Celia Keenan-Bolger To Receive Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award For Advocacy

Actor-singer Celia Keenan-Bolger will receive the 2025 Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award for what the Tony Administration Committee calls her “unwavering dedication to advocacy work through the arts.”

The Isabelle Stevenson Award is presented annually to a member of the theater community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of one or more humanitarian, social service or charitable organizations. Previous recipients include Billy Porter, Jerry Mitchell, Julie Halston, Judith Light, Nick Scandalios, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Stephen Schwartz, Larry Kramer, Rosie O’Donnell, Bernadette Peters, Eve Ensler, and David Hyde Pierce, among others.

Among Keenan-Bolger’s advocacy work cited by the committee: In 2008 she moved to Pennsylvania where she volunteered for months as a field organizer for the Obama campaign. Then in 2012 she co-founded Broadway For Obama, organizing events to phone bank, canvass and register voters. She served on the advisory board of Broadway Impact, which worked to advocate for same-sex-marriage rights throughout the country, as well as the Entertainment Community’s Looking Ahead Advisory Committee, and TDF’s Young Patron’s Committee. She is an “artist-ambassador” for the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), winning the first ever Michael Friedman Freedom Award in 2019 and currently serves on the New 42 Artists Council. 

At the onset of the Covid pandemic, Keenan-Bolger co-founded “Broadway Feeds Bellevue,” a meal train service for nurses working in the ravaged NYC public healthcare system. She also created and hosted the podcast “Sunday Pancakes,” conducting intimate, candid interviews with theater artists about the beauty and struggle of humanity, and what keeps them feeling connected during lockdown.

Alongside Gavin Creel, Keenan-Bolger created the Activist Artist Endowed Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarship support to students in the Department of Musical Theatre at the University of Michigan who are dedicated to service and social justice. 

Keenan-Bolger also serves as an end-of-life doula, providing counsel to those facing the end of their lives, as well as their families and loved ones. She “helped ease the transition for Creel and his family during his untimely passing last year.”

“Celia’s star shines far beyond the Broadway stages, illuminating her peers, passions and purposes with generosity of spirit, integrity and compassion,” said Heather Hitchens, President & CEO of the American Theatre Wing and Jason Laks, President of the Broadway League. “She is truly an inspiration, and we are thrilled to honor her with the Isabelle Stevenson Award.”

Keenan-Bolger portrayed Scout Finch in the Broadway play To Kill a Mockingbird (2018), which earned her a Tony Award. Most recently, she appeared in Paula Vogel’s Mother Play at the Helen Hayes Theater, opposite Jessica Lange. Keenan-Bolger was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play and won a Drama Desk Award Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play in this role.

Next up, Celia will appear in the AMC series Devil in Silver produced by Scott Free Productions. Film credits include M. Night Shaymalan’s The Visit, Diana and Breakable You. TV credits include Blue Bloods, NCIS: New Orleans, The Good Wife and Elementary, and she can most recently be seen on HBO Max’s The Gilded Age as Mrs. Bruce, for which she was nominated for a SAG Award.

The 78th Annual Tony Awards will air live from Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Sunday, June 8, 2025 (8:00 – 11:00 PM ET/5:00 – 8:00 PM PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ in the U.S.