Meet Heather Elaine Abbott!

Heather Elaine Abbott is a jack of all trades creative based in Chicago, IL. She grew up in Garland, Texas and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Performance from Stephen F. Austin State University. As a part of her practicum year, Heather also studied American Theatre Arts at Rose Bruford College in Sidcup, England.

Heather is passionate about creating her own work. Heather’s lifelong love for writing began to find its form while studying playwriting under Jack Heifner at Stephen F. Austin State University. While at SFA, Heather wrote Signals, which was published in the college’s literary journal, Humid, and later produced at the school in 2015. Heather also wrote the one act play, Stuck, which received a Staged Reading at SFA in 2013. Recently, Heather’s full length play, OR, received a Staged Reading in Chicago in 2022.

Heather co-created and starred in two seasons of a web series called Apartment 101. The show was featured in Chicago Magazine as a part of ‘The Shut-in’s Guide to Winter’ in December of 2018. It was also recommended by StarryMag.com as the Web Series of the Week in March of 2019. Heather also produced the short film, The Other Side, as a part of the Bentwood Festival’s 72 Hour Film Competition in 2019 and won Best Writing, Best Technical Production, Best in Show, and Charna’s Favorite. Nathan’s Journey, a comedic short, was produced in partnership with the iO Comedy Network in February of 2020.

In January 2022, Heather premiered a new podcast, Last To Leave, that she co-hosts with Zoey Danielson. Those last to leave set typically aren’t the first to be interviewed about their work and the show seeks to share their stories. Over the past three years, the show has featured interviews with creatives like Paul Rogers (Editor | Everything Everywhere All At Once), Helen Huang (Costume Designer | Station Eleven, Beef), Ita O’Brien (Intimacy Coordinator | I May Destroy You, Normal People), Katherine Jakeways (Creator/Writer/Executive Producer | The Buccaneers), and Joanna Naugle (Editor | The Bear, Molli and Max in the Future). In January of 2025, Heather & Zoey launched a companion newsletter, First to Arrive, on Substack.