Juan Ramirez, Jr. is a Nuyorican-Chapín Boogie Down Bronx born-and-raised internationally produced, award-winning playwright and screenwriter, monologist, actor, director, filmmaker, producer and poet.

His latest play Calling Puerto Rico recently received a workshop production in 2023 with Pa’lante Theater Company to a sold out two-week run, going viral on the company’s Tiktok, and later going on a five-city tour in Connecticut, reaching a total of 2,000+ audience members. The play and Juan was selected into the 2020 – 2021 Dramatists Guild Fellowship with mentorship from Migdalia Cruz and Lucy Thurber and Elena Araoz. The play was selected as a Miranda Family Voces Latinx Playwriting Competition Finalist with Repertorio Espańol directed by Cándido Tirado and received a workshop reading starring Sean Carvajal (Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train) and Monica Steuer (Fur). The play received the 2019 Bronx Recognize Its Own Award (BRIO) in part with the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs for its “…artistic excellence.” The play received workshop readings with The 24 Hour Plays, Latinx Playwrights Circle and Primary Stages, a workshop reading at IATI directed Tatiana Pandiani. The play also is a 2020 BAPF (Bay Area Playwrights Festival) Finalist and in 2018, the play made Semi-finalist for the LTC Carnaval of New Latinx work. 

The American Dream was selected as part of the inaugural 2024 Dynamic Duos Play Festival with Urban Stages, directed by Daniela Thome. In 2023, the play received its world premiere with Subtext Studio Theatre Company part of The Chicago Latino Theatre Alliance’s Destinos Festival, directed by Omar Vincente Fernandez and translated by Kairis Rivera. The play was selected for the 2018 New American Voices Play Reading Series at The Landing Theatre in Houston, Texas, directed by Stephen Miranda. It was part of the inaugural 2017 Broadway Bound Theatre Festival performed at the 14^th Street Y. The play was also a semi-finalist for the 2016 Stage Left Theatre’s Downstage Left residency.

His solo show Broadway Of The Bronx: A Juan Man Show was awarded the inaugural Bronx Council on the Art’s Bronx Cultural Visions Fund Production Grant, developed at a Yaddo Residency, and produced for a one-night only workshop production, directed by Cándido Tirado with dramaturgy by Carmen Rivera and Pandora Scooter and The American Theater Group PlayLab. The project began with a mini-grant part of Rattlestick Theater’s Block-by-Block Artist Investigation Project, led by Cusi Cram and Daniella Toppel. Special, performed onsite at The Hub, The Bronx. Special thanks for selection for the Celebrating Diversity Through Wallace Artist Salon: Diversity Awareness & Hispanic Heritage Month, part of the Wallace Foundation and selected and awarded the City Artist Corps Grant, partnering with New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), with support from the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) as well as Queens Theatre, the virtual production and workshop Broadway Of The Bronx Monologue Workshop was presented with support from Art Defined. 

Of Great Magnitude, or The Earthquake Play received the 2023 – 2014 Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Commission, based on the true story of Mexican civil engineer Dr. Leonardo Zeevaert, who built the foundation for the world’s first skyscraper, Torre Latinoamericana, on a highly seismic zone.

His Theater of the Absurd Hip-Hop dramedy Say Less was selected and won Third Place for Best Play part of the 2021 Downtown Urban Arts Festival, performed at the Abrons Art Center’s 1915 Playhouse Theater. One Act Of Kindness is selected and won Third Place for best short play part of The Lab Stage for the 2020 Downtown Urban Arts Festival. Ridin‘ Shotgun made its festival debut and won Best Play in the 2019 Downtown Urban Arts Festival. Sailing Stones made Second Place for Best Short Play as part of the 2018 Downtown Urban Arts Festival and Honor Among Thieves was selected for the 2017 Downtown Urban Arts Festival presented at The Cherry Lane. Walk The Bronx is a 2016 Downtown Urban Theater Festival Finalist.

Salt Flats is selected and will perform in the Downtown Urban Arts Festival this June.

Sailing Stones made semi-finlaist with the 2023 2nd annual STX LatinX New Play Festival.

Don Juan received a workshop reading with the Arizona Actors Academy, directed by Rachel Grimes and assisted directed by Christian Valenzuela. In 2020, the play received a virtual reading with The Quarantine Players, receiving a BroadwayWorld Washington, D.C. nomination for Best Ensemble (Non-Equity) Performance. The play was first produced and performed at Dixon Place, with The PlayPen Collective. 

Mama Bear and Her Cubs was selected and received development with Dramatic Question Theatre’s 2023 Classics In Color New Play Development Program, led by Caridad Svich, with an excerpt performed part of the 2024 Digital Stage Season. The play was selected as part of Egg & Spoon’s Incubator Series, directed by Omar Perez. The play also received a zoom reading as part of the 2021 Dramatists Guild Footlights program. 

