Kara Young to Replace Samira Wiley in PROOF on Broadway
Young will play ‘Claire, joining Ayo Edibri and Don Cheadle.
Two-time Tony Award winner Kara Young will join the cast of the first ever Broadway revival of David Auburn’s Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning play Proof, directed by Tony Award winner Thomas Kail. Emmy and SAG Award winner Samira Wiley, who was previously announced to play ‘Claire,’ is withdrawing from Proof, with the production’s complete support and well wishes, due to a treatable medical condition that calls for her full attention.
Young will play ‘Claire, joining Emmy, SAG, and Golden Globe Award winner Ayo Edebiri, Academy Award nominee, two-time Golden Globe Award winner, and 11-time Emmy Award nominee Don Cheadle, and Grammy Award nominee Jin Ha in the strictly limited 16-week engagement which will play Broadway’s Booth Theatre. Preview performances for Proof begin Tuesday, March 31, ahead of a Thursday, April 16 opening night.
Young was most recently seen Off-Broadway in Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries. Last year, she made Broadway history by being the first Black performer to win two consecutive Tony Awards for Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Purpose (2025) and Ossie Davis’ Purlie Victorious (2024). This year, Young will also star in the film adaptation of Alesha Harris’ Is God Is and appear in Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters which also features her Proof co-star Cheadle. In addition to her two Tony Awards and record setting four consecutive Tony nominations for Best Featured Actress in a Play, Young has won two Drama Desk Awards, an Outer Critics Circle Award, an OBIE, a Lucille Lortel Award, and an AUDELCO Award.
In Proof, Catherine (Edebiri), the brilliant but restless daughter of renowned mathematics professor Robert (Cheadle), is thrust into turmoil when a notebook containing a revelatory Proof is discovered after his death. As debate erupts over its true authorship, Catherine must confront the power of legacy, and the cost of proving herself.
