Joe Hortua

Joe Hortua is an American playwright born and raised in Chicago to a Colombian father and a Spanish mother, marking him as the first in his extended family to earn a college degree. He obtained a Master of Fine Arts in playwriting from New York University in 1997 and gained early experience working as a bartender at Lumi, an upscale Italian restaurant in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. At age 30 in 2002, he achieved his first professional production with the world premiere of 'Making It' at South Coast Repertory.[1][2]