Idris Goodwin is a playwright, rapper, and essayist. His plays include How We Got On; Remix 38 (Actors Theater Of Louisville); And in This Corner: Cassius Clay (StageOne Family Theater); This is Modern Art (Steppenwolf); Blackademics (Mpaact, Crowded Fire); Bars and Measures (B Street Theatre, Nnpn Rwp); and The Raid (Jackalope Theatre).

Goodwin is one of the six playwrights featured in Hands Up an anthology commissioned by The New Black Fest. Hands Up has been presented across the country.

Goodwin’s lates play The Realness will have a world premiere in 2016 at Merrimack Repertory Theatre. He is the recipient of Oregon Shakespeare’s American History Cycle Commission and InterAct Theater’s 20/20 Award. Goodwin has been a writer in residence at The Eugene O'Neil Playwrights Center, Berkeley Rep's Ground Floor Program, The Lark Playwriting Center and New Harmony Project.

An accomplished hip-hop poet, his albums include Break Beat Poems and Rhyming While Black. Goodwin was featured on HBO, Sesame Street and Discovery Channel. He is the author of the pushcart nominated essay collection These are the Breaks (Write Bloody, 2011).

Goodwin is the co host and contributor to Critical Karaoke, a radio show and podcast about music and culture. He teaches performance writing and hip-hop aesthetics at Colorado College.