Celia Keenan-Bolger to Be Honored with the 2025 Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award for Her Life of Activism

The Tony Awards Administration Committee announced today that Celia Keenan-Bolger will receive the 2025 Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award for her unwavering dedication to advocacy work through the arts.

The Isabelle Stevenson Award is presented annually to a member of the theater community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of one or more humanitarian, social service or charitable organizations. Previous recipients include Billy Porter, Jerry Mitchell, Julie Halston, Judith Light, Nick Scandalios, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Stephen Schwartz, Larry Kramer, Rosie O’Donnell, Bernadette Peters, Eve Ensler and David Hyde Pierce, among others.

For over a decade, Keenan-Bolger has given her time to a variety of political and social causes and campaigns. She served on the advisory board of Broadway Impact, which advocated for same-sex-marriage rights throughout the country, as well as the Entertainment Community’s Looking Ahead Advisory Committee and TDF’s Young Patron’s Committee. She is an "artist-ambassador" for the New York Civil Liberties Union, winning the first-ever Michael Friedman Freedom Award in 2019, and currently serves on the New 42 Artists Council. At the onset of the COVID pandemic, she co-founded "Broadway Feeds Bellevue," a meal train service for nurses working in the New York City public healthcare system.

Alongside Gavin Creel, Keenan-Bolger created the Activist Artist Endowed Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarship support to students in the Department of Musical Theatre at the University of Michigan who are dedicated to service and social justice. She also serves as an end-of-life doula, providing counsel to those facing the end of their lives, as well as their families and loved ones—a role she was able to play for Creel and his family during his untimely passing last year.

For her work on stage, Keenan-Bolger won the 2019 Tony Award for her turn as Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, and has earned four additional Tony nominations throughout her career. Her other Broadway credits include The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Tony nomination), the 2006 revival of Les Misérables, Peter and the Starcatcher (Tony nomination), the 2013 mounting of The Glass Menagerie (Tony nomination), the 2016 production of The Cherry Orchard and last season's production of Paula Vogel's Mother Play (Tony nomination). 

“Celia’s star shines far beyond the Broadway stages, illuminating her peers, passions and purposes with generosity of spirit, integrity and compassion,” said Heather Hitchens, President & CEO of the American Theatre Wing and Jason Laks, President of the Broadway League. “She is truly an inspiration, and we are thrilled to honor her with the Isabelle Stevenson Award.”

The 78th Annual Tony Awards will be held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on June 8, hosted by Cynthia Erivo. The ceremony will broadcast live on the CBS Television Network, and stream on Paramount+ (8:00-11:00 PM ET/5:00-8:00 PM PT).