A NYSCA-NYFA Artist Fellow in Playwriting/Screenwriting and published poet, Susan Kathryn Hefti’s plays have been developed or presented at Lark Play Development Center; New York Theatre Workshop; The Playwrights Center; Seven Devils Playwrights Conference; Rattlestick Playwrights Theater; The William Inge Theatre Festival New Play Lab; The Bechdel Group; Capital Stage Company; The Harold Clurman Playwrights Division, Stella Adler Studio; The Bridge Initiative; St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery Theatre; Long Beach Playhouse Theatre; North Park Vaudeville Theatre; Topanga Actors Company; The Hidden Theatre Company & Wonderbox UK in London and in Paris at Théâtre Mélo d'Amelie & La Comédie Bastille.

Selected from 2,542 application submissions, Susan Kathryn Hefti was named NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Playwriting/Screenwriting 2019-2020. 

Hefti's new full-length play, QUEEN OF THE BONACKERS, is a 2024 National Playwrights Conference Finalist. Prior honors for QUEEN OF THE BONACKERS include: Seven Devils Playwrights Conference Selection 2023; Princess Grace Award Semifinalist 2021; Creede Repertory Theatre Headwaters New Play Festival Semifinalist 2021; Barrington Stage Company's Burman New Play Award Semifinalist 2020; ScreenCraft Stage Play Competition Quarterfinalist 2023; Landing Theatre Company's New American Voices Playwriting Festival Semifinalist 2020; Campfire Theatre Festival Finalist 2020; Selected to open The Bechdel Group’s 2019 Fall Workshop Reading Series in NYC; Flux Theatre EMERGE UK Longlist 2019 and Relative Theatrics' Playwrights Voiced Festival of New Works Quarterfinalist 2019. In the spring of 2019, QUEEN OF THE BONACKERS enjoyed a Playwrights Center (PWC) Members Session Play Reading. 

Selected for the William Inge Theatre Festival's New Play Lab, a 30-minute extract from Susan's new full-length play ACTIAS LUNA: On the Origin of Madness was read as part of the festival. ACTIAS LUNA was also named Bechdel Group Finalist and Athena Project Festival Semifinalist. 

Invited to participate in the Write for Women Campaign, Susan's short play SAVING LISA, or Un Bateau de Sauvetage pour La Joconde enjoyed a reading by The Bechdel Group at the Drama League in NYC and a subsequent reading by The Hidden Theatre Company at the Drury in Covent Garden in London. 

Susan's short play, F**K SAM SHEPARD, SAM SHEPARD IS DEAD, LONG LIVE SAM SHEPARD - a theatrical response to the late playwright Sam Shepard's express prohibition against gender diversity in the casting of TRUE WEST - was named Semifinalist for Bridge Initiative Bechdel Test Play Festival and enjoyed a 2018 play reading by The Hidden Theatre Company in London.

Hefti’s short play exploring slavery, climate change and the role of women in the global community, ON THE UNDERGROUND, or The Penguin Play, was selected by Wonderbox UK to be staged at SPACE on The Isles of Dogs in London as part of the theatre’s centennial celebration of UK Women achieving the Right to Vote. North Park Vaudeville Theatre mounted a production of The Penguin Play and Topanga Canyon Actors Company produced a stage reading of the play, both in CA. Smith & Kraus included The Penguin Play in its Theatre Brut Anthology of Short Plays (2018).
​
Selected for The Hidden Theatre Company's New Writing event in the U.K., Susan's short-play EXTINCTION, or The Swan Song received a staged reading in London. EXTINCTION was Shortlisted for the Fizzy Sherbet Play Festival in London and was also named Finalist for the international literary magazine The Dionysian.

THE POWER PLAY, or Smart Bombs & Other Sexy Toys (Playwrights Revolution Selection, Colonial Players Promising Playwright Award Semifinalist) received two Roundtable Readings at the Lark; a staged reading at Capital Stage Company (Playwrights Revolution) and a workshop reading at New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW).

AMERICAN DAMES, or Waiting for Dolley (Harold Clurman Playwright-in-Residence Finalist; Long Beach Playhouse New Works Festival Finalist & Beverly Hills Theatre Guild's Julie Harris Playwright Award Semifinalist) enjoyed readings at the Stella Adler Studio's Harold Clurman Playwrights Division’s New Play Reading Festival and the Long Beach Playhouse Theatre’s New Works Festival.

Inspired by the sudden and tragic death of one of her Yale students, Susan's full-length play KEEPIN' COOL was named Princess Grace Award Semifinalist.

Selected from more than 1,600 submissions, Susan's very first attempt at writing a script for TV - an original TV Pilot entitled AMUSE BOUCHE - was named Quarterfinalist for the Screencraft Pilot Launch Competition.

Pre-WGA, Susan is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild; The Playwrights Center; New Play Exchange; London Playwrights Workshop; The Black List and Fractured Atlas. 

A native New Yorker, Susan began working as a child actor and model at the age of three and has recently resumed the craft.

A proud member of SAG-AFTRA, Susan is currently serving her Union as a Strike Captain in NYC.

A PEN American Center Writers Grant recipient, Susan is busy working on a new full-length play, an original TV Pilot and writing poetry.

Susan began her professional writing career as a journalist, specializing in environmental news before transitioning into writing for the stage. She has taught environmental studies classes at several Universities including Brown and Yale.