One of the city's most celebrated playwrights, David Henry Hwang is best known for M. Butterfly and his adaptation of Flower Drum Song.

Hwang wrote his first play, FOB (or "Fresh off the Boat"), before he'd graduated from Yale's drama school. Inspired by stories from Hwang's childhood, the play caught the attention of Joe Papp of the Public Theater, who brought the ambitious student's piece to off-Broadway in 1980. The debut was a huge success, earning Hwang a 1981 Obie award. He wrote several other plays in the early 1980s—including Sound and Beauty, the Pulitzer-nominated The Dance and the Railroad, and the poorly-received Rich Relations—before his breakout hit, 1988's M. Butterfly, based on the relationship between a French diplomat and his Chinese lover, who turns out to be a man; the production took home the Tony for Best Play. He's had other critical successes on Broadway since then, notably 1996's Golden Child and 2002's Flower Drum Song, a re-working of the Roger & Hammerstein musical of the same name.

Over the past five years Hwang has been diversifying beyond the theater world with various screenplays, but Hwang hasn't abandoned theater entirely. He's written the books for several musicals and operas, collaborated on a multimedia event called Icarus at the Edge of Time with Ira Glass, and has premiered full length plays Yellow Face and Chinglish.

Hwang's first marriage, to artist Ophelia Chong, ended in divorce. His second wife is Kathryn Layng, an actress who understudied in M. Butterfly. [Image via Getty]