Matthew Paul Olmos
Matthew Paul Olmos is a Mexican-American playwright who focuses his work on the creation of space for marginalized and underrepresented communities. While always personal, his work is aimed at reaching across sociopolitical boundaries, showing the ridiculous of how separate our lives, and illuminating a potential hope for future generations.
He is a three-time Sundance Institute Fellowship/Residency recipient, Actors’ Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival Commissioned Playwright, New Dramatists Resident Playwright, Drama League nominee, Center Theatre Group LA Playwright Workshop Writer, Geffen Playhouse Writers Room Playwright, Ingram New Works at Nashville Repertory, Oregon Shakespeare Festival Black Swan Lab Playwright, inaugural Primary Stages Creative Development Grantee, Princess Grace Awardee in Playwriting, Arizona Theatre Company’s National Latino Playwriting Awardee, two-time Ojai Playwrights Conference playwright, Repertorio Español Miranda Family Nuestra Voces Playwriting Awardee, inaugural Yale Drama Series Short List playwright, Cherry Lane Mentor Project playwright as chosen by Taylor Mac, and La MaMa e.t.c.'s Ellen Stewart Emerging Playwright Awardee as selected by Sam Shepard.
He spent two years as a Mabou Mines/SUITE Resident Artist being mentored by Ruth Maleczech and is a former New York Theatre Workshop's Emerging Artist Fellow, Baryshnikov Arts Center Artist in Residence, Dramatists Guild Fellow, Humanitas Play LA Workshop Playwright, Primary Stages' Dorothy Strelsin New American Writer, Brooklyn Arts Exchange Resident Artist, INTAR H.P.R.L Playwright, Rising Circle Collective Playwright, terraNOVA Collective's Groundbreakers Playwright; he is also an Echo Theater Company Resident Playwright, a proud Kilroys nominator, Echo Theatre Resident Playwright, and an Ensemble Studio Theater lifetime member.
His work has been presented both nationally and internationally, taught in university, and is published by Concord Theatricals/Samuel French and NoPassport Press. He is a proud three-time Kilroys nominator.
He is currently developing a play with music inspired by Samantha Power’s “The Education of An Idealist” for Geffen Playhouse’s Writers Room and Theatre For One’s Solo Collective; and a new play, for Primary Stages’ Creative Development Grant and Nashville Rep, inspired by Mendez v. Westminster, about the building of Mexican schools as part of segregation. He is currently adapting his most recent play a home what howls (or the house what was ravine) into an opera. He developed a feature with Andrew Lauren Productions and is developing a screenplay inspired by his play That Drive Thru Monterey. www.matthewpaulolmos.com.