Bio

DON CUMMINGS is known for his fearless and humorous writing in books, essays, theatre and film. His love-sex-and-health memoir, Bent But Not Broken, is published by Heliotrope Books. It received fine praise from Kirkus Reviews. Cummings’ skills as a writer are apparent from the beginning. His prose is effortlessly clever, finding the entertaining medium between lyricism and sass. He has had short stories published in Rain Taxi, Epiphany, and Cagibi. He often performs his personal essays at venues such as Comedy Central’s Sit ‘n Spin, HBO Workspace, Largo, Brooklyn Reading Works, Tell It!, Personal Space and True Story.

 

His many plays have been produced on both coasts: The Water Tribe was co-produced by Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA with VS. Theatre Company and published by Original Works. A Good Smoke was a semifinalist for the Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference, had a reading at The Public Theater, directed by Pam MacKinnon, with Meryl Streep, Debra Monk, Henry Wolfe, and Grace Gummer, and was optioned for Broadway. The Fat of the Land was a semifinalist for the Kaufman & Hart Award for New American Comedy and was published in The Coachella Review. Piss Play is About Minorities So It’s Really Important, was produced as part of The New York Cringe Festival where it received the Golden Pineapple Award for best play. The Winner was a finalist for The Heideman Award at the Actors Theater of Louisville and was published in Post Road Magazine. His plays American Air, Stark Raving Mad, Loose Joints and Feed the Children! have been produced in Los Angeles. Box, a short film starring Mink Stole and Lou Liberatore, was an official selection of the Toronto Independent Film Festival, Dam Short Film Festival, New Filmmakers New York Festival, Twin Rivers Media Festival, and was distributed by Shorts International. Oh the Horror!, a graphic novel about zombies, is now live on Instagram and Tumblr @ohthehorrorla.

 

Don Cummings has appeared on television—most famously as someone’s favorite snarky waiter on Dharma & Greg—and in film, but more frequently on stage, having acted in over two hundred plays. A graduate of Tufts University with a degree in biology and the two-year acting program at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, he spends his days writing, reading, composing music, and helping other writers. He lives in Los Angeles with his husband and poodle while adhering to Hawaii’s time zone.  www.doncummings.net