Full Name
Jose Antonio Vargas
Job Title
Media/Comms Strategist + President of Define American
Company
Undocumented LLC
Speaker Bio
Jose Antonio Vargas is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Emmy-nominated filmmaker, and Tony-nominated theatrical producer.
A leading voice for the human rights of immigrants, he founded the non-profit immigrant storytelling organization Define American, twice named one of the World's Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company, and explores all facets of immigration as host of its YouTube show and podcast Define American with Jose Antonio Vargas. He is also a co-founder of 1587 Sneakers, the world's first Asian American sneaker brand.
His best-selling memoir, Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen, was published by HarperCollins in 2018. His second book, White Is Not a Country, an examination of America's foundational Black and White racial binary, and where everyone else fits within and outside that binary, will be published by Knopf Doubleday in 2025.
In 2019, he co-produced Heidi Schreck's acclaimed Broadway play What the Constitution Means to Me, which was nominated for a Tony Award for "Best Play" and is streamable on Amazon Prime Video. His second Broadway production, a staging of David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's musical Here Lies Love, played at the Broadway Theatre in 2023.
In 2011, the New York Times Magazine published a groundbreaking essay he wrote in which he revealed and chronicled his life in America as an undocumented immigrant. A year later, he appeared on the cover of TIME worldwide with fellow undocumented immigrants as part of a follow-up cover story he wrote. He then produced and directed Documented, a documentary feature film on his undocumented experience. Released theatrically, broadcast on CNN, and streamed on Netflix, it received a 2015 NAACP Image Award nomination for "Outstanding Documentary." Also in 2015, MTV aired White People, an Emmy-nominated television special he produced and directed on what it means to be young and white in a demographically-changing America.
Accolades he has received include the Freedom to Write Award from PEN Center USA, and honorary degrees from Emerson College, Colby College
A leading voice for the human rights of immigrants, he founded the non-profit immigrant storytelling organization Define American, twice named one of the World's Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company, and explores all facets of immigration as host of its YouTube show and podcast Define American with Jose Antonio Vargas. He is also a co-founder of 1587 Sneakers, the world's first Asian American sneaker brand.
His best-selling memoir, Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen, was published by HarperCollins in 2018. His second book, White Is Not a Country, an examination of America's foundational Black and White racial binary, and where everyone else fits within and outside that binary, will be published by Knopf Doubleday in 2025.
In 2019, he co-produced Heidi Schreck's acclaimed Broadway play What the Constitution Means to Me, which was nominated for a Tony Award for "Best Play" and is streamable on Amazon Prime Video. His second Broadway production, a staging of David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's musical Here Lies Love, played at the Broadway Theatre in 2023.
In 2011, the New York Times Magazine published a groundbreaking essay he wrote in which he revealed and chronicled his life in America as an undocumented immigrant. A year later, he appeared on the cover of TIME worldwide with fellow undocumented immigrants as part of a follow-up cover story he wrote. He then produced and directed Documented, a documentary feature film on his undocumented experience. Released theatrically, broadcast on CNN, and streamed on Netflix, it received a 2015 NAACP Image Award nomination for "Outstanding Documentary." Also in 2015, MTV aired White People, an Emmy-nominated television special he produced and directed on what it means to be young and white in a demographically-changing America.
Accolades he has received include the Freedom to Write Award from PEN Center USA, and honorary degrees from Emerson College, Colby College
Speaking At
