embrace Boston’s Everyone 250 Festival)

Awards and Honors

Udofia is a member of New Dramatists (class of 2023). Her honors include:

Current commissions: Huntington Theatre, Round House Theatre, Hartford Stage, Denver Center, A.C.T., South Coast Repertory.

See Also

• Nigerian Americans in the arts
• African American theater
• Immigrant literature in the United States

References

Bibliography

• Wipfli, Heather (2015). The Global War on Tobacco: Mapping the World's First Public Health Treaty. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-1421416830.
• Melillo, Margherita (2024). Weaponising Evidence: A History of Tobacco Control in International Law. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781009354356.

External Links

• Official website
• Institute for Global Tobacco Control
• GLOBALink Tobacco Control, The International Tobacco Control Community (archived 2012)
• GlobaLink (tobacco control), part of ncdlinks.org (registration required)