Samuel D. Hunter is an American playwright, screenwriter and director, who has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, an Obie Award, and six Tony Awards. He is known for his realistic portrayals of contemporary rural and small-town life in the United States. His plays often focus on the lives of people living in small towns and rural settings, seeking redemption through personal relationships and memorable moments.
Hunter’s scripts are characterized by their deft characterization of human relationships, their nonlinear narrative structures, and their wry humor. His works also feature vivid settings that serve to anchor the story while providing insight into the characters’ struggles and aspirations. Hunter’s themes often center around family dynamics, religion, mental health, sexuality, and coming-of-age experiences.
His works include “The Whale,” “A Bright New Boise,” “The Few,” “A Permanent Image,” “The Harvest,” “Rest” and many others which have been performed in theaters around the world. Hunter has created numerous new plays as part of commissions from prominent theater houses such as The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, The Humana Festival at Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, The Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, Signature Theatre in New York City, South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa California and Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago.
In addition to his work for the stage he has written for television shows such as “Parks & Rec” (NBC), “Masters of Sex” (Showtime), “Rectify” (Sundance) among others. His film credits include A Boy Called Po (2017), directed by John Asher with Laurence Fishburne; I’ll See You In My Dreams (2015) with Blythe Danner; I Smile Back (2015) with Sarah Silverman; A Walk Among The Tombstones (2014) with Liam Neeson; Touchy Feely (2013) with Rosemarie DeWitt; And Punching The Clown (2011) starring Henry Phillips to name a few.
Samuel D Hunter’s plays have been translated into multiple languages including French Spanish German Dutch Chinese Japanese Korean Hebrew Russian Polish Czech Slovak Estonian Swedish Norwegian Danish Lithuanian Hungarian Romanian Croatian Indonesian Malay Thai Vietnamese among others – making him one of America’s most produced contemporary playwrights internationally. In 2017 he was inducted into American Theater Hall of Fame alongside other celebrated figures like August Wilson Edward Albee Christopher Durang Stephen Sondheim among many others