Hilary Bettis
Ensemble Member
Hilary Bettis was the 2009 recipient of the John N. Wall Fellowship for playwriting at Sewanee Writer’s Conference. She also received two fellowships from New River Dramatists in 2009. She was a 2010 semi-finalist for the Julliard Lila Acheson Wallace Playwright fellowship.
Her play, American Girls, was produced Off-Broadway at 45th Street Theatre in the Spring of 2008 by Obie and Drama Desk Award winning producer/directors Patrick Blake (The Exonerated with Richard Dreyfuss) and Jeff Cohen (Four by Christopher Shinn). American Girls has had staged readings at Abingdon, Theatre Row, and the Players. American Girls was anthologized in Best Monologues of 2009 and Best Stage Scenes of 2008 both published by Smith & Kraus. American Girls will be published in 2011 by McFarland Publications along with Wendy Hammond’s play Absence.
Attack Films produced her first screenplay, B’Hurst, as a short film in the summer of 2008. She is currently working on the feature.
Before Hilary began writing she worked as a professional actress in New York and Los Angeles. She has acted in national commercials for Honda and Taco Bell, a television pilot with Ryan Seacrest, and several films including Bittersweet Lies with Aasha Davis of “Friday Night Lights.” Hilary fell in love with theater when she was cast in a production of Our Town with Emily Deschanel at Interact Theatre Company (moved to Skirball Cultural Center and was the Los Angeles Times Critic’s Choice) and decided to move to New York. There she did plays and readings at 59E59, Abingdon, Theatre Row, Access Theater, The Neighborhood Playhouse, and New Georges.
In her free time, Hilary stays close to the New York theater scene, volunteering at Playwrights Horizons, The Flea, Labyrinth, New Georges, 13P, and Abingdon doing everything from ushering to stuffing envelopes to load-ins and painting sets.
She is a member of SAG, AEA, Dramatists Guild, Playwrights Center, and Fractured Atlas. She is a member of EST and an affiliated artist with New Georges. Hilary lives in Brooklyn, New York with her three cats and is a proud owner of two Arabian horses. She works as a horse trainer and plays violin in her free time.