Jessy Lauren Smith is a Chicago-based playwright, educator, producer, storyteller, and claymation enthusiast whose plays have been produced in Chicago, Boston, Colorado, and Texas. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Ragdale Foundation and Blast Theory and a finalist or semi-finalist for honors including the Heideman Award, the Ingram New Works Lab, Stage Left’s Playwright Residency, the Eugene O’Neill Playwriting Conference, and The Juilliard School’s Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program. She teaches playwriting and screenwriting through Embarc Chicago and Northwestern University (where she received her MFA), and has told stories at places like 2nd Story, the Annoyance, and Tony’s house. Jessy is Managing Director of Living Room Playmakers, a playwright-driven collective that writes plays for unusual spaces and throws great parties.