ALI MacLEAN

Ali MacLean is an award-winning writer, director, actor, and mental health advocate in Los Angeles.

Ali is a graduate of the Miami University Actor’s Program, the LaJolla Playhouse Conservatory, and Frantic Assembly UK.

Ali is the winner of the John Gassner Playwriting Award (She’s Not There), the Julie Harris Playwriting Award (Wolves At The Door), TRU Voices Competition (Final Resting Place), SheLA Arts Best Play (She’s Not There), the ICWP Amy Oestreicher Award, and a Radford Studios-Vizability Visionary Award.

She’s placed in over 60 competitions including: SheNYCArts, O’Neill, Ojai, New American Voices, Orchard Project, Mazdumar Prize, Kitchen Dog, Pegasus, Space Ryder, and Lincoln Center Music Theater AACR.  She’s finaled at O’Neill, Ojai, Moxie, Pegasus, Kitchen Dog, New American Voices, Orchard Project, Garry Marshall, Parity Commission, Women’s Playwriting UK, etc.

She participated in the 24 Hour Plays Viral Monologues alongside Kenneth Lonergan and Matthew Broderick, writing for Broadway star Kerry Butler.  

Her rock-n-roll Greek tragedy, This Will Be Our Year, was named number one of NPX’s Top Ten Unproduced Musicals. And her short musical, Call Waiting, was performed at Lincoln Center

Her work has also been developed at: The Road, Theatre 40, Playwrights Realm, Dramatists Guild Footlights, The Zephyr Theater, EST/LA, Antaeus, 24 Hour Plays, Arcola UK, White Bear UK, The Tank NYC, ANDTheatre, Summer Salt, Lincoln Center, Citadel of Playwrights (Resident Artist), Theater Resources Unlimited, Warner Theater, Mind The Gap, the Lyric Hyperion, Comedy Central Stages, HBO Workspace, Largo at the Coronet Theatre, the Naked Angels Theatre Group, and The Colony Theater.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ali has been nominated for Broadway World and MethodFest Awards as Best Actor, Play, and Director. She’s won and screened at several festivals, including Atlanta, Toronto, Palm Springs, Slamdance, Gen Art.

Ali’s short story “The Land of Soy Milk and Honey” was the winner of the David Sedaris Humor Writing Prize.

Ali is a Coverfly-Endorsed Screenwriter (with two projects in the Top 2%), Women In Film Mentee, and has had fellowships from Writers For Writers, Stowe StoryLabs, RespectAbility, Sidewalk Film Festival, BlackMagic Writer’s Collective, and 1in4 Coalition.

She has been awarded three grants from the California Coalition of the Arts, and the ICWP Amy Ostreicher grant.                    Her screenplays have placed at ScriptLab, Chesterfield, Scriptapalooza,  Outstanding Screenplays, WeScreenplay, Orchard Project, Chesterfield, LAIFF, Sidewalk Film Festival, Screencraft, and Table Read My Screenplay. 

TV Credits include MTV, VH-1, FOX, Showtime, Pop TV. Her on-air radio credits include Indie 103.1, Sirius XM, and Little Radio. 

She has been published by: Nation Books, Applause Books, and Smith & Kraus Books.

Ali is an advocate for several non-profits, including Peace Over Violence, Everytown, RespectAbility, and more.

She is a Talent Ambassador for MTV’s Mental Health Action Day, and created Monumental Artists, a collective to support theater artists with mental health, neurodivergence, or traumatic brain injuries.

Ali is a member of EST/LA, The Colony Theater Lab,  The Honor Roll, the Sundance Collective, Greenlight Women, the Dramatists Guild, and the Pet Co Rewards Program.