Tori Sampson Explained

Birth Date:20th century
Birth Place:Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation:Dramatist
Education:Ball State University (BS)
Yale School of Drama (MFA)

Tori Sampson (born 20th century) is an African-American screenwriter and playwright.[1] [2] [3]

Early life and education

Born in Boston, Sampson moved to North Carolina with her family as a child. Her mother, Wanda Louise Thompson, raised Tori and her two sisters with values she learned through exposure to the Black power movement during her own childhood.

At age 14, one year after the death of her mother, Sampson and her twin sister were sent to a boarding school in Mississippi.

Sampson attended Ball State University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in sociology. She later graduated from the Yale School of Drama, where she studied playwriting.

Career

Shortly after graduating from Yale, Sampson was awarded a 2017–2018 Jerome Fellowship from The Playwrights' Center and a 2018–2019 McKnight Fellowship.

Sampson's debut play, If Pretty Hurts, Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka, premiered in 2019 at Playwrights Horizons in New York City.[4] That same year, her play Cadillac Crew was performed at the Yale Repertory Theatre.[5]

Between 2020 and 2022, Sampson hosted an interview series for Wealthsimple titled "Friends With Money".[6]

In 2021, she wrote an episode of the 2021 Amazon Prime Video miniseries Solos.

Sampson served as a writer on three series that aired in 2023, the Amazon Prime Video programs Citadel and Hunters as well as the Showtime series Three Women. Her play This Land Was Made debuted at the Vineyard Theater in New York City that year.

List of works

Theatre

YearTitleVenueRef.
2019If Pretty Hurts, Ugly Must Be a MuhfuckaPlaywrights Horizons
Cadillac CrewYale Repertory Theatre
2023This Land Was MadeVineyard Theatre

Television

YearTitleNotesRef.
2021Solos1 episode
2023Citadel
Hunters8 episodes
Three Women2 episodes

Notes and References

  1. News: 2 June 2023. Kumar . Naveen . For Her New Play, Tori Sampson Revisited Her 'Black Power Household' . 5 June 2024 . The New York Times.
  2. Web site: About . Tori Sampson . 5 June 2024.
  3. News: Cox . Gordon . How One Striking TV Writer Has Kept Busy in Theater . 5 June 2024 . Variety. 17 June 2023.
  4. News: Green, Jesse. Review: Beauty, Blackness and Beyoncé, in 'If Pretty Hurts' . 5 June 2024 . The New York Times. 10 March 2019.
  5. News: Green . Jesse . Review: In 'Cadillac Crew,' a Road Trip Through Racism and Erasure . 5 June 2024 . The New York Times. 6 May 2019.
  6. Web site: Articles by Tori Sampson . . 5 June 2024.