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Quiara Hudes had the "it" factor years before she was nominated for Tony Awards or Pulitzer Prizes. The half-boricua/half Jewish playwright started penning and producing her plays as an undergrad at Yale University. Her cool points are off the meter at this point with Heights receiving 13 Tony nominations (Ed. note: and four wins). One thing's for sure, a nation of Latinos are rooting for her now.

How did you become involved with In The Heights?
Quiara Hudes: Lin-Manuel [Miranda], who wrote the music and lyrics, came to me with a really fleshed out concept that had to do with the bodega being the clearing house of all the neighborhood gossip. He approached me and asked me what story I could write. I came up with the idea for it to be these three local businesses and the challenges they faced to stay open over a weekend. It really came out of my experiences with my father owning businesses in North Philly. There's something about the struggles of a small business owner that felt very American to me.

So the play is relatable to everyone regardless of race?
QH: Yes, because it's about honoring the generation that came before you but also discovering your next step. I remember this elderly Jewish guy was sitting next to me at a show and he turned to me, with tears in his eyes, after the first scene and said, "That's my nana." Writers always say that you get to the universal through the specific.

How did you react when you heard the play received 13 Tony nominations?
QH: That day was amazing. All of the creative teams who worked on the show got nominated-the director, Lin for his score, the orchestration, and the chorography. The calls started pouring in from North Philly. My cousin called me and said, "Oh my God, we're so proud of you. You're telling our story!"

After a highly lauded play, what's next for you?
QH: I have a new play (26 Miles) that's for next year. It's about my experiences growing up and being half-Latina/ half-Jewish and trying to figure out what that means to me. I also have a children's book coming out and a musical for the Kennedy Center. I'm always working on 10 projects at once because in theatre, things happen very, very slowly.

How does it feel to take a mainly white institution like Broadway and conquer it?
QH: Ultimately, people come into the show thinking, am I going to relate to this? But in some ways it's really a traditional show. It tells the story about a family, it has big choreography numbers, big songs; it's not the most-groundbreaking musical and in some ways in it of itself is kind of groundbreaking.

via sitv.com