Lisa Diana Shapiro (writer/actor) is book and lyric writer of Samantha Spade, Ace Detective (music by Georgia Stitt) and Princess Phooey (music by Eric Rockwell) both commissioned and produced at TADA! Youth Theater in New York. Samantha Spade, Ace Detective has also been produced regionally and in concert in New York at Feinstein’s/54 Below. Lisa’s short film, Slingin’ The Slang (based on Samantha Spade, Ace Detective) can be seen at Slingin The Slang.  Samantha Spade, Ace Detective was named National Youth Arts Best New Musical 2014. Lisa and Georgia were short-listed for the Artists of Choice award in 2015.

Lisa is currently commissioned by TADA! Youth Theater to write two new musicals, Common Ground, a show about refugee teenagers living in New York, and the high-school-set Cyra, No! Non-musical playwriting credits include Labor Pains, A Comedy in Nine Months, (Los Angeles and regional productions; finalist, New American Comedy Fest; BackStage West Garland Award nominee); . . . and Into the Fire (workshopped at Urban Stages and Naked Angels; finalist, New Century Writer Awards; semi-finalist, Mildred and Albert Panowski Competition); Aces Wild (Los Angeles production; finalist, FutureFest National Play Competition, Writer’s Digest Writing Competition, Jane Chambers Playwriting Competition), and the high-school tour show The End of the Story (winner, TADA! One-Act Playwriting Competition). Lisa’s screenplays have finaled and placed in prestigious screenwriting competitions, including American Zoetrope, CineStory, and the Chesterfield Fellowship. She is a graduate of the Northwestern University theatre program.