Sheila Callaghan (born 1973) is a playwright and screenwriter who emerged from the RAT (Regional Alternative Theatre) movement of the 1990s. She has been profiled by American Theater Magazine,[1] “The Brooklyn Rail”,[2]Theatermania,[3] and The Village Voice.[4] Her work has been published in American Theatre magazine.
In 2010, Callaghan was profiled by Marie Claire as one of “18 successful women who are changing the world.”[5] She was also named one of Variety magazine’s “10 Screenwriters to Watch” of 2010.[6] She was nominated for a 2016 Golden Globe Award for her work on the Hulu comedy series Casual, and a 2017 WGA nomination for her episode “I Am A Storm” from Season 7 of the comedy/drama series Shameless.[7]
. . . Sheila Callaghan . . .
Callaghan’s writing has been described as “comically engaging, subversively penetrating”,[8] “whimsically eloquent”,[9] “unique and completely contemporary”,[10] and “downright weird”.[11]The New York Times has said Callaghan “writes with a world-weary tone and has a poet’s gift for economical description,”[12] and the Philadelphia Weekly has called Callaghan a “provocative playwright” with a “national following” who “creates work that’s realistic and unpredictable, dark and funny, reassuring and disturbing.”[13]
Callaghan is a founding member of feminist advocacy group The Kilroys, who created the Kilroys’ List. She is also a founding member of the playwrights’ collective 13P and an alumni member of New Dramatists.[14]
Callaghan is the recipient of several writing awards, including the 2000 Princess Grace Award,[15] the 2014 Ted Schmitt Award for the world premiere of an outstanding new play by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle,[16] and the 2007 Whiting Award for Drama.[17] She also won a Robert Chesley Award from Publishing Triangle in 2002.[18] In 2007, her play Dead City won a Special Commendation Award for the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.[19]
She has also received a Jerome Fellowship from the Playwrights’ Center, a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, a grant from New York Foundation for the Arts, and a New York State Council on the Arts grant.
. . . Sheila Callaghan . . .