Olivia Matthews (she/her) is a writer from Central Florida living in Atlanta, Georgia. Her ten-minute play Home Going was first produced by Playwrights’ Round Table in Orlando and is published in The Best 10 Minutes Plays of 2015 by Smith and Kraus. Her other short plays have been seen in Atlanta, Houston, Miami, Vancouver, and New York City. Her full-length play Absentia received the 2020 Jane Chambers Student Playwriting Award. That same year she participated in the Sesame Workshop Writers’ Room Fellowship where she developed an original children’s television pilot entitled Cate and Halle. In 2022, she was named a fellow of The Order of the Good Death, receiving a grant to develop an audio presentation of her play Here Lies Vivienne Greene. Her most recent play, The Nativity Starring Keisha Taylor, has been developed at Onward Theatre (Atlanta, GA); Seat of the Pants (Cleveland, OH); Great Plains Theatre Commons New Play Festival (Omaha, NE). It was also named a 2025 finalist for the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Center, a top-15 finalist for the 2024 Trustus Playwrights’ Festival, and a semifinalist for the Ojai Playwrights Conference.

Her work often explores family dynamics, the complexities of young women and teens, and the oddities and magic of The South.

Olivia holds a B.A. in Theatre Arts from Rollins College and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Ohio University. Since graduating from OU, she’s studied with stage and screen professionals such as television writer Susan Kim (CyberChase and Arthur), comedian Mark Kendall, dramaturg Amber Bradshaw (Working Title Playwrights), and actor & comedian Baron Vaughn (Grace and Frankie).

When she isn’t writing, Olivia can be found listening to the podcast You’re Wrong About, raving about Dua Lipa’s latest album, or scouring the internet for yet another pair of hoop earrings. If you ever catch her smiling to herself, she’s probably thinking about vegan Cuban picadillo.