Ali MacLean

Ali MacLean

Ali MacLean is an actor and writer in Los Angeles and a graduate of the Miami University actor’s program and the LaJolla Playhouse acting conservatory. She is the winner of the 2018 John Gassner Playwriting Award, a 2019 O'Neill Finalist, the 2019 She NYC Arts Best Production, the 2020 David Sedaris Writing Prize, and the 2020 Julie Harris Playwriting Award.

Her plays and writing have been...
Ali MacLean is an actor and writer in Los Angeles and a graduate of the Miami University actor’s program and the LaJolla Playhouse acting conservatory. She is the winner of the 2018 John Gassner Playwriting Award, a 2019 O'Neill Finalist, the 2019 She NYC Arts Best Production, the 2020 David Sedaris Writing Prize, and the 2020 Julie Harris Playwriting Award.

Her plays and writing have been workshopped at the Melrose Theater, (via the HBO Workspace), the Hudson Theatre (via Comedy Central Stages), the Lyric Hyperion, Largo at the Coronet Theatre, the Naked Angels Theatre Group, the White Bear Theatre (UK), The Arcola Theatre (UK), Rogue Machine Theatre, A Noise Within Theatre, Antaeus Theatre, Zephyr Theatre, and Ensemble Studio Theatre, ANDTheatre Company, The TANK NYC, The Playwrights Realm, and Dramatist Guild Footlights, and Summer Salt. In 2020, Ali participated in the 24-Hour Plays Viral Monologues alongside Kenneth Lonergan and Matthew Broderick.

Ali’s play She’s Not There received the 2018 John Gassner Playwriting Award was a finalist for the Scribe Marsha A. Croyle Award, Kitchen Dog Theatre, and Pegasus Playlabs, was named Best Production by She NYC Arts, and garnered her a Broadway World Best Directing nomination.
Her play Wolves At The Door won the Julie Harris Award and was a finalist in the 2019 O’Neill National Playwright’s Conference, Creed Repertory Festival, and New American Voices.
Ali recently workshopped the play This Will Be Our Year, the second in her trilogy based on Zombies songs, at EST, and at the Zephyr as part of SHE LA Arts. She is now collaborating with Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn on the musical version.
Her third of the Zombies trilogy, I’ll Call You Mine, was developed at the Summer Salt Playwrights Workshop in Chatham, MA, and The Cloud Factory. She also workshopped her play The Point at her second residency at Summer Salt and developed Sullen Girl with Antaeus Playwrights Lab and the Playwrights Realm. Her monologue Frozen Oranges was chosen from 6,500 entries to be a part of the MIND mental health charity fundraiser SLAMx show at the Arcola Theatre in London.

Ali is a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Playwrights Unit, Antaeus Theatre’s Playwrights Lab, The Cloud Factory, Citadel of Playwrights, The Honor Roll - an advocacy group of women+ playwrights over 40, Imagine Impact Creators Network, The Sundance Collective, and the Dramatists Guild.

Ali’s award-winning short films have screened at Atlanta, Toronto, Gen Art, and Palm Springs to name a few. She was selected for the Stowe Story Labs and is a Women in Film Mentor recipient, Writers For Writers Fellowship recipient, and a participant in the 2020 Respectability Entertainment Lab. Her scripts have been a WeScreenplay Diverse Voices finalist, Orchard Project Finalist, Chesterfield Writer’s Project semi-finalist, Los Angeles International Film Festival semi-finalist, a Scriptapalooza semi-finalist, a Screencraft semi-finalist, and a Script Lab semi-finalist. Ali was named the winner of the 2020 David Sedaris Humor Writing Prize. Her work is published by Nation Books, Applause Books, and Smith & Kraus.


Ali has written for networks such as MTV, VH-1, POP, and FOX. Ali worked on comedies including THE JIMMY KIMMEL SHOW, HBO’s MR. SHOW, and Showtime's THE GREEN ROOM. She recently was a writer for the television series, HOLLYWOOD DARLINGS, and HOT DATE on the Pop Network.

A Mental Health advocate, MacLean was named a Talent Ambassador for this year's MTV Mental Health Action Day. She is an alumnus of the RespectAbility Entertainment Lab and speaks on panels (National Endowment For The Arts, Roundabout Theatre, Hollywood Fringe Fest, Women In Film, RespectAbility, Kings Head Theater, etc.) about topics such as mental health in the arts, depression, inclusion, and disability.

Plays

  • She's Not There
    When Rob meets Anna, he thinks she’s the one. When Anna meets Rob, she thinks maybe she can finally be happy. But there is a third party in the relationship that may destroy their union. Every night a shadowy monster called The Form comes out of the walls of Anna's apartment and tries to kill her. What starts out as a meet-cute slowly descends into confusion and horror. This play personifies depression and...
    When Rob meets Anna, he thinks she’s the one. When Anna meets Rob, she thinks maybe she can finally be happy. But there is a third party in the relationship that may destroy their union. Every night a shadowy monster called The Form comes out of the walls of Anna's apartment and tries to kill her. What starts out as a meet-cute slowly descends into confusion and horror. This play personifies depression and explores how it can devastate a person and the lives of those around them.
  • Wolves At The Door
    Wolves At The Door, winner of the Julie Harris Award, is a story about a couple Grace and Gavin, who lost their daughter Lucy in a shooting where she was in the wrong place wrong time. The shooter, Marc, had returned to work to kill his co-worker in an ‘incel’ styled revenge plot. Lucy was at a dance class in the building next door and was collateral damage. While grieving, Grace is bombarded by a stream of...
    Wolves At The Door, winner of the Julie Harris Award, is a story about a couple Grace and Gavin, who lost their daughter Lucy in a shooting where she was in the wrong place wrong time. The shooter, Marc, had returned to work to kill his co-worker in an ‘incel’ styled revenge plot. Lucy was at a dance class in the building next door and was collateral damage. While grieving, Grace is bombarded by a stream of visitors, all who seem to want to exploit her in some manner. A Pastor wants her to convert and be the face of the ministry. A psychic wants her to connect with her daughter and be advertisement for her popular practice. A cop who was at the shooting wants absolution. Her ex-husband Mitch wants custody of half of his daughter’s ashes. Meanwhile Grace and Gavin grapple with the harassment of ‘hoaxers’ who don’t believe that Lucy is dead, and their own relationship woes, as one of them wants to heal and one isn’t ready to move on.

