Willy Conley (born August 5, 1958, in Baltimore, Maryland, USA) is an American deaf photographer, playwright, actor and writer.
In 1982, he became a Registered Biological Photographer after advanced studies at the University of Texas Medical Branch's Pathology Photography Department in conjunction with the Biological Photographic Association, Galveston, Texas.
[1] In 1991, He studied under the Caribbean poet Derek Walcott (Nobel Prize for Literature 1992) in creative writing and playwriting at Boston University (Massachusett) and received his Master of Arts.
Conley is the most widely produced, living deaf playwright[citation needed]; his plays explore a broad palette – from the Deaf perspective – of circumstances with and without hearing characters, allowing Deaf characters to interact minus the direct influence that the dominant (hearing) culture might exert.
Conley, now retired, was a full professor and former chairperson of the Theatre Arts Department at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. Conley was an Associate Artist with CenterStage in Baltimore (Maryland) for ten years, and an Affiliate Artist with Quest Visual Theatre (now defunct) in Lanham, (Maryland).