Sonya Hayden (she/her) is a lyricist, composer, librettist, and playwright originally from Virginia, now based in New York. Her work includes the musicals WANDA DOES THE WATER CYCLE (performance, Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival), THE LUCKIEST GIRL (workshop production, Princeton University), and CRAZY BUT TRUE (lyricist, virtual production, CAIM Creative Co.); plays CASSIE GOES TO CONGRESS (production, New Perspectives Theatre), THE CLUMPS (production, Pittsburgh New Works Festival), THERE’S ALWAYS TOMORROW (Finalist, Tennessee Williams Festival 2020-2021 Play Contest), JUST LIKE MAGIC (virtual production, Little Fish Theatre), BAUBLES, BANGLES, AND BANKRUPTCY (reading, ATHE New Play Development Workshop 2021), and DEATH AT THE AIRPORT (Winner, Merlin Theatre Frome Short Play Contest); songs “If I Didn’t Know Better” (Winner, Lotte Lenya Competition Songbook 2021, $1,500 award), “Snow One Else for Me” (composer, Playdate Theatre Holiday EP 2020), and “I’m Here” (lyricist, Empower Her Voice 2020 Scratch Night). She is a member of the BMI Advanced Musical Theatre and Librettists Workshops, the New York Songwriters Alliance, the Dramatists Guild, and ASCAP. She was previously a member of Maestra's Mentorship Program (mentor: Broadway Music Director Mary-Mitchell Campbell); The Recording Academy's Musical Theater Mentorship Program (mentor: Grammy Award-winning Music Producer Kurt Deutsch); New Perspectives Theatre's Women's Work Short Play LAB; The Workshop Theatre’s selective writers’ intensive, where she developed her play HERR DENTIST; the Princeton University Triangle Club Writers Workshop (Milton Lyon Award for Outstanding Writing) for which she contributed music and lyrics for three full-length musicals; and Traverse Theatre Young Writers in Scotland. She is the Co-Director of the Maestra Music Mentorship Program. Master’s in Playwriting with Distinction, University of Edinburgh; A.B. Music (summa cum laude) and Minor in Theater, Princeton University.