Diarra Kilpatrick (born August 28, 1983) is an American actress, writer, and producer, who has received recognition and awards for work in theatre, TV, and film. She produced, wrote, and starred in two series including American Koko (2017) on ABC, for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination, and the mystery comedy-drama series, Diarra from Detroit which has also received award nominations.
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Early life and education
Kilpatrick was born in 1983, and raised in Detroit in the Calumet Townhomes. She is the half-sister of Kwame Kilpatrick. Her mother Elise supported local arts and hosted artists at their home, and often took Kilpatrick to the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Detroit Public Library, the Children's Museum, and the Wayne State University art and performing arts building.
As a child she performed in productions at Meadow Brook Theater and at school. When she reached age eligibility at age 12, she joined the Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit after having been rejected as too young at age 10, and performed in The Piano Lesson and later an adaptation of Comedy of Errors. Kilpatrick attended Bates Academy for the gifted and talented, and later graduated from the Detroit Country Day School, where she had also acted. She earned her bachelor's degree at NYU Tisch.
Career
Theatre
From roughly 2007 to 2015, Kilpatrick acted in Los Angeles theater productions and earned several awards and nominations for stage performances (see Awards). Her play credits during this time include Three Sisters After Chekhov, Gary Lennon's The Interlopers, The Royale, Closely Related Keys, and Tarell Alvin McCraney's In the Red and Brown Water for which she won an LA Weekly Theatre Award and an NAACP Theatre Award. The Hollywood Reporter called her performance luminous. Bob Verini in his review at Arts in LA said, "the stunning Diarra Kilpatrick's [character] Oya begins fresh-faced and ends shattered, yet her decline is so subtly etched we’re practically unaware of her falling apart until it’s too late." Tony Frankel at Stage and Cinema wrote, "it is Diarra Kilpatrick who will have you breathless as she vacillates from wide-eyed innocence to tragic self-realization. [...] Ms. Kilpatrick calls forth incorruptibility with such effortless grace that when rage suddenly emits from the [...] actress, it startles like a crime against nature."
Film
Kilpatrick's first film appearance was in the 2006 romantic drama Forbidden Fruits. She co-starred as a transgender woman in Jason Bushman's queer comedy-drama film Hollywood, je t'aime (2009). The Hollywood Reporter review by Stephen Farber called her performance adept. She appeared in the independent films H4 (2012), a modernized Shakespeare adaptation, and Jeryl Prescott's drama Stand Down Soldier (2014) which is about the family troubles of a PTSD-afflicted woman veteran. In 2015 she had a supporting role in the Viola Davis and Jennifer Lopez crime drama film Lila & Eve. In 2016, she starred as a nameless hitchhiker in the drama film The Salton Sea by Veena Sud, for which she received the Nordic International Film Festival award for best actress. She later starred in the television film revival of Nash Bridges (2021), a police procedural.
TV Acting, Writing, and Producing
Kilpatrick's first TV appearance was in an episode of House in 2008. She also guest-starred in The Game, Hart of Dixie, Mike & Molly, Southland, Major Crimes, and five appearances on Private Practice. She wrote and served as story editor for episodes of the comedy-drama I'm Dying Up Here The reception of Kilpatrick's web series American Koko (see below) helped her become a staff writer for the NBC police-procedural The Mysteries of Laura. She had a recurring role in the comedy series, The Last O.G. and wrote two episodes of the show.
She later starred in an episode of The Twilight Zone reboot in 2019. The Guardian said that her presence was so invigorating that it almost cured flaws in the script. In 2020 she was cast as Clara Drake in the HBO period drama series, Perry Mason.
Kilpatrick has created, written, produced, and starred in several projects for TV. In interview, she has explained the impulses behind her projects:
"In television or film, I was going out [i.e. auditioning] a lot for nurses, prostitutes and sassy friends. Every Black actress, and really every actor of color, has that story. I was just interested in doing something that saw a Black woman at the center that went on a journey with her."
In April 2023, she signed an overall deal with BET Studios. She created, produced and starred in Diarra from Detroit, a mystery comedy-drama series set in Detroit. The series received positive reviews from critics. The show, Kilpatrick's performance, the writing, and the director, earned various award nominations (see Awards below). NPR journalist Tonya Mosley, who is from Detroit, said about the show:
"This work is unlike anything I've ever seen. It's smart and funny while also interweaving some very serious topics, like the epidemic of missing Black children and the social and economic challenges of Detroit. [It also] tackles divorce and friendship and betrayal and police corruption. And did I mention that it's funny? [...] There is a lightness and also a depth that is rarely given to stories about the city. [Kilpatrick] really conveys community and a sense of place that I've never seen [on screen] about our hometown."" -Tonya Mosley of NPR
Personal life
Kilpatrick is married.
Awards and nominations
2011 – Nominated, Ovation Awards, Lead Actress in a Play (for The Interlopers)
2012 - Nominated, NAACP Theatre Awards, Best Female Lead - Local (for The Interlopers)
2013 - Winner, LA Weekly Theatre Award, Leading Female Performance (for In the Red and Brown Water)
2013 - Winner, NAACP Theatre Award, Best Leading Actress in a Drama (for In the Red and Brown Water)
2013 – Nominated, Ovation Awards, Lead Actress in a Play (for In the Red and Brown Water)
2015 - Winner, American Black Film Festival, Best Web Original (for American Koko web series)
2015 - Nominated, NAACP Theatre Award, Best Lead Female - Local (for Closely Related Keys)
2016 - Winner, Nordic International Film Festival, Best Actress (for The Salton Sea)
2018 – Nominated, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actress in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series (for American Koko)
2025 - Nominated, Independent Spirit Awards, Best Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Series (for Diarra from Detroit)
2025 - Nominated, Black Reel Awards, Outstanding Lead Performance in a Comedy Series (for Diarra from Detroit)
2025 - Nominated, NAACP Image Awards, Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Breakthrough Creative (Television) (for Diarra from Detroit)
