# Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance

The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance is an annual award presented by Drama Desk in recognition of achievements in the theatre across collective Broadway, off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City.
The category was first presented at the 1984 ceremony, when it was known as the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One Person Show, suspended for 1988 and 1989, returning in 1990 as the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One Person Show/Solo Performance. The current name was first introduced in 1994, but then shifted across the three names until locking on the current name in 1999.

## Winners and nominees
### 1980s

| Year | Performer | Production |
| 1984 |
| 1984 | Ian McKellen | Acting Shakespeare |
| 1984 | Phillip Baker Hall | Secret Honor |
| 1984 | Kaye Ballard | Hey, Ma...Kaye Ballard |
| 1984 | Edward Duke | Jeeves Takes Charge |
| 1984 | Estelle Parsons | Orgasmo Adulto Escapes from the Zoo |
| 1984 | Billie Whitelaw | Rockaby |
| 1985 |
| 1985 | Whoopi Goldberg | Whoopi Goldberg |
| 1985 | Avner Eisenberg | Avner the Eccentric |
| 1985 | Spalding Gray | Swimming to Cambodia |
| 1985 | Alec McCowen | Kipling |
| 1985 | Ekkehard Schall | An Evening with Ekkehard Schall |
| 1985 | Lori Wilner | Hannah Senesh |
| 1986 |
| 1986 | Eric Bogosian | Drinking in America |
| 1986 | Elisabeth Welch | Time to Start Living |
| 1987 |
| 1987 | Barbara Cook | A Concert for the Theatre |
| 1988, 1989 | — | — |

### 1990s

| Year | Performer | Production |
| 1990 |
| 1990 | Robert Morse | Tru |
| 1990 | Eric Bogosian | Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll |
| 1990 | Kathryn Grody | A Mom's Life |
| 1990 | Mandy Patinkin | Mandy Patinkin in Concert: "Dress Casual" |
| 1991 |
| 1991 | Eileen Atkins | A Room of One's Own |
| 1991 | Jeffrey Essmann | Artificial Reality |
| 1991 | Spalding Gray | Monster in a Box |
| 1991 | Tracey Ullman | The Big Love |
| 1992 |
| 1992 | Patrick Stewart | A Christmas Carol |
| 1992 | Stan Freeman | At Wit's End |
| 1992 | Kevin Kling | Home and Away |
| 1992 | Josh Kornbluth | Red Diaper Baby |
| 1993 |
| 1993 | Anna Deavere Smith | Fires in the Mirror |
| 1993 | John Leguizamo | Spic-O-Rama |
| 1993 | Lynn Redgrave | Shakespeare for My Father |
| 1993 | Ron Vawter | Roy Cohn/Jack Smith |
| 1994 |
| 1994 | Anna Deavere Smith | Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 |
| 1994 | Eric Bogosian | Pounding Nails in the Floor with my Forehead |
| 1994 | Sherry Glaser | Family Secrets |
| 1994 | Spalding Gray | Gray's Anatomy |
| 1994 | Claudia Shear | Blown Sideways Through Life |
| 1995 |
| 1995 | Celeste Lecesne | Word of Mouth |
| 1995 | Dan Butler | The Only Thing Worse You Could Have Told Me |
| 1995 | Danny Hoch | Some People |
| 1995 | Avi Hoffman | Too Jewish? |
| 1995 | Lisa Kron | 101 Humiliating Stories |
| 1996 |
| 1996 | Mary Louise Wilson | Full Gallop |
| 1996 | Andrea Martin | Nude Nude Totally Nude |
| 1996 | Karen Trott | Springhill Singing Disaster |
| 1997 |
| 1997 | Fiona Shaw | The Waste Land |
| 1997 | Eve Ensler | The Vagina Monologues |
| 1997 | Eddie Izzard | Eddie Izzard |
| 1997 | Roger Guenveur Smith | A Huey P. Newton Story |
| 1997 | Julia Sweeney | Julia Sweeney's God Said "Ha!" |
| 1998 |
| 1998 | John Leguizamo | Freak |
| 1998 | Lewis Black | Black Humor |
| 1998 | Danny Hoch | Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop |
| 1999 |
| 1999 | David Hare | Via Dolorosa |
| 1999 | Will Bond | Bob |
| 1999 | Aviva Jane Carlin | Jodie's Body |
| 1999 | Alexander H. Cohen | Star Billing |
| 1999 | Lisa Kron | 2.5 Minute Ride |
| 1999 | Laurence Luckinbill | Clarence Darrow Tonight! |

