Photo by Tasha Gorel.

Jerry Ruiz is a director who focuses largely on new and contemporary works. He has directed plays by Tanya Saracho, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Kristoffer Diaz, Karen Zacarías, Katie Bender and Caroline V. McGraw.

His directing credits include world premieres at Denver Center for the Performing Arts Theatre Company, Second Stage Theater and Rattlestick Theatre, as well as Off-Broadway and regional productions at the Old Globe, Primary Stages, Hartford TheaterWorks, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Zach Theatre, Profile Theatre, Stages Houston, Mint Theater Company, Clubbed Thumb, NYC SummerStage, Chalk Rep and Repertorio Español. He has developed work at Alley Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep, The Public Theater, Atlantic Theater Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the Playwrights Realm.

From 2002-2004, he worked as Resident Assistant Director on the Broadway production of La Boheme, directed by Baz Luhrmann. Upon completing his MFA in Directing at UC San Diego, he served as Van Lier Directing Fellow at Second Stage Theater from 2007-2009. He was a recipient of the 2009–2011 NEA/TCG Career Development Program Grant. In 2011, he received the Phil Killian Directing Fellowship from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. From 2011 to 2015, he was Curator for the Crossing Borders festival of new plays at Two River Theater in New Jersey. He was a Visiting Professor at UT-Austin in 2014, directing a production of In the Heights​.  In 2016, he joined PlayMakers Repertory Company as Associate Artistic Director. In 2018, he accepted a tenure-track Assistant Professor appointment at Texas State University, where he is currently the Head of MFA Directing. B.A: Harvard University. Member: SDC.

To see his directing resume, click here.