Havis has had his plays produced at theatres across the country and in Europe, including San Diego Rep, Old Globe, Seattle's ACT, Odyssey, Long Wharf, South Coast Rep, American Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage, Virginia Stage, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Coral Gable’s New Theatre, Interact Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Co., and Rowholt Theater-Verlag (National German Radio). Works commissioned by England's Chichester Festival, Sundance, San Diego Rep, Ted Danson's Anasazi Productions, South Coast Rep, Mixed Blood, CSC Rep, Malashock Dance, Carolina Chamber Chorale, National Foundation for Jewish Culture, and UC San Diego.

Nineteen full length published plays including Morocco, Penguin/Mentor, Theatre Communications Group, Broadway Play Publishing, Smith & Kraus, Applause Books. University of Illinois Press published in 2001 his edited volume: American Political Plays. Southern Illinois University Press published his second edited volume: American Political Plays After 9/11. Bloomsbury/Methuen published his third volume in 2019, American Political Plays in the Age of Terrorism. Harper/Collins published in 1979 his novel Albert the Astronomer. Goodreads Press published his sequel novel Albert Down a Wormhole in 2019. His book on ninety years of cinema, Cult Films: Taboo & Transgression, was published by University Press of America. In collaboration with renowned composer Anthony Davis, his play Lilith was re-imagined as a chamber opera, premiering as a concert recital at UC San Diego’s Conrad Prebys Concert Hall and staged at UC San Diego’s Qualcomm Institute/Calit2, 2015. His second opera collaboration with Anthony Davis, Lear on the 2nd Floor, was showcased at Princeton’s Lewis Center for the Arts in 2012 and staged in 2013 at Conrad Prebys Music Center, UC San Diego. His third opera, St. Francis de los Barrios was showcased at UC San Diego’s Qualcomm Institute/Calit2, 2017. His fourth collaborative opera piece (Michael Roth music), The Golem of La Jolla, is part of La Jolla Playhouse’s 2019 WoW Festival.

Recipient of Guggenheim, Rockefeller, Kennedy Center/American Express, CBS, HBO, National Endowment for the Arts Awards, San Diego Theatre Critics Circle 2003 Outstanding New Play for Nuevo California (co-written with Bernardo Solano), and San Diego’s 2008 Patté Best Play award for The Tutor. His chapter on Vicky Cristina Barcelona is in Referentiality and the Films of Woody Allen, Palgrave/Macmillan 2015. Havis has an MFA from Yale Drama School and is Chair of the UC San Diego’s Theatre & Dance Department.  He has headed for many years the MFA playwriting program at University of California, San Diego, and served as Provost of Thurgood Marshall College, UC San Diego from 2006 until 2016.