Tim Cummings

Tim Cummings (born 1973) is an American actor and author.

Early life Timothy P Cummings was born in Port Jefferson, New York, to James A. and Rosemarie Cummings. He has four elder siblings and one half-sibling. His father was a Lieutenant with the NYFD (Engine 82, Ladder 31) in the South Bronx for thirty years.

Education Cummings graduated from Comsewogue High School, where he appeared in Brighton Beach Memoirs, Twelve Angry Men, Babes in Arms, You're A Good Man Charlie Brown and Bye Bye Birdie. He then attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he received a BFA. While at NYU, he studied at The Stella Adler Conservatory and The Experimental Theater Wing. He performed in productions of The White Album Project, Fornes's The Conduct of Life, Brecht's Threepenny Opera, Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, Shaw's Man & Superman, Durang's Naomi In The Living Room and Maeterlink's The Intruder.

Cummings received his MFA in Creative Writing (Writing for Young People) from Antioch University Los Angeles, in June 2018. He studied under the tutelage of lauded authors Francesca Lia Block, Kerry Madden, and Gayle Brandeis.

Acting career After graduating from NYU, Cummings began performing as a company member in two of New York City's downtown theater & dance companies, Big Dance Theater and The Builders Association, with whom he toured extensively, performing in festivals across US, the UK, and Europe.

He later performed with The Flea Theater,

Cummings subsequently relocated to Los Angeles to work in television and film in addition to theatre, where he is best known for playing Ned Weeks in Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, Patsy in The New Electric Ballroom by Enda Walsh, Mitch in Reunion at South Coast Repertory, Mitchell in Daniel's Husband at The Fountain Theatre, and Arnold in Samuel D. Hunter's Grangeville at The Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica.

Cummings served as Associate Director of the Youth Program at The Ojai Playwrights Conference from 2011 to 2017.

Career in writing

In summer 2025, Cummings' follow-up young-adult novel, The Lightning People Play, was published by Black Rose Writing. The story was inspired by Cummings' own experience losing an epileptic sibling to a grand-mal seizure in 1997, and by his own extensive background in theatre. In 2023, Cummings' debut novel, Alice the Cat, was published by Fitzroy Books, the Young Adult & Middle-grade imprint of Regal House Publishing The story was inspired by Cummings' own experience losing his mother to cancer when he was a teenager. In 2019, Cummings' essay, You Have Changed Me Forever, won lauded literary magazine Critical Read's Origins essay contest. In 2018, he had numerous works (interviews, reviews, short stories, essays, poetry,) accepted for publications at several prominent literary journals and magazines: Lunch Ticket, Larb, From Whispers to Roars, Meow Meow Pow Pow, F(r)iction, and Critical Read. In 2017 he released an eclectic collection of stories, poetry, and dramatic writings, called Anthology: The Ojai Playwrights Conference Youth Workshop 2006-2016. It was written by several participants of The Ojai Playwrights Conference Youth Workshop. He compiled and edited the collection in conjunction with his Master of Fine Arts program at Antioch University Los Angeles. The summer of 2011 saw the release of a unique collection called Orphans, which incorporates short stories, poetry, screenplays, plays, a film treatment. He wrote the full-length play, Bully, which explores the epidemic of teens committing suicide for being bullied. He is a regular contributor at Los Angeles Review of Books where he writes reviews, interviews, and profiles.

