Sandra Delgado

Sandra Delgado (she/her) is a Colombian-Chicagoan writer, performer, and producer who creates joyful spaces of connection for all. Hailed as “her own brand of triple threat” (New City Chicago), she writes plays inspired by underknown U.S. and Chicago histories centering Latine lives and creates theatrical, music-filled communal experiences. She is best known as the creator and star of La Havana Madrid, her smash hit play with music, originally produced by Teatro Vista with runs at Steppenwolf Theatre Company and the Goodman Theatre, and in a co-production with Collaboraction Theatre Company at both The Den Theatre and at Jay Pritzker Pavilion as part of Millennium Park’s 20th Anniversary Celebration, as well as West Coast productions at South Coast Repertory and New Village Arts. Her latest play, Hundreds and Hundreds of Stars, has been hailed as “a tale of heart-wrenching urgency” and “a story that every American needs to hear.” (Chicago Tribune) and calls her performance as Clara, a mother facing deportation “a theatrical force of nature.” (Chicago Theatre Review). Her NALAC award-winning spiritual cabaret meets dance party, The Sandra Delgado Experience, has played all over Chicago and has enjoyed repeat appearances at The Public Theater's Joe's Pub. 

Sandra is a respected veteran of the stage, with a career spanning three decades. In addition to her work at artistic homes Collaboraction and Teatro Vista, she has been seen on stages across Chicago including the Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre, Victory Gardens, and About Face Theatre. Highlights include the titular role in La Havana Madrid, La Ruta at Steppenwolf and starring off-Broadway in The Public Theater’s production of Oedipus el Rey as Jocasta.  

Sandra received the inaugural Platform Award from the Walder Foundation in 2024 and was named a Hall of Fame Player of Chicago Theatre by New City Chicago in 2025. She was awarded a United States Artists Fellowship and currently serves on the board of the Chicago Public Library. She previously served on the City of Chicago’s Arts Council. Sandra is an Illinois Arts Council Fellow in Literature, a recipient of the 3Arts/Community Award, the Joyce Award, the Theater Communications Group (TCG) Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship in the Extraordinary Potential Category, a three-time Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events grantee, a three-time 3Arts 3AP Grantee, and received the 2017 Latina Professional of the Year Award from the Chicago Latino Network.   

Ms. Delgado is the youngest woman of the twenty women of Chicago arts and culture, past and present, honored in Kerry James Marshall's largest public mural, Rushmore, on the facade of the Chicago Cultural Center alongside the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Sandra Cisneros, and Gwendolyn Brooks. Her audio play, if you belong to me as I belong to you, is streaming on Audible as part of a collaboration with the Oscar-nominated film, Women Talking. She is currently developing The Untitled Navarro Sisters Play, a 1930s Chicago history play with music, commissioned by Cleveland Play House; The Boys and the Nuns, a new musical, inspired by the true life alliance between LGBTQ activists and Catholic Sisters in 1980s Chicago;  LIVE.LOVE.NOW., a solo show exploring death, life and love; and Crying Hispanic Woman, a book of essays about motherhood, being the daughter of immigrants, and a life in the performing arts.