Black Actor Sues American Repertory Theater Over Alleged Hair Discrimination

Nike Imoru, a Black actor and casting director, sued the American Repertory Theater on Thursday, alleging race discrimination after she was permanently injured during rehearsals for a production last year.

The lawsuit claims Imoru suffered severe and lasting damage to her natural hair after a backstage employee — who was neither licensed nor hired as a hair technician — braided her hair using synthetic extensions. The filing alleges the braiding caused permanent hair loss, painful scalp damage, and subsequent emotional distress, including depression and panic attacks.

Imoru argues that the A.R.T., a Harvard-affiliated theater, violated state nondiscrimination law — including protections against hair discrimination — as well as its own public anti-racism commitments.

Under Imoru’s contract, the theater was required to provide a licensed and qualified hairstylist in compliance with a 2022 state law prohibiting discrimination against natural and protective hairstyles. The contract also required the A.R.T. to provide a list of local hairstylists if she were asked to change her hair.

Imoru arrived at the theater last January wearing box braids. According to the suit, the production’s costume designer asked her to switch to cornrows to align with the show’s “artistic vision.” She was performing in the A.R.T.’s production of The Odyssey, which ran from Feb. 18 to March 16, 2025.

Rather than hiring a licensed stylist, the suit alleges that the production’s hair and wig designer — a white woman who was licensed — recommended that a Black backstage employee do Imoru’s hair. On Jan. 21, the employee braided Imoru’s hair into cornrows with synthetic hair woven in. The filing states the style looked poor and caused intense pain, particularly at the nape of her neck.

Two weeks later, her hair was redone using coiled extensions meant to improve the look. But the cornrows remained too tight and began twisting sideways, according to the complaint.

“The pressure from the coiled extensions was so intense that it caused red welts on Ms. Imoru’s scalp. The pain made it impossible for her to sleep laying down,” lawyers for Imoru wrote in the Thursday filing.

Imoru said the physical injury was compounded by severe psychological effects, including panic attacks in the months that followed.

“I lost all sense of who I was. I spent many hours when I wasn’t on stage — this was in Cambridge — simply staring at a blank wall, unable to comprehend what has happened to my body,” she said in a Thursday interview.

Two months later Imoru received a scalp biopsy that showed that she was “unlikely” to achieve her preinjury hair density or length, according to the filing.

Imoru later decided to pursue Keralase treatment, which the suit described as a painful and expensive laser treatment meant to restimulate hair growth. She sought financial support from A.R.T. for the treatment and they agreed to provide support for four months, ending last June.

Imoru’s hiring contract also required the A.R.T. to provide her with a list of hairstylists in the area if she was asked to change her hair, which she alleged was never received. During the production, a white actor was also asked to change her hair color, and was recommended a salon that A.R.T. has worked with for two decades, according to the suit.

The A.R.T did not respond to a request for comment.

In a Thursday interview, Imoru said the experience had a “cataclysmic” impact on her life and led her to retire from acting after completing her current production.

“It’s impossible to explain what it’s like to lose every day a part of your body,” she said. “Part of my cultural identity, my physiology — it was impossible for me to comprehend.”

The lawsuit, filed in Middlesex Superior Court, seeks a jury trial on a claim of racial discrimination. It follows an earlier complaint Imoru filed with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination last September, six months after the production ended. She withdrew that complaint upon filing the lawsuit.

“If my silence was protecting the institution, it wasn’t going to protect black actors, and given what I’ve been through, I want to ensure that this never happens to anyone again,” she said.

The suit is not the first time the A.R.T. has faced allegations of racial discrimination. In 2014, Black actor Griffin Matthews accused director Diane M. Paulus of racist behavior during the production of Witness Uganda. Paulus later issued a public apology, acknowledging that accountability was “paramount.”

The theater lists anti-racism among its core values and commissioned an external report in 2020 following Black Lives Matter protests. That report found that “many Black and other employees of color have not experienced the safe haven that the A.R.T. is supposed to facilitate.”

“Clear contractual safeguards were there to prevent exactly this type of injury, and the injury happened nevertheless,” Imoru said. “The injury is permanent. No one should be harmed simply for going to work.”

—Staff writer Claire A. Michal can be reached at [email protected].

—Staff writer Thamini Vijeyasingam can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @vijeyasingam.