### 2000s

| Year | Performer | Production |
| 2000 |
| 2000 | Dame Edna Everage | Dame Edna: The Royal Tour |
| 2000 | Olympia Dukakis | Rose |
| 2000 | Spalding Gray | Morning, Noon and Night |
| 2000 | Mark Linn-Baker | Chesapeake |
| 2000 | Mark Setlock | Fully Committed |
| 2000 | Marc Wolf | Another American: Asking and Telling |
| 2001 |
| 2001 | Pamela Gien | The Syringa Tree |
| 2001 | Eric Bogosian | Wake Up and Smell the Coffee |
| 2001 | Bette Bourne | Resident Alien |
| 2001 | Brian d'Arcy James | The Good Thief |
| 2001 | Sarah Jones | Surface Transit |
| 2001 | Ruben Santiago-Hudson | Lackawanna Blues |
| 2002 |
| 2002 | Elaine Stritch | Elaine Stritch at Liberty |
| 2002 | Dave Gorman | Are You Dave Gorman? |
| 2002 | Charles Nelson Reilly | Save It for the Stage: The Life of Reilly |
| 2002 | Reno | Rebel Without a Pause |
| 2002 | T. Ryder Smith | Underneath the Lintel |
| 2003 |
| 2003 | Tovah Feldshuh | Golda's Balcony |
| 2003 | Barbara Cook | Mostly Sondheim |
| 2003 | Frank Gorshin | Say Goodnight, Gracie |
| 2003 | Ricky Jay | Ricky Jay: On the Stem |
| 2003 | Priscilla Lopez | Class Mother '68 |
| 2003 | Charlayne Woodard | In Real Life |
| 2004 |
| 2004 | Jefferson Mays | I Am My Own Wife |
| 2004 | Barbara Cook | Barbara Cook's Broadway! |
| 2004 | Ben Gazzara | Nobody Don't Like Yogi |
| 2004 | Sarah Jones | Bridge and Tunnel |
| 2004 | Martin Moran | The Tricky Part |
| 2004 | Will Power | Flow |
| 2005 |
| 2005 | Billy Crystal | 700 Sundays |
| 2005 | Dame Edna Everage | Dame Edna: Back with a Vengeance |
| 2005 | Dave Gorman | Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure |
| 2005 | Jackie Mason | Jackie Mason: Freshly Squeezed |
| 2005 | Tim Miller | Us |
| 2005 | James Urbaniak | Thom Pain (based on nothing) |
| 2006 |
| 2006 | Antony Sher | Primo |
| 2006 | Judy Gold | 25 Questions for a Jewish Mother |
| 2006 | Marga Gomez | Los Big Names |
| 2006 | Jon Peterson | George M. Cohan Tonight! |
| 2006 | Janis Stevens | Vivien |
| 2006 | Michael Winther | Songs from an Unmade Bed |
| 2007 |
| 2007 | Vanessa Redgrave | The Year of Magical Thinking |
| 2007 | Iris Bahr | Dai (enough) |
| 2007 | Ed Harris | Wrecks |
| 2007 | Capathia Jenkins | (mis)Understanding Mammy: The Hattie McDaniel Story |
| 2007 | Anna Manahan | Sisters |
| 2007 | Nilaja Sun | No Child... |
| 2008 |
| 2008 | Laurence Fishburne | Thurgood |
| 2008 | Kris Anderson | Dixie's Tupperware Party |
| 2008 | Stephen Lang | Beyond Glory |
| 2008 | April Yvette Thompson | Liberty City |
| 2009 |
| 2009 | Lorenzo Pisoni | Humor Abuse |
| 2009 | Mike Birbiglia | Sleepwalk with Me |
| 2009 | Frank Blocker | Southern Gothic Novel |
| 2009 | Michael Laurence | Krapp, 39 |
| 2009 | Matt Sax | Clay |
| 2009 | Campbell Scott | The Atheist |