    The play flips back and forth in time from the past as we see what set Marc on his path and as he gears up to exact his plan, and the present with Grace trying to come to terms with the aftermath.
  • This Will Be Our Year
    Meet Hugo. Millions of girls want him. He could have any of them. But he wants Gen.
    Meet Gen. She’s not a people person. That is, until she meets a certain person. And she wants Hugo.
    Hugo and Gen are perfect together, but can’t be together. Year after year they keep trying and it just might kill them.

    A rocknroll tragedy by Ali MacLean
    Featuring music and lyrics by Craig...
    Meet Hugo. Millions of girls want him. He could have any of them. But he wants Gen.
    Meet Gen. She’s not a people person. That is, until she meets a certain person. And she wants Hugo.
    Hugo and Gen are perfect together, but can’t be together. Year after year they keep trying and it just might kill them.

    A rocknroll tragedy by Ali MacLean
    Featuring music and lyrics by Craig Finn from The Hold Steady.
  • Sullen Girl
    After her mother dies, Gen and her brother Kellan find home life with their abusive father unbearable. However, once she escapes is when the real hell begins. Flipping back and forth in time, Gen grows up in a house that is haunted with horrible secrets which she takes with her as a young adult battling life in the Big Apple. She begins to realize no matter how many times she changes her life, her childhood...
    After her mother dies, Gen and her brother Kellan find home life with their abusive father unbearable. However, once she escapes is when the real hell begins. Flipping back and forth in time, Gen grows up in a house that is haunted with horrible secrets which she takes with her as a young adult battling life in the Big Apple. She begins to realize no matter how many times she changes her life, her childhood trauma is waiting for her until she conquers it.
  • I'll Call You Mine (Work In Progress)
    Paul's life fell apart when Molly left town, but now she's back with her fiance and Paul will do anything to win her over.

    Turning the trope of the rom-com on its ear, and riding the line between funny and frightening, I'll Call You Mine follows Paul's downward spiral as he pursues Molly and won't take no for an answer. I’ll Call You Mine, is prompted by the Zombies...
    Paul's life fell apart when Molly left town, but now she's back with her fiance and Paul will do anything to win her over.

    Turning the trope of the rom-com on its ear, and riding the line between funny and frightening, I'll Call You Mine follows Paul's downward spiral as he pursues Molly and won't take no for an answer. I’ll Call You Mine, is prompted by the Zombies song of the same name, as well as their song “Maybe After He’s Gone”. This comedic thriller falls somewhere between Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, Duncan MacMillan’s Monster, and Anthony Shaffer’s Murderer.

    I'll Call You Mine is the third from MacLean's Zombies Plays Trilogy - plays based on songs by the 60’s rock group The Zombies. Each play (She’s Not There, This Will Be Our Year, and I’ll Call You Mine) examines relationships from a different toxic theme: depression and co-dependence, adultery and addiction, obsession and revenge. When love is the drug, relationships have the ability to make zombies of us all.
  • The Point
    Murph and Scanlan join lovebirds Teenie and Lugo for a debaucherous party deep in the Massachusetts woods. At first, they miss the underlying tension between the couple but then they realize the night is about to take a deadly turn.
  • Bits N Pieces
    Lindsey, a woman in her 20s-30s, makes a video to her Ex, apologizing for her past behaviors.
  • Those People
    A Southern gothic tale about bullying, parenting, and racism in a small town in Georgia.

    Ms. Hicks has called Justin’s mother and grandfather to her office to discuss Justin’s behavior. Now she has to deal with theirs.
  • The Fifth Beatle
    The team behind the Beatles is dealing with a major PR snafu, but luckily they may have the perfect solution.
  • Final Resting Place
    FINAL RESTING PLACE is a composite of stories, told by very different types of women across the country whose lives are connected by the infamous serial killer, Willy Ray Watts.
    Some are victims from beyond the grave, some are family members, cops, lawyers. Others have suffered and been discarded, yet remained nameless to society, while Willie has become famous.
    A horror movie being made based...
    FINAL RESTING PLACE is a composite of stories, told by very different types of women across the country whose lives are connected by the infamous serial killer, Willy Ray Watts.
    Some are victims from beyond the grave, some are family members, cops, lawyers. Others have suffered and been discarded, yet remained nameless to society, while Willie has become famous.
    A horror movie being made based on the killings, called Final Resting Place, is intertwined throughout the play and soon the audience isn’t able to tell fact from fiction.