Hilary Bettis

Hilary Bettis

Hilary Bettis is a critically-acclaimed playwright, TV writer, and filmmaker. She hails from a Mexican mother who grew up on the border and a Southern father who grew up Methodist. Her work is a culmination of these cultures, exploring the American identity through a working-class Latiné lens.

Her plays have been developed and produced all over the US and Mexico, including, Roundabout Theatre,...
Hilary Bettis is a critically-acclaimed playwright, TV writer, and filmmaker. She hails from a Mexican mother who grew up on the border and a Southern father who grew up Methodist. Her work is a culmination of these cultures, exploring the American identity through a working-class Latiné lens.

Her plays have been developed and produced all over the US and Mexico, including, Roundabout Theatre, New Georges, The Sol Project, Yale Rep, Miami New Drama, Studio Theatre, Alley Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, La Jolla Playhouse, Lark’s playwright workshop at Second Stage, O’Neill NPC, amongst others. Theater accolades include Egerton Foundation New Play Awards, National Endowment for the Arts Grant, and a finalist for the Blackburn Prize, among others. She’s currently under commission at Roundabout Theatre, Miami New Drama, Untitled Theatricals, and is writing a musical with Grammy composer Julio Reyes Copello. 

Bettis won the 2019 Writer’s Guild of America Award for her work on the Emmy Award-winning FX series THE AMERICANS. She wrote for the Emmy-nominated Hulu miniseries THE DROPOUT. She’s currently developing a TV series with Toluca Pictures.

She’s an alumni of the Sundance Institute Episodic TV Lab, a graduate of The Juilliard School, a broad member of New Georges, and proud member of the WGAEast.

Plays

  • QUEEN OF BASEL by Hilary Bettis
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: class, Latinx + 6 more
    Genre: adaptation, drama, political, tragedy
    Keyword: class, Latinx, Spanish, Miami, bilingual, Race, Sex, female
    An explosive elixir of power, class, and immigration status, which, when shaken hard with love and betrayal, creates a dangerous cocktail that threatens to destroy lives. In this Spanish language infused contemporary adaptation of Strindberg’s Miss Julie is set in the back kitchen of a Miami hotel during a night of debauchery.
  • THE GHOSTS OF LOTE BRAVO by Hilary Bettis
    Recommendations: 8
    ·
    Cast: 
    8
    ·
    Genre: drama, fable/folktale + 3 more
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    Keyword: Mexico, Latino + 6 more
    Genre: drama, fable/folktale, mystery/thriller, political, tragedy
    Keyword: Mexico, Latino, latina, Latinx, teenagers, family, Gritty, magical realism
    In Cuidad Juarez, Mexico young girls often disappear. Many turn up murdered. Juanda Cantu’s daughter, Raquel, is one of these girls. Through visions offered by La Santa Muerte, Juanda is shown Raquel’s past only to discover that her daughter had hopes, dreams and courage Juanda knew nothing about. The Ghosts of Lote Bravo is a play about great hope in the midst of relentless violence, poverty and grief....
    In Cuidad Juarez, Mexico young girls often disappear. Many turn up murdered. Juanda Cantu’s daughter, Raquel, is one of these girls. Through visions offered by La Santa Muerte, Juanda is shown Raquel’s past only to discover that her daughter had hopes, dreams and courage Juanda knew nothing about. The Ghosts of Lote Bravo is a play about great hope in the midst of relentless violence, poverty and grief.

    For a copy of this play, please contact agent or playwright directly at hilarybettis@gmail.com
  • THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PORNOGRAPHY by Hilary Bettis
    Cast: 
    7
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, docudrama/historic + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: family, coming of age + 2 more
    Genre: dark comedy, docudrama/historic, drama
    Keyword: family, coming of age, sexuality, intimacy
    It’s Star Papapzian’s 40th birthday, and she’s finally ready to lose her virginity. But before she can get down to business, she must take a hard look at her past, growing up in her family’s porn empire, Dolls and Stripes. The History of American Pornography is a play about one woman’s journey to discover the meaning of intimacy in a world where sex, power, money and family collide.

    For a copy of...
    It’s Star Papapzian’s 40th birthday, and she’s finally ready to lose her virginity. But before she can get down to business, she must take a hard look at her past, growing up in her family’s porn empire, Dolls and Stripes. The History of American Pornography is a play about one woman’s journey to discover the meaning of intimacy in a world where sex, power, money and family collide.

