Thomas Daníel Valls is a Los Angeles-based playwright and screenwriter whose work blends melancholy, humor, and psychological tension. Drawn to working-class characters navigating shame, intimacy, class, and belonging, his stories examine the quiet bargains people make in pursuit of love, purpose, and reinvention. 

His work is populated by lost boys commodifying love in pursuit of purpose, broken mothers on welfare longing for the youth of their own equally broken children, newly enlightened homosexuals waging war on the communities that once humiliated them, and well-to-do progressives convinced they understand the neighborhoods they helped transform. 

Thomas – Tomas, as his immigrant Cuban parents and family refer to him – graduated from New York University, earning degrees in Dramatic Writing, Psychology, and Russian Literature. After studying privately with Edward Albee and Eduardo Machado, he worked in television development and production, including positions at Disney, USA Network, and more recently, Warner Bros. Television; experiences that continue to shape his understanding of story and collaboration across mediums. 

His play MIJO, MADRE was a semifinalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. Recent work includes the stage play WINTER PEOPLE and the original television pilots MILES AT CAPACITY and SAN ATROPHEE. 

Tomas is currently blueskying previous drafts of older plays while preparing WINTER PEOPLE for its next stage of development. When he isn’t writing, Tomas can usually be found in the gym, camping, hiding in Joshua Tree with his dog, or taking long night drives to San Pedro and Playa Del Rey.