Discover the Best Books Written by V

V, formerly Eve Ensler, is an American playwright, performer, feminist, and activist. V is best known for her play The Vagina Monologues. In 2006 Charles Isherwood of The New York Times called The Vagina Monologues "probably the most important piece of political theater of the last decade."

In 2011, V was awarded the Isabelle Stevenson Award at the 65th Tony Awards, which recognizes an individual from the theater community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of humanitarian, social service, or charitable organizations. V was given this award for creating the non-profit V-Day movement, which raises money and educates the public about violence against women and efforts to stop it.

V was born in New York City, the second of three children of Arthur Ensler, an executive in the food industry, and Chris Ensler. She was raised in the northern suburb of Scarsdale. Her father was Jewish, her mother was Christian, and she grew up in a predominantly Jewish community;[9] however, V identifies herself as a Nichiren Buddhist and says that her spiritual practice includes chanting Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō and doing yoga.

V says that from age five to ten, she was sexually and physically abused by her father. Growing up, she said she was "unfortunate, angry, and defiant. I was the girl with dirty hair. I didn't fit anywhere."

V attended Middlebury College in Vermont, where she became known as a militant feminist. After graduating in 1975, she had a string of abusive relationships and became dependent on drugs and alcohol. In 1978, she married Richard Dylan McDermott, a 34-year-old bartender, who convinced her to enter rehab. When she was 23, she adopted Mark Anthony McDermott, her husband's 16-year-old son from his first marriage.

Their relationship came to be a close one, and V said that it taught her "how to be a loving human being". After V suffered a miscarriage, Mark took the name she had planned for her baby, Dylan. V and Dylan's father separated in 1988, the former citing that she "needed the independence, the freedom." 

According to a 2012 article in the Sydney Morning Herald, "After her marriage ended, she had a long relationship with the artist and psychotherapist Ariel Orr Jordan but is single now, which seems to suit her nomadic lifestyle – she has homes in New York and Paris but travels much of the year." A June 2010 article by V in The Guardian said she was receiving uterine cancer treatment. V wrote about her experience with cancer in her memoir, In The Body of the World.

V is an activist addressing issues of violence against women and girls. In 1998, her experience performing The Vagina Monologues inspired her to create V-Day, a global activist movement to stop violence against women and girls. V-Day raises funds and awareness through annual benefit productions of The Vagina Monologues. In 2010, more than 5,400 V-Day events took place in over 1,500 locations in the U.S. and around the world.

As of 2014, the V-Day movement had raised over $100 million and educated millions about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it, crafted international educational, media, and PSA campaigns, launched the Karama program in the Middle East, reopened shelters, and funded over 12,000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt, and Iraq. These safe houses protect women from abuse, female genital mutilation, and 'honor' killing. The 'V' in V-Day stands for Victory, Valentine, and Vagina.