Born in the Bronx, Michael Henry Brown was a playwright and screenwriter. He graduated from Lehman College and earned an MFA from Columbia University in 1987. He also studied at the Hammerstein Center for Theatre Studies. His work includes over 20 plays and numerous film scripts. His most successful productions have been THE DAY THE BRONX DIED, an examination of homophobia and black and Jewish relations, and ASCENSION DAY, a story of the Nat Turner slave rebellion of 1831. Brown’s plays have been produced at theaters across the country, including Playwrights Horizons, the Mark Taper Forum, Long Wharf Theatre, and Penumbra Theatre. Brown’s plays include BLOOD IS THICKER, IN LOVE AND ANGER, DEADLY AIM OF THE STRAIGHT AND TRUE, KING OF COONS, BORDERS OF LOYALTY, OUTLAWS, PUSH, and GENERATIONS OF THE DEAD, OR INTO THE ABYSS OF CONEY ISLAND MADNESS. In film, Brown was the author of three screenplays, Dead Presidents, In Too Deep, and Freedomland, and two teleplays, Under One Roof and Laurel Avenue. Brown received grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Charles Revson Foundation. He died in 2016.