Betty Shamieh is an American playwright, author, screenwriter, and actor of Palestinian descent. She has written 15 plays and one novel.
Shamieh became the first Palestinian-American to have a play premiere off-Broadway with the 2004 premiere of Roar, a drama about a Palestinian family. Tony Award-nominated Marion McClinton directed, and Annabella Sciorra and Sarita Choudhury starred.
Malvolio premiered at the Classical Theatre of Harlem in the summer of 2023, co-directed by Ian Belknap and Ty Jones.
The Black Eyeds original premiere was at The Magic Theatre in 2005. The off-Broadway premiere of The Black Eyed was at the New York Theatre Workshop in 2007, directed by Sam Gold with a cast of Aysan Celik, Lameece Issaq, Jeanine Serralles, and Emily Swallow.
The Theatre Fournos of Athens, Greece, produced a translation of the play in Greek.
FIT FOR A QUEEN was first produced by the Classical Theatre of Harlem in 2016.
Free Radicals was translated into Dutch by the Het Zuidelijk Toneel in 2012. She was also an artist-in-residence at the same theatre.