william o’neal ii is a queer poet & playwright from the American South, living and working in New York City. Their plays have been recognized and performed at Emory University, Out of Hand Theater, The Tank, The Kennedy Center, and The 24 Hour Plays: Nationals. Their latest apocalyptic one-act play, “$$$ PIG,” received its Off-Broadway premiere in New York on July 22nd, 2024 at the Lynn F. Angelson Theater (CSC) in partnership with the 24-Hour Plays, and a re-run at The Tank on March 30th, 2025.

william received the 2021 Artistine Mann in Playwriting Award from Emory University for their play For All the Strange Boys who Didn’t Get to Grow Up and was a runner-up for both The Darrel Ayers Nat’l Playwriting Award and Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award in 2022 at the Kennedy Center. Their poems have appeared in The Journal, and The Talon Review, and have been invited to participate in several workshops through the Cave Canem Regional NYC Series.

They are developing a play with The Road Theater Company in Los Angeles & a poetry fellow at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.