Mary is an educator by day and playwright by night.

Her play, Southernmost, had its world premiere with Playwrights’ Arena in Los Angeles in 2019, with sold out performances leading to an extension. She recently completed a reading of her new play, The King of Maricopa County, an adaptation commissioned by UCLA and Playwrights’ Arena, with A Noise Within. She is currently developing new plays as a resident playwright in the Skylight Theatre’s SkyLab, and as a member of New West, the EST/LA workshop for playwrights under 30. Mary’s plays have been developed at the Alliance Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse, and the University of Southern California. Her work has also received semifinalist status for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference and finalist status for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, as well as the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition, and the Humanitas PLAY LA Workshop.

Before coming to the mainland, Mary was born and raised on the Big Island of Hawaii, and she returns there often in her writing. Her work also explores questions of identity facing young women in intimate relationships. As a mixed-race, Asian American woman, she is particularly interested in mixed families and partnerships.

Mary has an MFA in Dramatic Writing from the University of Southern California. She is also a graduate of Pomona College, where she studied Math and Media Studies. She recently moved to Brooklyn.