### 2010s

| Year | Performer | Production |
| 2010 |
| 2010 | Jim Brochu | Zero Hour |
| 2010 | Theodore Bikel | Sholom Aleichem: Laughter Through Tears |
| 2010 | Colman Domingo | A Boy and His Soul |
| 2010 | Carrie Fisher | Wishful Drinking |
| 2010 | Judith Ivey | The Lady with All the Answers |
| 2010 | Anna Deavere Smith | Let Me Down Easy |
| 2011 |
| 2011 | John Leguizamo | Ghetto Klown |
| 2011 | Daniel Beaty | Through the Night |
| 2011 | Mike Birbiglia | Mike Birbiglia's My Girlfriend's Boyfriend |
| 2011 | Juliette Jeffers | Batman and Robin in the Boogie Down |
| 2011 | Colin Quinn | Colin Quinn: Long Story Short |
| 2011 | Joanna Tope | The Promise |
| 2012 |
| 2012 | Cillian Murphy | Misterman |
| 2012 | Baba Brinkman | The Rap Guide to Evolution |
| 2012 | Suli Holum | Chimera |
| 2012 | Jeff Key | The Eyes of Babylon |
| 2012 | Denis O'Hare | An Iliad |
| 2012 | Stephen Spinella | An Iliad |
| 2013 |
| 2013 | Michael Urie | Buyer & Cellar |
| 2013 | Joel de la Fuente | Hold These Truths |
| 2013 | Kathryn Hunter | Kafka's Monkey |
| 2013 | Bette Midler | I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers |
| 2013 | Julian Sands | A Celebration of Harold Pinter |
| 2013 | Holland Taylor | Ann |
| 2014 |
| 2014 | John Douglas Thompson | Satchmo at the Waldorf |
| 2014 | David Barlow | This is My Office |
| 2014 | Jim Brochu | Character Man |
| 2014 | Hannah Cabell | Grounded |
| 2014 | Debra Jo Rupp | Becoming Dr. Ruth |
| 2014 | Ruben Santiago-Hudson | August Wilson's How I Learned What I Learned |
| 2015 |
| 2015 | Benjamin Scheuer | The Lion |
| 2015 | Christina Bianco | Application Pending |
| 2015 | Jonny Donahoe | Every Brilliant Thing |
| 2015 | Tom Dugan | Wiesenthal |
| 2015 | Mona Golabek | The Pianist of Willesden Lane |
| 2015 | Joely Richardson | The Belle of Amherst |
| 2016 |
| 2016 | Jesse Tyler Ferguson | Fully Committed |
| 2016 | Simon Callow | Tuesdays at Tesco's |
| 2016 | Kathleen Chalfant | Rose |
| 2016 | Celeste Lecesne | The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey |
| 2016 | Daphne Rubin-Vega | Empanada Loca |
| 2017 |
| 2017 | Ed Dixon | Georgie: My Adventures with George Rose |
| 2017 | Nancy Anderson | The Pen (Inner Voices) |
| 2017 | Marin Ireland | On the Exhale |
| 2017 | Sarah Jones | Sell/Buy/Date |
| 2017 | Brian Quijada | Where Did We Sit on the Bus? |
| 2017 | Anna Deavere Smith | Notes from the Field |
| 2018 |
| 2018 | Billy Crudup | Harry Clarke |
| 2018 | David Greenspan | Strange Interlude |
| 2018 | Jon Levin | A Hunger Artist |
| 2018 | Lesli Margherita | Who's Holiday! |
| 2018 | Sophie Melville | Iphigenia in Splott |
| 2019 |
| 2019 | Mike Birbiglia | The New One |
| 2019 | Carey Mulligan | Girls & Boys |
| 2019 | Liza Jessie Peterson | The Peculiar Patriot |
| 2019 | Erin Treadway | Spaceman |
| 2019 | Phoebe Waller-Bridge | Fleabag |

### 2020s

| Year | Performer | Production |
| 2020 |
| 2020 | Laura Linney | My Name Is Lucy Barton |
| 2020 | David Cale | We're Only Alive for a Short Amount of Time |
| 2020 | Kate del Castillo | the way she spoke |
| 2020 | Jacqueline Novak | Get on Your Knees |
| 2020 | Deirdre O'Connell | Dana H. |
| 2021 | No awards: New York theatres shuttered, March 2020 to September 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City | No awards: New York theatres shuttered, March 2020 to September 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City |
| 2022 |
| 2022 | Kristina Wong | Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord |
| 2022 | Alex Edelman | Just for Us |
| 2022 | Arturo Luís Soria | Ni Mi Madre |
| 2023 |
| 2023 | Jodie Comer | Prima Facie |
| 2023 | David Greenspan | Four Saints in Three Acts |
| 2023 | Jessica Hendy | Walking With Bubbles |
| 2023 | Anthony Rapp | Without You |
| 2023 | Tracy Thorne | Jack Was Kind |
| 2024 |
| 2024 | Patrick Page | All the Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain |
| 2024 | Michael Cruz Kayne | Sorry for Your Loss |
| 2024 | Madeleine MacMahon | Breathless |
| 2024 | Wade McCollum | Make Me Gorgeous! |
| 2024 | Robert Montano | SMALL |