Richard Nelson is a Tony-award winning playwright and director.

Nelson received the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. He has also been the recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation Playwright-in-Residence Award (1979-80)

Illyria had its world premiere at The Public Theater in October 2017. (Off-Broadway, New York).

Nelson's play James Joyce's The Dead received a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. His works also include:

The critically acclaimed The Apple Family Plays

Both The Gabriels and The Apple Family Plays were broadcast as part of the "Great Performances" series on PBS

Nelson wrote the book for the Broadway musical Chess (1988).

The Vienna Notes earned Nelson an Obie Award for Playwriting.

Some American Abroad earned him a Drama Desk Award for outstanding new play (2000).

Nelson is the co-translator with Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky on the TCG Classic Russian Drama series