Awards and nominations

YearAwardCategoryResult 2000 Obie Award Jet Lag w/ The Builders Association (Marianne Weems) (Special Citation) Obie Award For Big Dance Theater (Annie-B Parson) (Special Citation) 2005 LA Weekly Theater Awards Best Supporting Actor for Burn This 2007 Garland Awards Best Supporting Actor for The Pursuit of Happiness at Laguna Playhouse 2011 Ovation Awards Best Season (including Roddy Doyle's War & Enda Walsh's The Walworth Farce) at Theatre Banshee 2012 LA Weekly Theater Awards Best Comedy Ensemble for The Walworth Farce LA Weekly Theater Awards Best Revival for Camino Real 2013 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Best Ensemble for Enda Walsh's The New Electric Ballroom LA Weekly Theater Awards Best Supporting Actor for The New Electric Ballroom 2014 Broadway World Awards Best Lead Actor for The Normal Heart at The Fountain Theatre LA Weekly Theater Awards Best Revival Production for The Normal Heart LA Weekly Theater Awards Best Lead Actor for The Normal Heart Ovation Awards Best Season (including The Normal Heart) at The Fountain Theatre Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Best Lead Actor for The Normal Heart at The Fountain Theatre 2015 StageSceneLA Awards Performance of the Year for The Woodsman 2016 SAGE Awards (ArtsInLA) Best Lead Actor for Need To Know 2017 Ovation Awards Best Production for The House In Scarsdale: A Memoir for the Stage SAGE Awards (ArtsInLA) Best Lead Actor for The House In Scarsdale: A Memoir for the Stage 2018 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Best Lead Actor for The House In Scarsdale: A Memoir for the Stage 2019 Critical Read Literary Magazine Origins essay contest for You Have Changed Me Forever Pushcart Prize For You Have Changed Me Forever Ticket Holders LA Awards Best Performance in a Play for Daniel's Husband Ovation Awards Best Lead Actor for Daniel's Husband 2024 American Book Fest Best Book Awards: Finalist for Fiction Young Adult for "Alice the Cat" Feathered Quill Book Awards Bronze Medal for Young Adult Fiction for "Alice the Cat" National Indie Excellence Awards Finalist for Teen Fiction for "Alice the Cat" 2026 Feathered Quill Book Awards Gold Medal / 1st Place for Teen Fiction for "The Lightning People Play" Nautilus Book Awards Silver Medal / 2nd Place, Young Adult Fiction 13-18 for "The Lightning People Play"

Work Film Dead Serious Bind Can You Ever Forgive Me? Kensho at the Bedfellow Spirited Something Strange Presence Sunken Warrior Exit Interview The Box Making 'Three Americanisms' The Guys Morning Fall The Gas Heart

Television High Potential Criminal Minds GRIMM My Two Fans Rosewood

Stage

2020–2029

Grangeville Octopus's Garden White Rabbit Red Rabbit

2010–2019

Daniel's Husband Cal In Camo The House in Scarsdale: A Memoir for the Stage Need To Know 2015 Ojai Playwrights Conference The Woodsman 2014 Ojai Playwrights Conference Nine Hours (Young Playwrights Festival at Blank Theatre Company) Reunion Skylight Theatre's SALUTE to Terrence McNally The Normal Heart 2013 Ojai Playwrights Conference 2013 Pacific Playwrights Festival The Phantom Tollbooth The Firebird (with the LA Phil) Eurydice (Ruhl play) 2012 Ojai Playwrights Conference The Grapes of Wrath The New Electric Ballroom Winterfest—47 Plays in 18 Days (Producer/Performer/Playwright) The Guys (10-year Anniversary performances) 2011 Ojai Playwrights Conference The Walworth Farce Camino Real War The Winter's Tale Magic Framework The Soltanoff/Findlay Wkshp

2000–2009

Slasher Hamlet Tartuffe The Diary of a Teenage Girl The Last Schwartz The Pursuit of Happiness The Guys (5-year Anniversary performances) The Outsiders Presents IV The Handlers Madelyn Kent's Peninsula Constantly Distracted (Director) "IV" Lanford Wilson's Burn This The Moonlight Sonata Patrick Marber's Closer (play) Host The Seagull Madelyn Kent's SHUFU: Iraqi Interview Mac Wellman's Three Americanisms The Homecoming Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune Transatlantica The Guys Billy the Kid No Mother to Guide Her Mac Wellman's Cleveland Mac Wellman's Sincerity Forever Centaur Battle of San Jacinto

1990–1999

Jet Lag (1998-2000) Park Girl Gone A Simple Heart The Gas Heart Sugar Down Billie Hoak The Fairground Booth 20/21 Distortion Taco Anus Mundi Mississippi Nude Leopold and Loeb are Dead Now The White Album Project The Conduct of Life The Threepenny Opera Terrence McNally's Andre's Mother Naomi in the Living Room Man and Superman Titus Andronicus Geography of a Horse Dreamer Brecht's Fear and Misery of the Third Reich Intruder (play) West Side Story Brighton Beach Memoirs

1985–1989

Bye Bye Birdie The Fantasticks Guys & Dolls Sweet Charity Twelve Angry Men Cinderella Grease Fiddler on the Roof Babes in Arms Free to Be You and Me The Sound of Music Snoopy! The Musical Bye Bye Birdie Alice in Wonderland You're a Good Man Charlie Brown Frankly, Franklin