Heidi Schreck

Heidi Schreck, born September 26, 1971, in Wenatchee, Washington, is an American playwright, screenwriter, and actress. She attended the University of Oregon and after graduating taught English in Siberia before working as a journalist in St. Petersburg, Russia. She subsequently relocated to Seattle, Washington, where she began her career as an actress and writer.

Schreck's first play, Creature, debuted in New York under the direction of Leigh Silverman and was produced by New Georges and Page 73. Her subsequent stage work includes There Are No More Big Secrets, directed by Kip Fagan at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre; The Consultant, produced by The Long Wharf; and Grand Concourse, staged at Playwrights Horizons and later at Steppenwolf Theatre during the 2014–2015 season. Off-Broadway, she performed in Drum of the Waves of Horikawa at HERE Arts Center in 2007, Circle Mirror Transformation in 2009, and How the World Began at the Women's Project in 2011. In 2014, she served as a Playwrights Horizons Tow Foundation Playwright-in-Residence. She also received a commission from the Atlantic Theatre Company in conjunction with the Kenyon Institute at Kenyon College in June 2016, appearing at the Kenyon Playwrights Conference and teaching a master class there.

In addition to her stage work, Schreck has written for television, contributing episodes to Nurse Jackie from 2014 to 2015, Billions in 2016, and I Love Dick in 2017, the latter including one episode co-written with Annie Baker.

What the Constitution Means to Me, which Schreck both wrote and performs in, opened on Broadway on March 31, 2019. The play draws on her own experience participating in debates as a teenager and examines how the U.S. Constitution addresses — and often fails to protect — the freedoms and wellbeing of women and minority groups. The production was subsequently adapted as a film directed by Marielle Heller and released by Amazon ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

Schreck has accumulated a substantial record of honors across her career. She won the 2008 Obie Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actress for Drum of the Waves of Horikawa and the 2010 Obie Award in the same category for Circle Mirror Transformation. She and the cast of Circle Mirror Transformation also received the 2010 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance, and the Theatre World Award in 2010. Grand Concourse earned the Lilly Awards' Stacey Mindich "Go Write A Play" Award for best new play in 2015, an Edgerton Foundation New American Plays award, and was a finalist for the 2014–2015 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. What the Constitution Means to Me was a finalist for the 2018–2019 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and earned Tony Award nominations for Best Play and Best Actress in a Play. Schreck received the 2018 Hull-Warriner Award from the Dramatists Guild of America Council for the same work, a prize recognizing an American author for writing that engages with social, political, or religious issues of the time. She is co-winner, alongside Amy Herzog, of the 2019 Horton Foote Playwriting Award, which carries a $12,500 monetary prize, and she received the 2019 Smithsonian magazine American Ingenuity Award.

Beyond her writing and performing, Schreck is an advocate for the Equal Rights Amendment. On April 25, 2024, she participated in a pro-ERA panel alongside Gloria Steinem and Carol Jenkins following a performance of the musical Suffs. She is married to director Kip Fagan, and as of 2019 the couple lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with their two children.