Laurel Ollstein is an award winning playwright, director and educator whose plays most recently have been produced at The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego and TheatreWorks Silicon Valley.  She is currently writing the second season of a podcast radio drama for New Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francisco.  Her awards include grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and California Arts Council, as well as Ovation, Garland, and LA Weekly Theater Awards. 

Laurel also directs playwriting programs, providing writing and arts education in schools and for mature adults, and creates plays on social justice themes. She serves as adjunct faculty at California Institute of the Arts, UCLA, Loyola Marymount University, University of Redlands, and Otis College of Art and Design. 

Ollstein holds an MFA in playwriting from the School of Theater, Film and Television at UCLA.