Honorary degree recipient Molly Smith Metzler '00 (image provided)
SUNY Geneseo alum Molly Smith Metzler ’00, MA, MFA, will receive an honorary degree at this year’s undergraduate Commencement ceremony on Saturday afternoon, May 20.
Molly Smith Metzler is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. She is the creator, writer, and executive producer of the limited series Maid (Netflix), which earned her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing of a Limited Series. Maid was named a “TV Program of the Year” by the American Film Institute, Metzler won a Writers Guild of America Award, and the show was nominated for three Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, two Critics Choice Awards, two TCA Awards, The Humanitas Prize, and more. Currently, Metzler is creating a new show for Netflix, where she is under a multi-year overall deal.
Before Maid, Metzler spent four years working as a writer/producer on the show Shameless (Showtime). She also wrote for Casual (Hulu) and Orange Is the New Black (Netflix). As a playwright, Metzler’s plays—including Cry It Out, Elemeno Pea, The May Queen, Carve, Close Up Space, and Training Wisteria—have been produced Off-Broadway and across the country, at theaters such as Manhattan Theatre Club (NYC), The Kennedy Center (DC), South Coast Rep (CA), and many more. In 2018, Cry It Out won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Playwriting and the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award Citation.
Metzler holds a BA in English from SUNY Geneseo, an MA from Boston University, an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School for the Arts, and an Artist’s Diploma from The Juilliard School. She will receive an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree for her significant contributions to theatrical arts.
Geneseo’s commencement ceremonies begin at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Both are in the Ira S. Wilson Ice Arena.
Read about SUNY Geneseo’s speaker for Commencement 2023