Jaclyn Backhaus is a playwright and screenwriter. In addition to her writing work, she is a co-creative director of arts facilitation group Fresh Ground Pepper and a core member of theater advocacy group The Kilroys. Her plays include Wives (Playwrights Horizons), India Pale Ale (2018 Horton Foote Prize for Promising New American Play, MTC), Men On Boats (Clubbed Thumb, Playwrights Horizons), and You on the Moors Now (Theater Reconstruction Ensemble, published by DPS). Backhaus was the 2016 Tow Foundation Playwright-in-Residence at Clubbed Thumb and she is currently a resident playwright at Lincoln Center and New Dramatists. Backhaus holds a BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch, where she now teaches playwriting. Born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, she now resides in Ridgewood, Queens with her husband, director Andrew Scoville, and their son Ernie.