Chicago’s theatre community will almost certainly get a well-deserved boost if this playwright and actor—seen as a frontrunner for the Tony in June—gets the nod for his biting portrayal of George in Steppenwolf’s Broadway transfer of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? And how many other playwrights can say their Pulitzer Prize-winning script reeled in Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts? Look for August: Osage County to hit movie theatres later this year.

Photograph: ANTONIO PEREZ/CHICAGO TRIBUNE