Willie “Prince Roc” Round is a playwright, songwriter,
hip-hop artist, actor and community activist. Round was raised in North
Lawndale on the West Side of Chicago, a region with high rates of violence and
low household incomes, and later graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communications-broadcast
media from Central State University in 2014. In 2015, Round went back to
Chicago to teach an elective video production class at an alternative school
for at-risk youth. Round was first introduced to theatre and the Chicago
theatre scene by his long-time collaborator, playwright G. Riley Mills. At the
time, Round had lost his job as a teacher due to budget cuts, which resulted in
him becoming homeless. Round’s first play, Broke Down Drone, was
produced in Collaboraction’s 2019 Peacebook Festival at Kennedy-King College in
Englewood. The play then had a sold-out run off-Broadway at the Chain Theatre
in New York City in 2021, where Round made his off-Broadway acting debut. Round
also wrote, created and produced a short documentary for Collaboraction’s
Peacebook Festival titled This Is North Lawndale that highlighted the
resilience of his hometown during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mentorship and
teaching are his personal passions. Round has mentored inner-city youth as part
of College Mentoring Experience as well as part of his own youth movement
called M.U.D. LIFE (Motivating the Urban to be Determined). Round has done extensive
outreach in Chicago and is currently a six-year mental-health professional and
behavioral aid at Chicago Therapeutic Services. The impact of art, partnered
with mentorship, has transformed Round’s life. After meeting playwright J.
Nicole Brooks, Round made his theatre acting debut in 2020 at Lookingglass
Theatre Company in their acclaimed play Her Honor Jane Byrne. Round
would go on to win Black Theatre Alliance’s “Most Promising Actor” Award for
his performance as Kid and Tral in the play. In January 2022, Round starred in
his first short film, an adaptation of his play Broke Down Drone,
directed by Emmy Award-winning director Marquis Simmons. Round also performed in
the remount of Congo Square Theatre’s Jeff Award-winning play What to Send
Up When It Goes Down. In December 2022, Round won an Emmy Award for
co-creating and co-producing The Lost Story of Emmett Till: Trial in the
Delta for Collaboraction and NBC.
