Award-Winning Playwright and Screenwriter Joins HPU’s Access to Innovators Program

HIGH POINT, N.C., April 6, 2026 – Jessica Dickey, an award-winning playwright, actor and screenwriter who wrote for Apple TV’s hit show “Physical,” is the latest expert to join High Point University’s Access to Innovators Program. She will mentor students as one of HPU’s Artists in Residence after making multiple visits to campus as a guest artist for the Department of Theater and Dance since 2013.

“I thoroughly enjoy my interactions with the students and faculty of High Point University,” Dickey said. “They are kind, smart, intrepid and creative. It’s an honor to join them as an Artist in Residence, and I look forward to our work together.”

Dickey’s off-Broadway play “The Amish Project” opened to rave reviews at New York City’s Rattlestick Theater in June 2009. The play, a fictional exploration of a real-life shooting at an Amish schoolhouse, won the CAPPIE Award for Best Play and continues to be produced across the globe. The New York Times hailed the play as “extraordinary” and “a remarkable piece of writing.”

Dickey has written several other plays, including “Row After Row” and “Charles Ives Take Me Home,” a comedy that was nominated for the Susan Blackburn Prize honoring English-language plays penned by women. Her play “The Rembrandt” won the Stavis Playwright Award, which recognizes an outstanding emerging playwright, and has had productions at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, Illinois; Hartford Stage in Hartford, Connecticut; and City Theatre in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Dickey’s play “Galileo’s Daughter” was funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and was recently produced at two theaters in Massachusetts — WAM and Central Square. She is an alum of the prestigious New Dramatists playwriting residency in New York.

Dickey has enjoyed success on TV in addition to in the theater. As a screenwriter, she wrote for “Physical,” which starred Academy Award nominee Rose Bryne and ran for three seasons on Apple TV. She has developed her ideas for networks such as Netflix, ABC, Paramount TV and Searchlight. She has also appeared as an actor in several hit shows, including the Emmy Award-winning series “Law & Order” and “Homeland.”

“What sets Jessica apart isn’t just her body of work — it’s her instinct for people,” said Doug Brown, associate professor and chair of HPU’s Department of Theater and Dance. “She has a rare ability to read a student, meet them exactly where they are and find the words that actually land. That kind of mentorship is personal in the best sense of the word. We’re thrilled to have her as our Artist in Residence.”

In 2023, Dickey published a memoir with her sister, the Rev. Danielle Neff, entitled “Sistering: The Art of Holding Close and Letting Go.”

She joins several other TV and entertainment experts in the Access to Innovators Program, including:

• Marc Randolph, Netflix co-founder and HPU’s Entrepreneur in Residence
• Byron Pitts, co-anchor of ABC News’ “Nightline” and HPU’s Journalist in Residence
• Sellers Shy, CBS Sports’ lead golf producer and HPU’s Network TV Producer in Residence
• Theresa Patiri, AMC Networks’ senior vice president of production, business affairs and global program partnerships and HPU’s Media Production and Sales Expert in Residence.
• Joe Michaels, former longtime director of NBC’s “Today” show and HPU’s Broadcaster in Residence
• Lyndsay Rowley, NHL’s Nashville Predators reporter and HPU Alumni Sports Host in Residence