about

Watch the Arrive video, featuring Tina Fey,
Stephen Colbert and more.

Listen to the recording of my essay, “Waiting for The Suzuki Goulds,” performed by The Rose Theatre Co.

Leigh Flayton served as Editor-In-Chief of Arrive for over a decade, transforming the magazine into a culturally relevant must-read and showcasing cover features from Michelle Obama and Patti Smith to Amy Poehler, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Bill Clinton. In addition, she has extensive experience in content marketing, brand development, film & television production, and more. As a writer, she has contributed to The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Salon, LENNY and Refinery29, among other publications.

Leigh is also a playwright and, in 2015, Cherry Lane Theatre hosted a reading of her first play, The Generator.

In 2018, Too Close to Home was a Eugene O’Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference semifinalist and presented in an industry reading starring two-time Tony winner Judith Light. In August 2022, it was given a staged reading as part of the Page to Stage at Curtis Theatre Play Festival in Brea, CA. The play is directed by Andy Sandberg and is currently in development.

In March 2021, Classic Six debuted at the Powerstories Voices of Truth Theatre Festival and won the Founder’s Choice Award. It was a finalist in the 2021 National Playwrights Conference, and a semifinalist in the 2021 Austin Film Festival’s Playwriting Competition as well as a finalist in the 2022 Premiere Stages Play Festival. In January 2023, a new draft was presented at the Arts Club of Washington, D.C., in a reading by The Rose Theatre Co.

In June 2022, All the Lonely Women, a play that Leigh co-wrote with director Inés Braun, debuted as a workshop production at Rattlestick Theater’s Global Forms Festival in New York City. It ran for three sold-out shows.

Leigh’s newest play, It’s A Free Country, was a finalist for the 2022 Jane Chambers Award. On July 27, 2023, it premiered at the SheNYC Arts Summer Theater Festival in New York City. On March 6, 2024, the film version was screened at the Baturu International Cultural Festival in Beijing, China. Several of Leigh’s plays can be found on New Play Exchange.

Philanthropy, education and the plight of refugees are special interests of Leigh's, as well. In 2005, she worked on a project in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya on behalf of the Arizona Lost Boys Center. In 2014, she became a senior advisor to the CEO of To The Market Survivor-Made Goods. Leigh lives in New York City.