Sean Dunnington is a New York-based playwright from Hawai‘i Island.

His plays include Inversion, Failed Artist, Jew Bash, The Children's Farm, Zap, Flat Fish, and Hawaiian Shake. His work has been produced nationally and internationally, with premieres in Hawai’i, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, and Singapore, and, more importantly, in libraries, museums, old basements, public radio stations, indie film festivals, and LGBTQ+ centers.

Sean has been in residence with Centre 42, The Workshop Theater, Orchard Project (Audio Lab), East-West Center, Ka Waiwai Collective, and the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s Native Hawaiian Place of Learning Advancement Office.

He has received fellowships from the MacDowell, Dramatists Guild Foundation, Magic Theatre, Creative Labs Hawai‘i, Culture of Health Leadership Institute for Racial Healing, California Arts Council, and the Henry Luce Foundation.

He is the founding director of Tree Moss (est. 2021), a collective of emerging and established Hawaiʻi playwrights who center new play development, advocacy, and strengthening the theatrical landscape of Hawaiʻi.

Sean’s belief in the expansive potential of playwriting extends beyond the stage and into communal healing processes and queer StoryMaps. He views playwriting as a way for each of us to voice our narratives and foster mutual understanding.

Sean holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU Tisch School of the Arts (2024), a BA in Applied Playwriting from the Johnston Center for Integrative Studies at the University of Redlands (2019), and a Diploma in Classical Acting from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (2017).

He recently concluded a year in Singapore as a 2024–2025 Luce Scholar, where he was a Visiting Resident Playwright with Centre 42. There, he taught monthly theatricality workshops and developed a new play about Mars called Inversion.