Originally from Minnesota, Allan Staples is a New York-based playwright and screenwriter whose writing the Minneapolis Star Tribune called “funny, sexy, intimate and heart wrenching.” The City Pages hailed his work as "full of subtlety and laugh-out-loud lines."

Recently, Allan was a finalist for the 49th Annual Samuel French OOB festival for his short play Brave People; a 2023 Jewish Plays Project semifinalist for his full-length play Vigorish and a 2023 Austin Film Festival semifinalist for his drama teleplay So, a Rabbi and a Comedian. Brave People also won the 2023 Short + Sweet Sydney Best Play Award (Judge’s choice); following that victory, the creative team behind the production, BearTiger Productions, produced eight of his short plays in a collection entitled L-O-V-E which performed to sold-out houses at KXT Bakehouse in Sydney, Australia. Brave People has also been performed in Los Angeles, Dubai and India.

Previously, Allan’s plays have been produced or developed at the Jungle Theater, the Playwright’s Center, The Actor’s Studio, the Dennis & Victoria Ross Foundation, the Minnesota Fringe Festival, Thirst Theater, Sticky New York, Bloomington Playwright’s Project, Short + Sweet, Planet Connections Theatre Festivity and NyLon Fusion among others. He was also a finalist for the DVRF Emerging Playwright’s Competition and a two-time O’Neill semifinalist.

 Also a screenwriter, Allan’s two short films Words & Actions and The Unmentionables were produced by The New School for Drama. Allan was also named a 2019 semifinalist (placing in the top two percent of over 12,000 scripts) at the Austin Film Festival; a semifinalist at the PAGE Awards and finalist for the PAGE Fellowship at Stowe Story Labs and did attend the 2019 Stowe Story Labs. Other notable placements include finalist at the Denver Film Festival, Top 100 Table Read my Screenplay, Top Ten percent at the Nicholl and winning Filmmaker.com’s 1st Annual sitcom writing competition.

Allan's writing has been published by Heinemann Publishing and Smith & Kraus. Allan has an MFA from the New School for Drama in New York and a BA from Metropolitan State University in Minnesota. He is a member of the Dramatist Guild, Playwright's Center, and the Playwright/Director Unit at The Actor's Studio in New York City.

In addition to dramatic writing, Allan has also written for Minnesota Public Radio (“Muse for Music, “In the Loop”) and spent one NFL season writing about sports wagering for a gambling website.  He also co-teaches a Jewish film class with his wife, Cantor Melanie Cooperman.