Multi-award-winning actor, musician, writer, and comedian John Leguizamo will be the first featured guest in the 2021–22 Dialogue with the Dean series. The artist will join Dean Johnson in conversation at the Josephine Louis Theater of the Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday, November 16. The free event will include a virtual option for guests who can’t make it to campus.

Leguizamo’s film credits include Carlito’s Way, To Wong Foo: Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, Romeo + Juliet, The Pest, Moulin Rouge!, Summer of Sam, The Lincoln Lawyer, and the Ice Age franchise. He received a 2018 special Tony Award after wrapping an extended Broadway run of his one-man show Latin History for Morons. In television, he has received an Emmy nomination for his performance in the Paramount Network series Waco and Critic’s Choice and Emmy Award nominations for playing Raymond Santana Sr. in the Netflix series When They See Us. His directorial debut, Critical Thinking, was selected to premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. Leguizamo will also appear with Ben Foster and Danny DeVito in Barry Levinson’s upcoming film Harry Haft.

Dialogue with the Dean, launched in the 2020–21 academic year, is a series of conversations with emerging and established communicators who are advancing the futures of their fields, challenging paradigms, and promoting social justice. The 2021–22 series will focus on the arts; the second two guests will be announced in the coming months.