a.k. payne wrights plays. They make art & theatre, freedom dream and theorize from the hills & valleys of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania—where her people have carved home since the early 20th century. Her plays love on Black pasts, presents and futures. They hold a B.A. in English and African-American Studies from Yale College & an MFA in Playwriting under Tarell Alvin McCraney from fka Yale School of Drama. 

Named one of Variety Magazine's Top Ten Storytellers to Watch, her work has been a 3x finalist and 2025 winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the oldest and largest international prize honoring women+ playwrights. Their work has been developed and workshopped broadly including: at the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, The New Harmony Project and Breaking The Binary Theatre Festival. Her work has been produced in theaters across the country in NYC (Off-Broadway), Atlanta (Alliance Theatre), Los Angeles (Geffen Playhouse) and beyond. They are currently the inaugural Artist in Residence at Pittsburgh’s City Theatre and part of National Black Theatre’s I AM SOUL Playwright Residency.

They are an alumna of an arts magnet public school; grandchild of the Great Migration; child of union members: a music teacher and a carpenter;  a nb/genderqueer abolitionist who loves to swim & gather people; and of a great lineage of Blackwomen storytellers and living-room archivists; all of which deeply informs, uplifts and amplifies their work as a playwright, community organizer and spacemaker.

Watercolor Painting by: Ali Dachis

from a photo by Nomè SiDone, 2021