2026 Writers Group
Our 2026 Cohort will be hosted at
Pasadena Playhouse
Amy Berryman
AMY BERRYMAN is playwright, actor, and teaching artist from Seattle by way of West Texas. Her play WALDEN made its world premiere on London's West End, produced by Sonia Friedman and directed by Ian Rickson in 2021, and recently had its off-Broadway premiere at Second Stage directed by Whitney White. WALDEN’s off-Broadway production was nominated for the John Gassner Award by the Outer Critics’ Circle and for Outstanding Production of a Play by the Drama League. Amy’s play ALIEN GIRLS (O'Neill Finalist 2024, Ojai Finalist 2025) will premiere at the Old Globe in April 2026 directed by Jaki Bradley. Other plays include THE TREATMENT, GOD'S FLESH (MTC/Sloan Commission), THE NEW GALILEOS (O'Neill Finalist 2019), and THREE YEAR SUMMER, among others. In addition to developing work for TV and film in LA, Amy is a Core Writer at the Playwrights Center, was a Fellow at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference 2025, and is a MacDowell Fellow. amy-berryman.com
CARLA CHING is a native Angeleno who called NYC home for 16 years. She wrote and performed with Peeling, the autobiographical AAPI Theater Company. Her plays include Rage Play (NNPN Festival of New Plays 2025), Revenge Porn or The Story of a Body (Ammunition Theater Company), Nomad Motel (NNPN Rolling World Premiere at City Theatre, Horizon Theatre and Unicorn Theatre; NY Premiere at The Atlantic), The Two Kids That Blow Shit Up (Artists at Play, Theatre Mu), Fast Company (South Coast Rep, EST) and TBA (2g). Development: Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, CTG Writers’ Workshop, The Lark, O’Neill. Former artistic director of 2g. Founding member of The Kilroys. Alum of New Dramatists. Member of Ammo. Co-recipient of the Horton Foote Playwriting Award and recipient of The LA New Play Prize. TV credits include Fear the Walking Dead, I Love Dick, The First, Preacher, Home Before Dark and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. She’s developed work for Netflix, AMC, Hulu, Amazon, FX and Onyx.
Carla Ching
Christina Ham
CHRISTINA HAM’s plays have been produced nationally and internationally at Arena Stage, South Coast Repertory Theatre, Tokyo International Arts Festival, and The Market Theatre in South Africa, among others. She is a two-time recipient of a McKnight Fellowship in Playwriting and a Jerome Fellowship from the Playwrights’ Center, and a Mellon Playwright-in-Residence at Pillsbury House Theatre in Minneapolis. She has received commissions from The Guthrie Theater, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and many others. Her plays are published by Dramatic Publishing and Oberon Books. She was nominated for the 2021 Writers’ Guild of America Award for her work on the critically acclaimed Amazon series Them and for an Emmy Award for her work on the Netflix series Sweet Tooth. A graduate of the University of Southern California and an MFA in Playwriting from the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television, she is currently a member of the Playwrights Union.
Daniel Hirsch
DANIEL HIRSCH is a LA playwright and screenwriter who writes about how fundamentally weird it is to be human. His plays have appeared at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Great Plains Theatre Conference, IAMA Theatre, Antaeus Theatre, Tete-a-Tete opera festival, and the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Festival (a 2019 winner). He’s been published by Samuel French and been an artist-in-residence at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. His work has also been a semi-finalist at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Kitchen Dog New Works Festival, Bay Area Playwrights Conference, and shortlisted for the Neukom Literary Arts Award. His screenwriting has earned prizes from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and a spot in the Orchard Project Episodic Lab. He sold his first feature PAST & PRESENTS, a delightfully traditional Christmas rom com, to MarVista Entertainment— which for a gay Jew critical of consumer capitalism is kind of a hoot.