Two-Time Tony Winner Kara Young Just Made Broadway History—Now The Harlem Native Is Sharing The Wisdom That Got Her There [Exclusive]

Kara Young doesn’t just walk into a room—she carries Harlem with her. Four Tony nominations. Two wins. The first Black actor in Broadway history to take home back-to-back Tonys. Yet, the way she talks about her success isn’t about ego or even the spotlight. It’s about community. About showing up for others without losing yourself. About rooting your power so deeply in who you are that no stage, no matter how grand, can shake it.

This is the thing about Kara: she knows she’s that girl — not in a braggadocious way, but in a rooted, “I know who I am” way. The kind of knowing that comes from growing up on the same streets where she now buys coffee from familiar vendors before walking into the Hayes Theater to perform.

In Purpose—the Pulitzer Prize–winning play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins—Young embodies Aziza, a Harlem-born social worker whose moral clarity cuts through the noise of a prestigious, fracturing Black family. On stage, Aziza never shrinks. Off stage, Kara is learning to hold her own purpose with just as much conviction.

In our conversation, she offers the kind of guidance every Black woman — every that girl — needs to hear. Here’s how she stays grounded and gracious, while still owning her confidence as that girl—and how you can, too.

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1. Root Yourself in Your People

For Kara, the work is inseparable from the village that shaped her. Born and raised in Harlem, she still lives in the neighborhood where she took her first breath—literally across from the Schomburg Center, home to the largest collection of Black art and literature in the world.

“I’ve never lived anywhere else. I run into people I went to elementary school with, my mom’s old coworkers, the same vendors outside the theater. It’s not even me knowing who I am—it’s being surrounded by my roots every single day.”

Her advice? Let the people who knew you before the accolades remind you of the version of yourself that doesn’t need applause.