Kushner'in doğumundan bir süre sonra ailesi, çocukluğunu geçireceği Lake Charles, Louisiana'ya taşındı. Lise yıllarına geldiğinde Kushner, politika ile oldukça ilgileniyordu. 1974'te ise Kushner, Columbia Üniversitesi'nde lisans öğrenimine başlamak için New York'a geri döndü.[10]
Yazarın Oyunları
The Age of Assassins, New York, Newfoundland Theatre, 1982.
La Fin de la Baleine: An Opera for the Apocalypse, New York, Ohio Theatre, 1983.
The Umbrella Oracle, Martha's Vineyard, The Yard, Inc..
Last Gasp at the Cataract, Martha's Vineyard, The Yard, Inc., 1984.
Yes, Yes, No, No: The Solace-of-Solstice, Apogee/Perigee, Bestial/Celestial Holiday Show, produced in St. Louis, Missouri, Imaginary Theatre Company, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, 1985, published in Plays in Process, 1987.
Stella (Johann Wolfgang von oyunundan uyarlandı Goethe), New York'ta yazıldı, 1987.
A Bright Room Called Day, produced in New York, Theatre 22, 22 April 1985; San Francisco, Eureka Theatre, October 1987; London, Bush Theatre, 1988), Broadway Play Publishing, 1991.
The Heavenly Theatre, produced at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, 1986.
In Great Eliza's Golden Time, produced in St. Louis, Missouri, Imaginary Theatre Company, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, 1986.
Hydriotaphia, produced in New York City, 1987 (based on the life on Sir Thomas Browne)
The Illusion (adapted from Pierre Corneille's play L'Illusion comique; produced in New York City, 1988, revised version produced in Hartford, CT, 1990), Broadway Play Publishing, 1991.
In That Day (Lives of the Prophets), New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, 1989.
(With Ariel Dorfman) Widows (adapted from a book by Ariel Dorfman), produced in Los Angeles, CA, 1991.
Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, Part Two: Perestroika, produced in New York City, 1992.
Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes (includes both parts), Theatre Communications Group (New York, NY), 1995.
Slavs! Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness, Theatre Communications Group, 1995.
Reverse Transcription: Six Playwrights Bury a Seventh, A Ten-Minute Play That's Nearly Twenty Minutes Long, Louisville, Humana Festival of New American Plays, Actors Theatre of Louisville, March 1996.
A Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds (adapted from Joachim Neugroschel's transation of the original play by S. Ansky; produced in New York City at the Joseph Papp Public Theater, 1997), Theatre Communications Group, 1997.
The Good Person of Szechuan (uyarlama Bertolt Brecht), Arcade, 1997.
(With Eric Bogosian and others) Love's Fire: Seven New Plays Inspired by Seven Shakespearean Sonnets, Morrow, 1998.
Terminating, or Lass Meine Schmerzen Nicht Verloren Sein, or Ambivalence, in Love's Fire, Minneapolis, Guthrie Theater Lab, 7 January 1998; New York: Joseph Papp Public Theater, 19 June 1998.
Henry Box Brown, or the Mirror of Slavery, Royal National Theare'da sergilendi, London, 1998.
Homebody/Kabul, first performed in New York City, 19 December 2001.
Caroline, or Change (musical), the Joseph Papp Public Theater'da ilk defa sergilendi, 2002.
(Director)Ellen McLaughlin, Helen, produced at the Joseph Papp Public Theater, 2002.
Only We Who Guard The Mystery Shall Be Unhappy, 2003.
A Meditation from Angels in America, HarperSan Francisco, 1994.
Thinking about the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness: Essays, a Play, Two Poems, and a Prayer, Theatre Communications Group (New York, NY), 1995.
David B. Feinberg, Queer and Loathing: Rants and Raves of a Raging AIDS Clone, introduction by Kushner (New York: Penguin, 1995).
David Wojnarowicz, The Waterfront Journals, edited by Amy Scholder, introduction by Kushner (New York: Grove, 1996).
"Three Screeds from Key West: For Larry Kramer," in We Must Love One Another or Die: The Life and Legacies of Larry Kramer, edited by Lawrence D. Mass (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997), pp. 191–199.
Moises Kaufman, Gross Indecency, afterword by Kushner (New York: Vintage, 1997), pp. 135–143.
Plays by Tony Kushner (New York: Broadway Play Publishing, 1999). Includes:
A Bright Room called Day
The Illusion
Slavs! Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness
Death & Taxes: Hydriotaphia, and Other Plays, Theatre Communications Group (New York, NY), 2000. Includes:
Reverse transcription
Hydriotaphia: or the Death of Dr. Browne, (adaptation of Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial (A fictitious, imaginary account of Sir Thomas Browne's character not based upon fact)
The Art of Maurice Sendak: 1980 to the Present, 2003
Save Your Democratic Soul!: Rants, Screeds, and Other Public Utterances
Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, with Alisa Solomon, Grove, 2003.
Diğer Çalışmaları
La Fin de la Baleine: An Opera for the Apocalypse, (opera) 1983
St. Cecilia or The Power of Music, (opera libretto based on Heinrich von Kleist's eighteenth-century story Die heilige Cäcilie oder Die Gewalt der Musik, Eine Legende)
Caroline or Change, (Müzikal)
Brundibar, (an opera in collaboration with Maurice Sendak)