Lee Summers is an award-winning actor, singer, director, writer, and educator whose career spans Broadway, television, film, and higher education. He made his Broadway debut in the Tony and Grammy Award–winning original production of Dreamgirls and later returned for the Actors Fund’s Dreamgirls 20th Anniversary Concert alongside Audra McDonald, Billy Porter, and Heather Headley.
Beyond Broadway, Summers’s singing career includes touring in the title role of an abridged production of Porgy and Bess, two years as a featured vocalist at New York’s Motown Café, and his Bistro Award–winning solo show Winds of Change. He has also performed at Carnegie Hall alongside fellow Broadway artists, including Tony Award winners Ben Vereen and Ben Harney.
Summers began his acting training and performed lead and supporting roles in classical and contemporary plays while an undergraduate at Tennessee State University, whose theatre alumni include Oprah Winfrey. His screen credits include Boardwalk Empire, Blue Bloods, New York Undercover, Law & Order, the film Malcolm X, and more. His stage work includes Little Ham, On Kentucky Avenue (AUDELCO nomination for Best Supporting Actor), and productions with the Negro Ensemble Company and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.
A two-time AUDELCO Award winner and BroadwayWorld Award winner for Best Director of a Musical, Summers has directed regionally and Off-Broadway and recently completed his fourth year as a guest director at BerkleeNYC. As a writer, he conceived, co-created, and produced the Off-Broadway musical From My Hometown, now licensed through Concord Theatricals, the world’s largest theatrical licensing house. He also wrote the book, music, and lyrics for The Funkentine Rapture, currently in development and directed by Tony Award winner James Monroe Iglehart.
At NYU Steinhardt, Summers teaches Acting for Singers at both the graduate and undergraduate levels and has also taught Music Scene Study. In 2020, he wrote and directed Storm, NYU’s virtual musical tribute, and in 2024 served as acting coach for the NYU opera production Two Remain. His teaching practice extends internationally, with private students from Shanghai to Seoul, alongside his ongoing private coaching studio.
Summers holds a BA from SUNY Empire State College and an MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. He is a member of Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), SAG-AFTRA, and the Dramatists Guild.