Ally Merkel is a Brooklyn-based playwright. She writes funny language-obsessed plays for fast talkers. She is an Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Award finalist, a 2024 and 2025 National Playwrights Conference semi-finalist, and a 2023 Seven Devils Conference finalist. Ally has developed plays with the Under Construction Playwrights Group at The Road Theatre Company, with The COOP’s Clusterf**ck vol 3 working group, and has an upcoming developmental workshop at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. She is an alumna of Theater Masters’ National MFA Playwrights Festival “Take Ten” (2024) and of the 24 Hour Plays: Nationals program (2022). Her short play Carrots, about a teenage boy who wants his best friend to bite off his finger, has a forthcoming publication with Concord Theatricals. Ally’s work has also been seen onstage at The Tank, The Fled Collective, New Perspectives Theatre Company, and The 24 Hour Plays Viral Monologues. Beyond writing for the stage, Ally’s comedic writing has been featured in Points in Case, The Belladonna, and Edutopia. She has a BA in political science from Kenyon College and is currently pursuing an MFA in dramatic writing at NYU.