Stroke Of Madness was part of the inaugural Ingenio Milagro 2017 Play Reading Series in Portland, Oregon. It was also part of the 2016 Cimientos Play Development Program with IATI directed by Victoria Collado. Wall was part of the 2017 Cimientos Play Development Program directed by Eric Parness and also part of the monthly LaTea Reading Series, also directed by Victoria Collado.

He was part of the inaugural Playwright Sponsored National Winter Playwright’s Retreat in Pagosa Springs, CO with HBMG Foundation, where he wrote the first of four plays for his tetralogy cycle plays (formerly Chupacabra Play Cycle), based on the four psychological attitudes for racism. The first being titled The Ranch, or How Innocent Is Ignorance? (Play cycle 1 of 4).

The work-in-progress tetralogy titled The Protest, or Fear is a Liar (Play cycle 2 of 4) was read at the Dramatists Guild Friday Night Footlights NYC.

As part of the 2020-2021 American Theater Group PlayLab, led by Pandora Scooter, he developed The Inauguration, or There is no Them (Play cycle 3 of 4), The Landfill, or Hate Hurts (Play cycle 4 of 4), and his play Lifeless.

White Knuckle was selected and developed at Chain Theatre’s 2021 Play Lab Series, receiving a two-night virtual reading, directed by G.D. Kimble. One Act Of Kindness was selected and produced as part of the 2021 One Act Festival, making an encore as Audience Choice winner, starring Cristy Reynoso and Angela Reynoso.

The Love Hate Club was recently selected and performed part of the 2022 Future Classic Festival with Titan Theatre Company, and received a 2021 City Corps Grant with Art Defined, for virtual reading led by Angela Reynoso. The play was selected and performed at the 2021 Broadway Bound Theater Festival at Theater Row, with partnering producers Art Defined and Lehman Stages, directed by Simran Pal-Kaur, starring Angela Reynoso.  

Coquito received a virtual reading part of the Latinx Playwrights Circle 2020 Final Draft Reading Series and American Theater Play Group Summer Reading Series. 

A Love Letter To The Bronx, a Bronx epic play, had a virtual production in December 2021. The play rights are released license-free to Bronx participating organizations. This project is awarded and funded by the Bronx Council on the Arts’ 2021 New Work grant. 

You Have The Right To Remain Heard was commissioned by COPP (Communities Organizing in Partnership for Peace), working with youth and active police officers, still in development, led by John-Martin Green and Stephanie Berry.

One Night Standoff was selected and produced part of the 2023 Queens Short Play Festival, Secret Theater, led by Brian Doyle, directed by Simran Pal-Kaur. The play was invited and performed part of  the Queer Love: 4 Short Tales of Affection & Romance Festival at Lehman Stages, Lehman Art Gallery.

His monologue The Sun Shines on Death was performed part of Fernando Vieira’s and Ezequiel Tavares’ Bótate! Performance Series located at the JVS Project Space. 

The Customer Voting Service written for and produced by Conch Shell Productions as part of the #BlueLightSeries, focused on the current times of 2020. March By June was written for The Reset Theatre Coalition, presented by Conch Shell Productions, in collaboration with Braata Productions and Kumu Khaua Theatre, to produce works by Writers of Color. The play starred Kailah King and was directed by Ayvaunn Penn. In 2021, Aftershocks: A Tetralogy of Our Times was virtually produced in co-collaboration with Magaly Colimon-Christopher, which included the comedy Sheep, directed by Pat Golden. 

Truck Stop Queen was part of the Ways to (dis)Connect festival at The American Theatre of Actors, directed by Bilal Walker. The play was part of LIC One-Act Festival and published in an anthology with the Secret Theatre. Normalcy, Or, The Toilet Paper Play was selected and included in 2020 The One-Minute Play Festival’s Coronavirus Play Project. Take Part! is part of the 2023 Gi60 One-Minute Play Festival in Houston, Dad & Son at 2013, To Speed Or Not To Speed at 2014 and Hey at 2018 Gi60 One minute play festival in Halifax, UK. The former play is selected and published in One Minute Plays: A Practical Guide To Tiny Theatre, Routledge 2017.

Love Diplomats was produced by the Raíces Theatre Company’s 2016 Desde El Puente. It was also selected for 2016 Short + Sweet International Festival Top 80 in Sydney, Australia and performed at the Top 10 NYU Abu Dhabi Arts Center. 

Love In All The Right Places was produced at Ophelia Theatre Group and Manhattan Repertory Company. The latest production was part of Bronx Council on the Arts 2021 Bronx Expressions Spring Performance Series, presented virtually. 

