Tori  Sampson (she/her) is a native of Boston, MA is proud to be from “The City of Champions” and even prouder to be a human rights activist and Black Woman storyteller.  By introducing her daughter to the genius that was Carroll O’Connor, Tori’s mother opened her eyes to the art and power of comedy for “goodness sake”. And it was on and poppin’ from there. Today, Tori focuses her imagination on creating comedies for the stage. Current role at WAM Theatre: playwright (Cadillac Crew) Plays: If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must be a Muhfucka (Playwrights Horizons, 2019), This Land Was Made (Vineyard Theater 2018) Cadillac Crew (Premiered at Yale Repertory Theatre 2019) Some Bodies Travel (co-written with Jireh Breon Holder) and Where Butterflies go in the Winter. Her plays have been developed at Great Plains National Theater Conference, Berkeley Repertory Theater’s The Ground Floor residency program, Victory Garden’s IGNITION festival and UBUNTU theater.  Awards: Tori is a 2017–18 Playwright’s Center Jerome Fellow and a 2018-19 Mcknight Fellow. Two of her plays appeared on the 2017 Kilroys List. Her awards and honors include the 2016 Relentless Award, Honorable Mention; the 2016 Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting from The Kennedy Center; the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, Second Place; the Alliance Theater’s 2017 Kendeda Prize, Finalist; the 2018 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Finalist. TV/Film: Tori was most recently staffed on Three Women for Showtime. Prior to that, she was in the room of the Amazon series Hunters and wrote an episode for the Amazon anthology Solos. She is currently developing a drama at Amazon with Anonymous Content and Drake producing, co-creating an adaptation of the novel The Secret Lives of Church Ladies for HBO Max, and previously wrote a comedy for HBO with Issa Rae producing. In addition, she is writing the Chris Paul biopic for Disney. Education: Tori holds a BS in sociology from Ball State University and an MFA in playwriting from Yale School of Drama. Connect: www.torisampson.com