    For a copy of this play, please contact agent or playwright directly at hilarybettis@gmail.com
  • ALLIGATOR by Hilary Bettis
    Recommendations: 9
    ·
    Cast: 
    7–12
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: florida, Everglades + 5 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: florida, Everglades, teenagers, unrequited love, Gritty, gay, Surreal
    Emerald and her twin brother, Ty, are orphaned ‘gator wrestlers living in the backwoods of the Florida Everglades. One night a doe-eyed runaway, Lucy, shows up on their porch with promises of unlimited whiskey. As her desperation to win Emerald over intensifies, she will do whatever it takes…even if it leads to murder. The only hope left rests on Emerald who must face the demon that haunts her every waking...
    Emerald and her twin brother, Ty, are orphaned ‘gator wrestlers living in the backwoods of the Florida Everglades. One night a doe-eyed runaway, Lucy, shows up on their porch with promises of unlimited whiskey. As her desperation to win Emerald over intensifies, she will do whatever it takes…even if it leads to murder. The only hope left rests on Emerald who must face the demon that haunts her every waking moment. Alligator is a play that weaves together sex and enemies, blood and whiskey, hope and murder. It is a play that asks the question: How do we truly love one another in the face of our deepest, darkest monsters?

    For a copy of this play, please contact agent or playwright directly at hilarybettis@gmail.com
  • BLOOD & DUST by Hilary Bettis
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: adventure, drama
    ·
    Keyword: Western, Rodeo + 2 more
    Genre: adventure, drama
    Keyword: Western, Rodeo, Americana, Gritty
    It’s 1986 in Atoka, Oklahoma. Stormy Proctor, a rough-swearing, hard-living cowgirl on the verge of middle age, is determined to become the first female professional bull rider before her body breaks down. But in order to do that she’s got to fight her way through the rodeo circuit, out cowboy the cowboys and confront a past that haunts her every waking moment.

    For a copy of this play, please...
    It’s 1986 in Atoka, Oklahoma. Stormy Proctor, a rough-swearing, hard-living cowgirl on the verge of middle age, is determined to become the first female professional bull rider before her body breaks down. But in order to do that she’s got to fight her way through the rodeo circuit, out cowboy the cowboys and confront a past that haunts her every waking moment.

    For a copy of this play, please contact agent or playwright directly at hilarybettis@gmail.com
  • DAKOTA ATOLL by Hilary Bettis
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    7
    ·
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama
    ·
    Keyword: Western, Gritty + 6 more
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama
    Keyword: Western, Gritty, epic, family, History, Cold War, Americana, war
    It is October 1962. On a cattle ranch near the Badlands nuclear bombs are on the verge of explosion. The Huestead Family bunkers down in anticipation of the looming apocalypse, while their ranch hands, two rowdy brothers from East Texas, head to town in search of one last bourbon. That night a stranger shows up… A rodeo cowboy with a past and a secret. A secret that will force everyone to atone for their sins...
    It is October 1962. On a cattle ranch near the Badlands nuclear bombs are on the verge of explosion. The Huestead Family bunkers down in anticipation of the looming apocalypse, while their ranch hands, two rowdy brothers from East Texas, head to town in search of one last bourbon. That night a stranger shows up… A rodeo cowboy with a past and a secret. A secret that will force everyone to atone for their sins in their moments of reckoning. Dakota Atoll is a gritty, epic Western that explores perceived villains, hypocritical warriors, and the moral ambiguity of war in the American West.

    For a copy of this play, please contact agent or playwright directly at hilarybettis@gmail.com
  • MEXICO by Hilary Bettis
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: dysfunctional family, dark + 2 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: dysfunctional family, dark, blue collar, mother and son
    In a small trailer in the middle of America, lives Beatrice, a woman born with one leg, her father, Charlie, the soon-to-be-owner of Dairy Queen, and her three-year-old son. Beatrice has never driven a car, had a job, or left the twenty-mile radius of her small town, but constantly imagines running away to Mexico with her high school crush, Wade… That is until he shows up at Dairy Queen one afternoon. As her...
    In a small trailer in the middle of America, lives Beatrice, a woman born with one leg, her father, Charlie, the soon-to-be-owner of Dairy Queen, and her three-year-old son. Beatrice has never driven a car, had a job, or left the twenty-mile radius of her small town, but constantly imagines running away to Mexico with her high school crush, Wade… That is until he shows up at Dairy Queen one afternoon. As her fantasy collides with reality, she and Charlie are forced to acknowledge the horrifying secret that exists under their roof. Mexico is a play that pushes the boundaries of our capacity for forgiveness and redemption.

    For a copy of this play, please contact agent or playwright directly at hilarybettis@gmail.com