Lisa Sanaye Dring is an artist from Hilo, Hawaii and Reno, Nevada. Her play SUMO received a nomination for Outstanding New Play by the Lucille Lortel Awards in 2025. It was produced by La Jolla Playhouse and Ma-Yi Theater Company as well as The Public with Ma-Yi. She is a winner of the 2025 Helen Merrill Award and was the 2024 Tow Foundation Writer-in-Residence with Ma-Yi. Their play KAIROS received a Rolling World Premiere with NNPN. Lisa has won an Edgerton Award, Broadway World Award, and the PLAY LA Stage Raw/Humanitas Prize. They’ve been a finalist for the Relentless Award, O’Neill Playwrights’ Conference (3x), Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, and a 3x finalist (one honorable mention) for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Fellowships include MacDowell (2x), Blue Mountain Center and Yaddo. They received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Interactive Programming for co-writing and co-directing a project with Matt Hill. Lisa has worked with The Public Theatre, Ma-Yi Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse, The New Group, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, East West Players, Circle X, Boston Court, Skylight, Red Theatre, Know Theatre of Cincinnati, Rogue Artists Ensemble and Theatre Nova.