--- --- Sep 30, 2025 # Sanaz Toossi by Lynn Nottage  Jonathan George I live for those incomparable moments when you encounter the work of an artist who opens a door to reveal a fresh perspective on the world. This transformative experience happened for me when I sat in the audience of Sanaz Toossi’s beautifully crafted, Pulitzer Prize–winning play _English,_ which debuted on Broadway in 2025, earning five Tony nominations, including Best Play. The play is immersive, provocative, and immensely moving; set in Iran, it follows a small group of individuals in an English-­language class, each searching for new forms of communication and, ultimately, liberation. Sanaz’s work poses profound questions about what it means to navigate and embrace different modes of expression, and how this shapes our identities. Within the play, there is both humor and genuine tenderness, qualities that permeate all of Sanaz’s work. These elements allow her to venture into difficult terrain, finding a delicate and beautiful balance between the personal and the political. Her curiosity and compassion make her a special writer and a keen observer of the world, and now, more than ever, we need voices like hers. _Nottage is a two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright_ Sanaz Toossi: TIME100 Next 2025 ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2025/7318806/sanaz-toossi/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2025/7318806/sanaz-toossi/"},"headline":"Sanaz Toossi","datePublished":"2025-09-30T10:45:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:54:42.530Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2025/7318806/sanaz-toossi/","keywords":["TIME100 Next","sponsorshipblock","t100nextinnovators25"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt09fca16b559a9dfe/6998ca0207a30d914777d584/t100-next-2025-sanaz-Toossi.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt09fca16b559a9dfe/6998ca0207a30d914777d584/t100-next-2025-sanaz-Toossi.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time100-next/","name":"TIME100 Next"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2025/7318806/sanaz-toossi/","name":"Sanaz Toossi"}}]}] ```