Tori Sampson

Last updated
Tori Sampson
Born20th century
Education Ball State University (BS)
Yale School of Drama (MFA)
Occupation Dramatist

Tori Sampson (born 20th century) is an African-American screenwriter and playwright. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Early life and education

Born in Boston, Sampson moved to North Carolina with her family as a child. Her mother, Wanda Louise Thompson, raised Tori and her two sisters with values she learned through exposure to the Black power movement during her own childhood. [1]

At age 14, one year after the death of her mother, Sampson and her twin sister were sent to a boarding school in Mississippi. [1]

Sampson attended Ball State University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in sociology. She later graduated from the Yale School of Drama, where she studied playwriting. [2]

Career

Shortly after graduating from Yale, Sampson was awarded a 2017–2018 Jerome Fellowship from The Playwrights' Center and a 2018–2019 McKnight Fellowship. [2]

Sampson's debut play, If Pretty Hurts, Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka, premiered in 2019 at Playwrights Horizons in New York City. [4] That same year, her play Cadillac Crew was performed at the Yale Repertory Theatre. [5]

Between 2020 and 2022, Sampson hosted an interview series for Wealthsimple titled "Friends With Money". [6]

In 2021, she wrote an episode of the 2021 Amazon Prime Video miniseries Solos . [2]

Sampson served as a writer on three series that aired in 2023, the Amazon Prime Video programs Citadel and Hunters as well as the Showtime series Three Women . [2] Her play This Land Was Made debuted at the Vineyard Theater in New York City that year. [1]

List of works

Theatre

YearTitleVenueRef.
2019If Pretty Hurts, Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka Playwrights Horizons [4]
Cadillac Crew Yale Repertory Theatre [5]
2023This Land Was Made Vineyard Theatre [1]

Television

YearTitleNotesRef.
2021 Solos 1 episode [2]
2023 Citadel [2]
Hunters 8 episodes [2]
Three Women 2 episodes [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phylicia Rashad</span> American actress (born 1948)

Phylicia Rashad is an American actress. She was most recently dean of the College of Fine Arts at Howard University before her three year contract ended in May 2024. She is best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the sitcom The Cosby Show (1984–1992) which earned her two Primetime Emmy Award nominations in 1985 and 1986. She also played Ruth Lucas on Cosby (1996–2000).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Deavere Smith</span> African-American actress and playwright (born 1950)

Anna Deavere Smith is an American actress, playwright, and professor. She is known for her roles as National Security Advisor Dr. Nancy McNally in The West Wing (2000–06), hospital administrator Gloria Akalitus in the Showtime series Nurse Jackie (2009–15), and as U.S. District Court Clerk Tina Krissman on the ABC show For the People (2018–19).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tonya Pinkins</span> American actress

Tonya Pinkins is an American actress and filmmaker. Her award-winning debut feature film Red Pill was an official selection at the 2021 Pan African Film Festival, won the Best Black Lives Matter Feature and Best First Feature at The Mykonos International Film Festival, Best First Feature at the Luléa Film Festival, and is nominated for awards in numerous festivals around the globe. Her web-series The Red Pilling of America can be heard on her podcast "You Can't Say That!" at BPN.fm/ycst

Eliza Clark is an American actress and writer. She is the older sister of Spencer Treat Clark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamish Linklater</span> American actor (born 1976)

Hamish Linklater is an American actor and playwright. He is known for playing Matthew Kimble in The New Adventures of Old Christine (2006–2010), Andrew Keanelly in The Crazy Ones (2013–2014), and Clark Debussy in Legion (2017–2019). He is the son of dramatic vocal trainer Kristin Linklater. In 2021, he starred as Father Paul in the horror miniseries Midnight Mass, for which he received high critical acclaim.

Adrienne Kennedy is an American playwright. She is best known for Funnyhouse of a Negro, which premiered in 1964 and won an Obie Award. She won a lifetime Obie as well. In 2018 she was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tarell Alvin McCraney</span> American playwright

Tarell Alvin McCraney is an American playwright. He is the chair of playwriting at the Yale School of Drama and a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Ensemble.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marin Ireland</span> American actress

Marin Ireland is an American actress. Known for her work in theatre and independent films, The New York Times deemed Ireland "one of the great drama queens of the New York stage". She has received nominations for an Independent Spirit Award and a Tony Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katori Hall</span> American playwright (born 1981)

Katori Hall is an American playwright, screenwriter, producer, actress, and director from Memphis, Tennessee. Hall's best known works include the hit television series P-Valley, the Tony-nominated Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, and plays such as Hurt Village, Our Lady of Kibeho, Children of Killers, The Mountaintop, and The Hot Wing King, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tracey Scott Wilson</span> American dramatist

Tracey Scott Wilson is an American playwright, television writer, television producer, and screenwriter. She graduated from Rutgers University with a BA in English and from Temple University with an MA in English Literature.

Melissa James Gibson is a Canadian-born playwright based in New York.

Jordan Harrison is an American playwright. He grew up on Bainbridge Island, Washington. His play Marjorie Prime was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Marcus Gardley is an American poet, playwright and screenwriter from West Oakland, California. He is an ensemble member playwright at Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago and an assistant professor of Theater and Performance Studies at Brown University.

Ina Norris is an American playwright, poet, producer, mentor, and educator. She lives in The Bronx, New York. Her first play Nobody Loves a Black Little Girl When She Becomes A Woman, was an examination of the experiences of a Black woman.

Antoinette Nwandu is an American playwright based in New York.

Charise Castro Smith is an American playwright, actress, screenwriter, producer, and director. She is best known for co-writing and co-directing the Disney animated film Encanto (2021).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leah Nanako Winkler</span> American dramatist

Leah Nanako Winkler is a Japanese-born American playwright currently living in New York City. Her play God Said This won the 2018 Yale Drama Series Prize. Her play, Two Mile Hollow, recently won the Francesca Primus Prize. She is a recipient of a 2020 Steinberg Prize in Distinguished Playwrighting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeremy O. Harris</span> American playwright and actor (born 1989)

Jeremy O. Harris is an American playwright, actor, and philanthropist. Harris gained prominence for his 2018 Slave Play, which received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Play. Harris is also known for his work in film and television. He produced and co-wrote the A24 film Zola (2021), for which he received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay. He acted in the HBO Max series Gossip Girl (2021), the Netflix series Emily in Paris (2022), and in the film The Sweet East (2023).

Janine Nabers is an American playwright and television writer.

Antoinette Crowe-Legacy is an American actress best known for her role as Elise Johnson, the daughter of Bumpy Johnson, in the Epix series Godfather of Harlem.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Kumar, Naveen (2 June 2023). "For Her New Play, Tori Sampson Revisited Her 'Black Power Household'". The New York Times . Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "About". Tori Sampson. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  3. Cox, Gordon (17 June 2023). "How One Striking TV Writer Has Kept Busy in Theater". Variety . Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  4. 1 2 Green, Jesse (10 March 2019). "Review: Beauty, Blackness and Beyoncé, in 'If Pretty Hurts'". The New York Times . Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  5. 1 2 Green, Jesse (6 May 2019). "Review: In 'Cadillac Crew,' a Road Trip Through Racism and Erasure". The New York Times . Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  6. "Articles by Tori Sampson". MuckRack . Retrieved 5 June 2024.