Tori Sampson a native of Boston, MA is proud to be from “The City of Champions” and even prouder to be a human rights activist and Black Woman storyteller. By introducing her daughter to the genius that was Carroll O’connor, Tori’s mother opened her eyes to the art and power of comedy for “goodness sake”. And it was on and poppin’ from there. Today, Tori focuses her imagination on creating comedies for the stage. Her plays include This Land Was Made (Vineyard Theatre, 2023), If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must be a Muhfucka (Playwrights Horizons, 2019), and Cadillac Crew (Yale Repertory Theater, 2019). Her plays have been developed at Great Plains Theatre Conference, Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s The Ground Floor residency program, Victory Garden’s IGNITION Festival of New Plays, Playwrights Foundation, Ubuntu Festival and Vineyard Theater. Tori is a 2017–18 Playwright’s Center Jerome Fellow and a 2018-19 Mcknight Fellow. Two of her plays appeared on the 2017 Kilroys List. Her awards and honors include the 2016 Relentless Award, Honorable Mention; the 2016 Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting from The Kennedy Center; the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, Second Place; the Alliance Theater’s 2017 Kendeda Prize, Finalist; the 2018 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Finalist. Tori is currently working on commissions from Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, and Atlantic Theater Company. She holds a BS in sociology from Ball State University and an MFA in playwriting from Yale School of Drama.
Tori is currently a writer on "His & Hers" at Netflix. Other T.V. credits include "Citadel" at Amazon, "Three Women" at Showtime, "Hunters" at Amazon, and an episode for the Amazon anthology "Solos." On the development front, she is currently co-creating an adaptation of the novel The Secret Lives of Church Ladies for HBO Max and an original animated series for Bad Robot. Prior to that, she developed a drama with Anonymous Content and Drake, and wrote a comedy for HBO with Issa Rae producing. On the feature side, Tori wrote the movie "61" for Disney+ that tells the true story of Chris Paul. Her short film directorial debut, which she also wrote, "A Black Saturday," recently premiered at Slamdance.
Tori’s life goals include: A weekly lunch appointment with Julia Roberts, to be Michelle Obama’s “god-daughter” and to write an episode of Grey’s Anatomy before Grey Sloan closes it’s doors (please email if interested in full list).
Tori is currently a writer on "His & Hers" at Netflix. Other T.V. credits include "Citadel" at Amazon, "Three Women" at Showtime, "Hunters" at Amazon, and an episode for the Amazon anthology "Solos." On the development front, she is currently co-creating an adaptation of the novel The Secret Lives of Church Ladies for HBO Max and an original animated series for Bad Robot. Prior to that, she developed a drama with Anonymous Content and Drake, and wrote a comedy for HBO with Issa Rae producing. On the feature side, Tori wrote the movie "61" for Disney+ that tells the true story of Chris Paul. Her short film directorial debut, which she also wrote, "A Black Saturday," recently premiered at Slamdance.
Tori’s life goals include: A weekly lunch appointment with Julia Roberts, to be Michelle Obama’s “god-daughter” and to write an episode of Grey’s Anatomy before Grey Sloan closes it’s doors (please email if interested in full list).