Topher Payne

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Topher Payne (born 1979) is an American playwright and screenwriter living in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2015, two of his plays premiered: Perfect Arrangement Off-Broadway and Angry Fags at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. Perfect Arrangement won the M. Elizabeth Osborn Award in 2014 for best new play by an emerging writer. Since 2016, he has written five original Hallmark Channel films, including My Summer Prince and the Gift to Remember series.

He grew up in Kosciusko, Mississippi, and attended Idyllwild Arts Academy in California. He dropped out after the tenth grade to pursue work, later saying he was not a good student unless the task had a clear end result. He returned to Mississippi at 17 and worked with New Stage Theatre in Jackson as an electric intern, eventually convincing them to let him stage a show after the main production.

Payne moved to Atlanta in 1999, where he became known for a steady stream of broadly appealing Southern comedies. He has had 13 full-length plays premiere in Georgia since 2009. His influences include Ida B. Wells, Eudora Welty, Beth Henley, and Richard Wright. He believes comedy helps engage audiences, and once people laugh they listen more closely, making it easier to share messages.

In 2013, after years of local praise, his work started appearing in other cities. Perfect Arrangement debuted at the Source Festival in Washington, DC, then played in Louisville, Atlanta, and Anchorage. Angry Fags was produced at Steppenwolf in Chicago in 2015, and Perfect Arrangement reached Off-Broadway in 2015.

Directors have praised his timing and humor. Payne was Grand Marshal of the Atlanta Pride parade in 2011. He married Tommy in 2009 in Massachusetts, but they separated in 2014. He wrote about the difficulty of divorce in a state that didn’t recognize same-sex marriage at the time.