First thing you should know: Spenser is a huge fan of Olive Garden. It’s his sanctuary.
One Christmas, he got over $250 in giftcards to the o.g. That is not a joke.
Originally from Northwest Arkansas, and after a dozen years creating work in Chicago, Spenser is an award-winning writer-director who has recently transplanted to Los Angeles. His work walks the tightrope between social commentary and popcorn entertainment, provoking conversations around the working class, forgotten corners of our complicated history, and characters who find themselves pushed to the margins. When he works with ensembles (and they are often large casts), the characters he adores are fast, funny, and figuring it out.
As a filmmaker and screenwriter, his first pilot Knox County Nights was a Finalist at the Austin Film Festival and is currently under option; he’s developing it and other projects with A+E Studios and Busy B Entertainment, among others. His debut short film, I’m Pretty Sure My Therapist Thinks I’m a Bad Actor, won Best Writing in a Comedy at the 2024 Oscar-qualifying Micheaux Film Festival and received Best Comedy Short at Atlanta’s FunnyAF Festival.
As a theatre director, he was the Michael Maggio Directing Fellow at The Goodman Theatre, where he’s both helmed Stateville Voices and worked alongside Tony Award winner Robert Falls on the World Premiere of Rebecca Gilman’s Swing State, which has since played Off-Broadway, been nominated for Outstanding New Play at the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards, and is now available on Audible. Notable productions include the U.S. Premieres of Beth Steel’s Labyrinth and Jessica Swale’s Blue Stockings; World Premieres of Shannon O’Neill’s The Kelly Girls and May the Road Rise Up, as well as his own plays The Spin and Plainclothes (w/ Kanomé Jones); and the Midwest Premiere of Michael Perlman’s At The Table, which received 4 Jeff Awards, including Best Production and Best Director, and was called “One of the Top 25 Shows of the Decade” (Storefront Rebellion) and “One of the Year’s Best” by the Chicago Tribune and Newcity Magazine.
As a playwright, Spenser is under his second commission with South Coast Repertory. His first, the Elizabeth George Commission, led to the writing of A Million Tiny Pieces, a fast-flying ensemble comedy which has since been developed at both the Pacific Playwrights Festival and the Colorado New Play Festival. Other plays include Plainclothes, Merge, The Spin, and Primer. His one-acts and short plays have been produced around the world.
He’s the recipient of the M. Elizabeth Osborn New Play Award from the American Theatre Critics Association, Best Director accolades at both the Jeff Awards (Chicago) and the B. Iden Payne Awards (Austin), and has been a Finalist for the Harold & Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award and the Heideman Award, among others.
He has taught at Acting Studio Chicago, serves as guest lecturer at various organizations and universities, and has written monologues for the Vagabond School’s on-camera intensive. He is proud to be represented by both WME + Heroes and Villains Entertainment.
Winner of Best Writing in a Comedy!
Spenser’s debut short film as a writer-director, I’M PRETTY SURE MY THERAPIST THINKS I’M A BAD ACTOR, received this fantastic award at the incredible Oscar-qualifying Micheaux Film Festival. Previously, it won Best Comedy Short at Atlanta’s FunnyAF Festival and will next screen at the LA Indie Film Festival in December!
Guest Playwright @ Heartland Theatre!
Spenser was invited to be this year’s Guest Playwright at New Plays from the Heartland, an annual playwriting competition produced by Heartland Theatre Company in Illinois. During his visit, he also had an Open Forum for the public and taught a Masterclass for the three winning writers.
A 2nd commission from South Coast Rep!
After writing A MILLION TINY PIECES as part of their 2020 Elizabeth George Commission, and later developing it in both the Pacific Playwrights Festival and the Colorado New Play Fest, SCR has invited Spenser back to write a second play for their new-works program.
Spenser helms STATEVILLE VOICES, produced by The Goodman Theatre!
Featuring a cast of ten, this collection of 21 plays written by incarcerated individuals in the Northwestern Prison Education Program was also presented at Stateville for the writers themselves.