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 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.
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, in Mac Wellman's Sincerity Forever, Cleveland, and Three Americanisms, as well as the melodrama Billy the Kid written by Walter Woods in 1903.
He directed an original black comedy by Kenny Finkle, Transatlantica. He was an understudy in the Off-Broadway play The Guys and in the Broadway revival of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune'.
Cummings subsequently relocated to Los Angeles to work in television and film in addition to theatre, where he played Ned Weeks in Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart as well as Patsy in The New Electric Ballroom by Enda Walsh.
Cummings served as Associate Director of the Youth Program at The Ojai Playwrights Conference from 2011 to 2017.
Career in writing
In 2023, Cummings' debut novel, Alice the Cat, was published by Fitzroy Books, the Young Adult & Middle-grade imprint of Regal House Publishing 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
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
Criminal Minds
GRIMM
My Two Fans
Rosewood
Stage
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