Topher Payne was a 2017 Lambda Literary Award finalist for Perfect Arrangement, which was also received the 2014 M. Elizabeth Osborn Award from The American Theatre Critics Association. Perfect Arrangement had its Off-Broadway premiere in 2015, and has since been produced around the world. It is published by Concord Theatricals, alongside his works Angry Fags and Evelyn in Purgatory. His latest play, A First Lady's Guide to Killing the President, premiered in September 2025.

 

Topher Payne's theatrical career began at First United Methodist Church in Kosciusko, Mississippi. He played a sparrow. At age 17, he apprenticed at Mississippi's professional theatre, New Stage Theatre. Two years later, he made his home in Atlanta, working as an actor, director, designer, and writer- basically, anything people would let him do. In many ways, he still does exactly this.

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Topher is a seven-time nominee and three-time winner of The Gene-Gabriel Moore Playwriting Award, and his holiday comedy Let Nothing You Dismay  received the Suzi Bass Award for Outstanding World Premiere. Readers of Creative Loafing named him Atlanta’s Best Local Playwright nine times, and he was selected as one of “Ten Playwrights You Should Know” by Southern Theatre magazine. The New York Times called him "a deft and witty writer."
 

As a screenwriter, Topher has scripted six films for The Hallmark Channel. His most recent, The Christmas Baby, is a 2026 GLAAD Media Award Nominee for Outstanding Film for Television.

 

Topher is a proud member of the Dramatist's Guild of America, The Georgia Writer's Association, and both the Canadian and American Writer's Guilds. In 2018, Topher was inducted into The Georgia Theatre Hall of Fame.

 

Topher married artist & playwright Charlie James Cote on Groundhog Day 2022. They live outside Atlanta with a dog, a cat, and a passel of imaginary friends who give them not one moment's peace.