There’s A Wolf At The Door was also performed at Manhattan Rep. Pro And Cons made Abstract Sentiment Theater Company’s Block and Talk series in October 2014. It also made 2016 Fall 10 Minute Play Series and 2016 Playwright’s Showcase with Manhattan Repertory Company.

The Safety of Strangers, a one-act festival of his works Borrowed Time, JUMP!, and Admitted was produced with Henry Ovalles at Theatre Row. His one-act play JUMP! was also part of Lehman’s first annual playwright’s festival. At The Corner of Francis and Wolf was produced with The Bronx Repertory Company and Red Light at Lehman College’s SUMMERWORX. American Culture was produced at NYU’s Blink of an Eye one-act festival. 

Jimmy’s Tab is a 2011 Princess Grace semi-finalist.

Love Stings was selected and presented at the inaugural 2021 Conch Shell International Film Festival. 

His Bronx crime drama TV pilot Sins Of Our Fathers wins 2021 Best Screenplay, part of Revolution Me Films and 2022 Bronx Council on the Arts’ Bronx Recognize It’s Own Award.

The web series #30s, co-written with Cristy Reynoso and Amira Mustapha, makes Top 10 Shorts with Table Read My Screenplay, and is available on YouTube at @30stheseries

B:|ch Face, a web series co-written with Cristy Reynoso, is a Second Rounder the 2021 Austin Film Festival. 

His short horror film Alone With My Demons was selected and won Best Bronx Film part of 2020 Inwood Art Works’ New York City Quarantine Film Festival. It was also selected for the 3rd Annual Concourse Film Festival, the 2020 Mott Haven Film Festival, the inaugural 2021 Naked Angels “It’s Been A Year” Film Festival and Meta Den’s Queering Film Festival. The film is produced by R&R Production with Cristy Reynoso and stars Angela Reynoso. The short is showcased in a COVID-19 art created website project called COVID Arts and Thoughts.

The short noir film Homme Fatale was produced by R&R Production part of Bronx Film 48 Hour Challenge, presented by the festival on July 25th, 2020, and won the award for Best Use Of Required Elements. It was also selected for the 3rd Annual Concourse Film Festival. The film made its public access debut on BronxNet. 

Villa Of Life is a NYU 2014 Graduate Screenplay Finalist.

Selected for the Theatre 4 The People’s Barn Writing Residency, he is developing his first animation, along with his short horror film Gray, with Cristy Reynoso.

As a screenwriter and TV writer, he has scripts in various genres, from drama to horror to half-hour comedies and one hour dramas.

He the currently the Youth Program Playwright Lab Director at Manhattan Company Class, an NYU adjunct and teaching artist with Naked Angels/Culture For One, Manhattan Theatre Club and Bronx Council on the Arts.

He works with Art Defined Productions, leading the The Flip The Script Series, teaching various free to the public writing workshops, in partnership with Poets&Writers. In 2021, Art Defined produced The Flip The Script Series Workshop and Performance: Deep Dive, inviting four playwrights to write and produce their work in a virtual festival presentation. The four plays are published on Amazon in an anthology series. This program was awarded and sponsored by the Bronx Council on The Arts’ 2021 Community Arts and Arts Fund grants. 

As a guest artist, his theater education credits include 2020 Lehman College Theater Department 4950 Project, where Love Stings was adapted into a short film, by filmmaker Angela Reynoso. At BMCC Theater Department, his play Jump! received a virtual performance, directed by Keenan N. Charles. His one-act debut of One Act Of Kindness, directed by Amy Koke, received a virtual performance and short film performance, as part of Karl O’Brian Williams’ Theatre Class and Page to Stage class, both available on YouTube.

Coquito was selected as part of 2021 Arte Latino Now at Queens University of Charlotte for archiving and highlighting new work, in all disciplines, by Latino/a/x/é artists.

As a facilitator, he has taught with Atlantic Theater Company, participated in artist public conversations with HB Studios, and taught at juvenile detention facilities, gifted student programs and educational venues, like Poe Park Visitor Center. 

He is a film assessor, script reader, judge and panelist for several fellowships and festivals. He has taught classes in various art disciplines from improv to screenwriting.

He received his B.A. from Lehman College and his MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU Tisch.

He has been awarded Bronx Council on the Art’s SU-CASA, Community Arts, Arts Fund and New Work grants.

He is a Dramatists Guild member, a 2020-2021 Dramatists Guild Fellow, Dramatists Guild End of Play Partner, Yaddo Artist, American Theater Group Play Lab Member, a LatinX Playwright Circle Member, Latiné Musical Theatre Lab member, and a producing member of The Bronx Repertory Company.

You can find his work on Stage Agent, New Play Exchange and Amazon self-publishing. He also has free and for sale monologues in his Monologue Catalogue. Click on Sources.