TORI KEENAN-ZELT is an award-winning playwright who also writes for the screen. Originally from Pittsburgh, she has written her way out of an evangelical childhood and two young marriages. Her work uses the interplay of humor and horror to illuminate the dark corners of women's lives that often go unseen.

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Her plays include How the Baby Died (Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Ingram New Works); Seph (Araca Project, Princess Grace Finalist, Fresh Ground Pepper); Air Space (Kilroys List, Ingram New Works); Truth/Dare (Project Y, NYITA Nominee, Best Ensemble Pgh Fringe, Best Live Performance—Nashville Scene); The Egypt Play (Playwrights Center); Episode #121: Catfight! (Yale Cabaret), and others. Affiliations: New Georges, National New Play Network, Dramatists Guild, Playwrights Center. 

 

Tori holds a BA from Harvard and an MFA from NYU Tisch. She has written for Colonial Williamsburg’s PBS series, for which she received an Emmy nomination, and her award-winning one-act play How to Be a Widow aired on Playing on Air (NPR).

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Currently, The JonBenét Game (SF Playhouse Commission) is receiving a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere at American Lives Theatre, Unicorn Theatre, and Theatre Nova. Tori is developing a feature film and a new play (The Permanent Collection) with Elinor T Vanderburg and Portia Krieger with support from New Georges.

 

Tori lives in Brooklyn and Nashville with her partner and grows work around the country. ​​