Kevin R. Free is a multidisciplinary artist whose work has been showcased many places, including the Where Project (2015), QED: A Place for Storytelling (2014); on the Moth Mainstage (“Heart of Darkness,” 2012), Dana Rossi’s The Soundtrack Series, Kathleen Warnock’s Drunken! Careening! Writers! (2012). His current project is an inaugural writer of the New York Shakespeare Exchange's Diversity Cohort.

As an actor, Mr. Free has appeared on national television in commercials and on NBC’s Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU, and several national and regional commercials. New York audiences have seen Mr. Free Off-Broadway, creating the role of Memphis in From My Hometownboth for Amas Musical Theatre (Audelco Award Nominee). He was also seen Off-Broadway at the York Theatre in Taking A Chance On Love, and as Bubber Brown in The New Federal Theatre’s acclaimed The Conjure Man Dies, and as one of the ninjas in Happy Sunshine Kung Fu Flower at the Zipper. Most recently, he played the role of Bellomy in The Fantasticks (the first African-American to play the role in the New York Production's 54-year history). Some of his favorite roles in regional theatre include James Farmer in The Parchman Hour at the Guthrie Theater; Donnie in the World Premiere of Colman Domingo's DOT at Actors Theatre of Louisville; Albert/Kevin in Clybourne Park at Portland Center Stage; Tonton Julian in Once On This Island (Paper Mill Playhouse); Dromio of Ephesus in The Boys from Syracuse (CENTERSTAGE); Nemur in Chasing Nicolette (Prince Music Theatre); Flick in Violet (Arden Theatre, Barrymore Award Nominee - Best Supporting Actor in a Musical), and Belize in Angels in America (Charlotte Repertory).

His full-length plays are Face Value (Henry Street Settlement Playwright’s Project Grant, 2000; Mill Mountain Theatre New Play Festival Finalist, 2003); (Not) Just a Day Like Any Other (written & performed with Christopher Borg, Jeffrey Cranor, and Eevin Hartsough; recipient, 2009 NY IT Award for Outstanding Ensemble); and A Raisin in the Salad: Black Plays for White People (Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference Semi-Finalist 2013), The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual, or TRIPLE CONSCIOUSNESS, and You Are in An Open Field (written & performed with Eevin Hartsough, Marta Rainer, Carl Riehl, and Adam Smith). His most recent full-length play, AM I DEAD? The Untrue Narrative of Anatomical Lewis, The Slave, was commissioned by Flux Theater Ensemble through their FluxForward program, and was produced in New York City in 2017. His ten-minute plays include …in which Bishop Eddie Long loses a battle with his demons… (Sticky at the Bowery Poetry Club, JACK)and PORTAL, or Metaphorical Tricycle (The Fire This Time Festival), and Turn This Motha Out (with Prayer) (48 Hours in Harlem, inspired by Tyler Perry’s “Diary of a Mad Black Woman”). He is an alumnus of the New York Neo-Futurists, with whom he wrote and performed regularly in Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind (30 Plays in 60 Minutes) between 2007 and 2011. His work has been published by Commonplace Books (“What it Means To Be A Grown Up: The Complete and Definitive Answer”) and at www.indietheaternow.com. His webseries, Gemma & The Bear! was the only webseries to receive an award for Excellence by Best Shorts in 2015. In 2010, He was named one of NYTheatre.com’s 15 people of the year, because of his “outstanding, noteworthy contributions to the New York theatre scene,” was a Fellow of The New Black Fest, and is the Former Producing Artistic Director of the Obie Award-winning Fire This Time Festival, a showcase of new works by early-career playwrights of the African Diaspora. He is now the Curator of Queerly, a Festival of work by artists of the LGBTQIA community.

As a director, Mr. Free assisted Martha Banta on Barbara’s Blue Kitchen in readings in Florida and NYC, and went on as Assistant Director in the show’s Off-Broadway run. Other significant credits: Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill (Portland Stage, 2017); Renita Martin's Blue Fire on the Water at The Fresh Fruit Festival; Okello Kelo Sam's Forged in Fire at City Tech Theatreworks; 30 Plays in 60 Minutes as a guest director at Bloomsburg University, and 4 works by Nathan Yungerberg at the Bed-Stuy Playwright Series. He directed Adrienne Dawes’s brilliant Am I White at Blackboard Plays Reading Series, Tracey Conyer Lee’s Poor Posturing and The First Time for The Fire This Time Festival, and Michelle T. Johnson's Wiccans in the 'hood for the Midwinter Madness Festival. Passionate about the solo show format, he also developed and directed Elizabeth Stewart’s Racist is My Middle Name for the Estrogenius Festival (2010), and Tracey Conyer Lee’s Standing Up: Bathroom Talk and Other Stuff We Learn From Dad (2010). The former Artistic Director of Educational Programming for Queens Theatre in the Park, Mr. Free has also directed several productions performed or written by young people, including several plays in Writopia Lab’s Bestival of New Plays, The Wiz, The Robber Bridegroom, Godspell, Barnum, The Big Bad Musical, Dear Edwina, A Year with Frog and Toad and Starlight Express.

Once a regular contributor the NPR show “News & Notes,“ Mr. Free’s voice can now be heard on the popular podcast Welcome to Night Vale, as Kevin, the voice of Desert Bluffs. He was a singer on the World Premiere Recording of the musical Avenue X and is the narrator over 200 audio books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Known World (AudioFile Magazine Earphones Award, 2004) and Say You’re One of Them (Oprah’s Book Club) and Rick Riordan’s The Kane Chronicles (Audie Award Finalist, Audiobook of the Year 2011).