Ali maclean

Ali MacLean is an award-winning playwright, director, and actor. A graduate of Miami University and the LaJolla Playhouse Conservatory, her play She’s Not There won the 2018 John Gassner Award, amongst others, and was named 2019 Best Production by She NYC Arts. She was nominated for a Broadway World Directing Award for the same play. Her play Wolves At The Door won the Julie Harris playwriting award, was a finalist for the O’Neill National Playwright’s Conference, and was presented at the Road Theatre’s series The Word. Her play This Will Be Our Year was performed at the virtual 2020 SHE NYC Arts Festival and is nominated for a Broadway World Best Virtual Performance award. Ali is a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Playwrights Unit, Antaeus Theatre’s Playwrights Lab, and the Dramatists Guild. Her new work, Sullen Girl, is being workshopped by the Sundance Collective Kitchen. You can find her monologues published in an anthology by Applause books due out in 2021.

Ali’s screenplays have been a Chesterfield Writer’s Project semi-finalist, a Scriptapalooza semi-finalist, and WeScreenplay finalist. Ali won the 2018 Writers For Writers fellowship and the 2015 Women In Film Mentorship. Her dark comedy pilot Lady Killer was an Orchard Project Episodic Lab finalist and a WeScreenplay Diverse Voices finalist. This year Ali won the 2020 David Sedaris Humor Writing Prize. She is a member of the Imagine Entertainment Creative Network.

As an actor, Ali was nominated for a Method Fest Best Actress award and has worked on comedies including The Jimmy Kimmel Show, HBO’s Mr. Show, and the Green Room. She also created and starred in the popular web series Law Of The Land for the David Cross and Syd Butler company FKR TV.

Ali writes for the POP TV series Hollywood Darlings and teaches playwriting in Los Angeles.

WEBSITE and SOCIAL MEDIA
https://alimaclean.com/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/alimaclean
TW/IG: @aliontheair

MORE ABOUT ME
My most gratifying moment was after a reading of my play She's Not There at the New England Theater Conference. I had several people come up to me and tell me that I accurately captured what it was like inside their head when they were going through a bout of depression. They felt that I articulated the feelings they couldn't put into words, and said it made them feel less alone. After a performance of the same play in LA, I had a talkback with a representative from Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services and NAMI who spoke on how to help those with mental illnesses and suicidal ideation. The group therapy session that happened in the theater that night was beautiful.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I am workshopping my new play called Sullen Girl, about the ramifications of child abuse. I'm also working on a ten-minute play.

KEYWORDS
Drama, Comedy, Dramedy, political, period, violence, toxic love, relationships, mass shooting, misogyny, horror, thriller, family dynamic, romance, suicide, substance abuse, sexual assault, mental illness.