Kemp Powers is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and director. He is the co-director and co-writer of the upcoming Disney/Pixar animated feature Soul, which centers around a middle-school band teacher whose life hasn’t quite gone the way he expected. When he finds himself in another realm helping someone else find their passion, he discovers what it truly means to have soul. Soul introduces Pixar’s first Black protagonist and features the voices of Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Daveed Diggs and Angela Bassett. For television, Powers previously wrote for the popular CBS All Access series, Star Trek: Discovery. His stage plays include One Night in Miami..., Little Black Shadows, Christa McAuliffe’s Eyes Were Blue, The Two Reds and A Negro by Choice. He received the 2013 Ted Schmitt Award for Outstanding New Play for the world premiere of One Night in Miami... in Los Angeles. That production also won three LA Drama Critics Circle Awards and four NAACP Theatre Awards. One Night’s 2016 production at London’s Donmar Warehouse earned Powers an Olivier Award nomination for Best New Play. Prior to his work in stage, television and film, Powers was a journalist for 17 years.