Jeff Stetson

Author of "The Meeting" and "Blood on the Leaves"

Jeff Stetson is an internationally acclaimed award-winning playwright and screenwriter for film and television.

His stage plays include: “Keep the Faith: A musical on the life and times of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.”; “Fathers and Other Strangers”; “Fraternity”; “And the Men Shall Also Gather,” (developed at the O’Neill National Conference under the direction of Lloyd Richards); “To Play a Black Man”; “Love You Better”; “The Apology”; and “The Meeting,” which has been produced in all fifty-states and several countries including South Africa, the Netherlands, Canada, the Virgin Islands, England and Austria.

Stetson adapted “The Meeting” for PBS. and American Playhouse where it received an Emmy award and was called “the perfect play” by The Los Angeles Sentinel, “an unforgettable evening of drama” by The New York Post and “eloquent and engaging” by The Chicago Tribune.He is currently writing a movie based on the play for Black Entertainment Television.

His most recent play: “The Bayou Legend,” is a musical adaptation of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt; a collaboration with Debbie Allen and James Ingram,

His television credits include the one-hour drama “First Time” for Nickelodeon’s Sports Theater hosted by Shaquille O’Neill. It was a finalist for the prestigious Humanitas Prize and was also nominated for a Writers Guild Award. He wrote and produced a half-hour special “One Day” produced by the Children’s Television Network in association with the Disney Channel and directed by Debbie Allen. He created and wrote the pilot, “My Parents, My Sister & Me,” which had it national premiere on the ION Network, March 2009.

Mr. Stetson’s first novel “Blood on the Leaves” was published by Warner Books in 2004. He adapted it for Paramount Pictures for Academy Award winning actor, Jamie Foxx.

Mr. Stetson was the formal Dean of Faculty and Staff Affairs and Director for Public Affairs and University Relations for the California State University system. He has served as a writing mentor at Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute and Professor at the Theater Arts and Dance Department at California State University, Los Angeles where he has taught creative writing for stage, film, and television. He also taught the first Professional Workshop for African-American Screenwriters established by Bill and Camille Cosby in 1994 at the USC School of Cinema Television.