Grafton Reyes Doyle is a Los Angeles-based writer, director, and non-profit administrator whose work explores themes of identity and duality, with a focus on incarceration, institutionalization, and chosen family.
An advocate of arts and justice reform, Grafton also works in philanthropy, advancing initiatives that expand access to creative education for youth in Title I schools and juvenile detention centers.
His latest film, Dope Queens, which he wrote and directed, is inspired by true events in San Francisco's Tenderloin district and follows three friends through a gritty, glamorous, adrenaline-fueled night. The film will have its world premiere at the 2025 Bentonville Film Festival this June.
Grafton was a 2023 SF Film Rainin Foundation Finalist and a 2023 Nicholl Quarterfinalist. He holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing and a BA in English with a focus on Narrative Studies from the University of Southern California.
He currently leads the Development Department at the Skirball Cultural Center. The Skirball is a Jewish cultural institution in Los Angeles that welcomes over 200,000 visitors annually through its rich, inclusive, and engaging programming.
Film Press
Dope Queens
LOGLINE: Inspired by true events in San Francisco's notorious Tenderloin district, three friends must hustle through one gritty, glamorous, adrenaline-fueled night. With only hours to scrape together enough cash to cover rent, they dive into a world of sex work, drugs, and danger. As tensions rise, a fiery love triangle tests their loyalties.
Starring Alexandra Grey, Pierson Fode, Trace Lysette, Kylie Sonique Love, and Salina EsTitties.
A groundbreaking feature film, DOPE QUEENS celebrates San Francisco’s famed Tenderloin neighborhood regarded as the world’s first legally recognized transgender district.
Announcements to be made soon.
Film Website Link
Theatre Press
Theatre Press
Stage Raw - Highly Recommended
"...Dope Queens is packed with a multitude of complicated topics in a web of intersecting identities - the experiences of trans women of color like Goldie and Angel; the safety net of privilege for a well-off cis white man like Blake; the nuances of sex work for all three characters; the different ways that the prison system has abused each one of them. But Dope Queens isn't a play about issues. It's a play about people, whose stories need to be told onstage. Character is queen here, and these three memorable characters played by three magnetic actors earn Dope Queens its crown."
Taylor Kass, Stage Raw
Dope Queens held its world premiere August, 2019 at The Hudson Theatres in Hollywood, CA for a sold-out six-week run. Produced by Pop Up Theatre LA! & Tomorrowland Productions & directed by Grafton Reyes Doyle.
His other work, Kept Men, held its concert reading at the Tony-award winning Pasadena Playhouse, directed by Luis Alfaro.
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