V (formerly Eve Ensler) is an American feminist playwright, performer, and activist. Raised in Scarsdale, New York, in a Jewish family, she adopted the single name “V” in 2019 to reject her paternal surname and embrace a non-binary identity.
V is best known for her 1996 episodic play “The Vagina Monologues,” which addressed body image, sexual violence, and female empowerment. The success of the play led to the establishment of V-Day in 1998, a global non-profit movement that funds shelters, crisis centers, and anti-violence initiatives, as well as the One Billion Rising campaign launched in 2012. In 2011, she received the Isabelle Stevenson Award at the 65th Tony Awards for her humanitarian work regarding violence against women.
V frames opposition to state military aggression and occupation as an extension of anti-violence feminism. She has traveled to the West Bank and Gaza on multiple occasions to document the conditions of Palestinian women under occupation, organizing material support and funding through V-Day for local Palestinian women’s advocacy groups and art-based trauma healing projects in Ramallah and Gaza.
V is one of the signatories of the 2025 public statement, “Global Jewish Call on the UN and World Leaders to Sanction Israel,” which urged international institutions and governments to impose arms embargoes, diplomatic sanctions, and legal measures against Israel over its actions in the Occupied Territories.