Topher Payne's theatrical career began at First United Methodist Church in Kosciusko, Mississippi. He played a sparrow.

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Since age 19, he has made his home in Atlanta, working as an actor, director, designer, and writer- basically, anything people would let him do. 

 

Topher was a 2017 Lambda Literary Award nominee for Perfect Arrangement, which was also received the 2014 M. Elizabeth Osborn Award from The American Theatre Critics Association. Perfect Arrangement had its Off-Broadway premiere in 2015, and has since been produced around the world. It is published by Samuel French, alongside his works Angry Fags and Evelyn in Purgatory.
 

Topher is a seven-time nominee and three-time winner of The Gene-Gabriel Moore Playwriting Award , and his holiday comedy Let Nothing You Dismay  received the Suzi Bass Award for Outstanding World Premiere. Readers of Creative Loafing named him Atlanta’s Best Local Playwright nine times, and he was selected as one of “Ten Playwrights You Should Know” by Southern Theatre magazine.
 

He began writing for television in 2016, and has scripted five films for The Hallmark Channel. He is a proud member of the Dramatist's Guild of America, and both the Canadian and American Writer's Guilds. 

 

In 2018, Topher was inducted into The Georgia Theatre Hall of Fame.