I was born and raised in central Pennsylvania.  At age twelve, I was taken with a church group to see a community production of Jesus Christ Superstar and it was the first time I realized that a musical could be cool.   From that moment on, whether I knew it or not, my life's work was set into motion.  

I had played bells and xylophone in marching band and in 10th grade traded my mallets to learn acoustic guitar.  I wrote songs and stories, and I painted pictures.  I studied rock and roll history like it was a religion.  I earned my Undergraduate Degree in Visual Art at MICA in Baltimore (painting, video, performance art, etc.), where I decided for my senior thesis I wanted to write a rock opera about an astronaut who crash-lands into the heavens (called Asia Apollo) and the experience, although rough and tumble, was absolutely life-changing.  I put down my paintbrush and devoted myself entirely to writing rock musicals.  In 2003 I moved to NYC to earn my Masters Degree in Musical Theatre Writing at NYU, where I wrote book and lyrics for two shows and was well educated in the craft of musical theatre and absorbed the form and its rich history.

Since then I have been working on several projects with collaborator Paul Leschen including Bedbugs!!! (which played a critically acclaimed run Off-Broadway in the fall of 2014), as well developing Astronaut Diaper and Other Love Stories, Karma Kills, and Pond Scum. I have also been working on and off for years on my baby, a rock opera called Buddy Boy, which takes inspiration from my Pennsylvania upbringing, Whale-Song (because I have an obsession with the history of American whaling.)

Whether I am working on a show by myself or with a collaborator, writing comedy or tragedy, the goal is always the same:  to bring out some truth that I know about the world through narrative and authentic music.  I have written mostly in the rock musical genre, not because it's trendy, or it ever was, but because that it what is in my blood and my soul. Over the past few years, I have expanded my horizons to bring my own take on pop, hip-hop, and opera.