Trivia

Uncle of Ben McKenzie

Won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1992 for his epic play The Kentucky Cycle.

Also has authored the plays 'Final Passages', 'Heaven On Earth', 'Lunch Break' and 'Intermission'.

His wife Maria Dahvana Headley wrote a memoir titled "The Year of Yes," in which she accepted every date offer for a year. The book concludes with her falling in love with Schenkkan, who is referred to as "the Playwright.".

Was nominated for Broadway's 1994 Tony Award as author of Best Play nominee "The Kentucky Cycle."

He is the son of Jean Gregory (McKenzie) and Robert Frederic Schenkkan. His father was from a Dutch Jewish family, and had both Ashkenazi and Sephardi ancestry. Robert's patrilineal ancestry can be traced back to his great-great-great-grandfather, Abraham Juda Schenkkan Levie, who was born, c. 1781, in Amsterdam. Robert's great-aunt, Martha van der Zijl, died in Auschwitz in 1943; Martha was the sister of Robert's paternal grandmother, Josephine van der Zijl. Robert's mother's ancestry is Scottish and English.

He was awarded the 1992 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Distinguished Writing for "The Kentucky Cycle" in a Center Theatre Group in association with Intiman Theatre Company at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California.

He was nominated for a 1994 Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award for Best Play for "The Kentucky Cycle" on Broadway in New York City.

His play, "The Kentucky Cycle," in a Center Theatre Group in association with Intiman Theatre Company at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California was awarded the 1992 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Distinguished Production.

In 2014, his play "All The Way", won the Tony Award for Best Play, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Broadway Play, and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play. Playing the lead role of LBJ also won several awards for Bryan Cranston.