Cole Friedman (he/him/his) is an queer, Jewish, writer and performer based in LA, originally hailing from the outskirts of Washington, DC. His writing thoughtfully interrogates stigma against mental health, the fluidity of time, and the power we hold over each other, all with a wickedly funny, chronically online sensibility. 

His plays include Follow The Bear (2020 ScreenCraft Semi-Finalist, National Theater Institute), Mer and Cris Catch Up Over Zoom (Homesick Play Project), BOOM (Make/Shift Theater), and my father is always dying (Make/Shift Theater), all of which you can read on New Play Exchange. He is currently a member of EST/LA’s New West Playwrights 2024 cohort. On the screenwriting side, he is a 2023 Academy Nicholl Fellowship Quarterfinalist for his feature, Good Youth.

Cole received his BA in Psychology and Theater from Tufts University, graduating summa cum laude and earning the Moses True Brown Prize for Dramatic Criticism and the Jane Anne Herman Newton Award for Directing upon graduation. While at Tufts, he served as the Playwright in Residence for UnTrue to Form, a student theater organization dedicated to new work. Additionally, he is an alum of the Kennedy Center Directing Intensive and the National Musical Theater Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.