Photo by Alison Balletta

Dan Caffrey is an Atlanta-based playwright, musician, teacher, and pop-culture critic who recently completed his M.F.A. In Playwriting at The University of Texas at Austin. He's currently the Playwriting Instructor for the Teen Ensemble at the Alliance Theatre. He has been both a Finalist and Semi-Finalist at the O'Neill, a Resident Artist at Tofte Lake Center, an M.F.A. Scholar at the Sewanee Writers' Conference, an artist in The Orchard Project's Liveness Lab, and his work has been published in several anthologies by Smith & Kraus, including Best Women's Monologues, 2021 this August. His plays have recently been developed by Mixily Presents, Kitchen Dog Theater in Dallas, and Pegasus PlayLab at the University of Central Florida.

​Dan's work draws heavily from his interest in pop culture, from riffing on classic literature such as Lord of the Flies to putting his love of horror movies at the forefront of his stories. Simply put, Dan loves seeing monsters onstage—whether it be an actual supernatural entity or the darkness that resides within human beings. He's specifically fascinated by how these forces can move characters to rethink their choices and reshape their lives.
​
He's also written for a variety of pop-culture publications, including Consequence of Sound, The A.V. Club, Pitchfork, and Vox. His first book, Radiohead FAQ, will be published by Backbeat Books (an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield) this March. He co-hosts The Losers' Club: A Stephen King Podcast and Halloweenies: A Horror Franchise podcast, in addition to recording music with Mae Shults under the name Methodist Hospital. Dean of American Rock Critics Robert Christgau hailed their debut album, Giants, as one of the best of 2018.