P. Carl is a nonfiction writer, playwright, dramaturg and a Distinguished Artist in Residence at Emerson College in Boston. He is also a writer and lecturer on theater, gender, inclusive practices, and innovative models for building community and organizations. He is an accomplished theater artist, most recently the dramaturg and producer on a range of diverse projects including Claudia Rankine's new play, The White Card, Melinda Lopez's, Mala (2017 Elliot Norton Award Winner for Outstanding New Script) Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen's How to Be a Rock Critic, and Deborah Stein and Suli Holum's, The Wholehearted. Carl is the founder of the online journal HowlRound, and is currently advising the Broadway production of Jagged Little Pill.

Carl's memoir, Becoming a Man: The Story of a Transition will be published January 7, 2020 by Simon & Schuster. In 2019 he was commissioned by the American Repertory Theater at Harvard to adapt his memoir for the stage, named the Distinguished alumni by the University of Notre Dame and the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, and awarded the Anschutz fellowship from Princeton where he will be in residence in the spring of 2020. In 2018, Carl was awarded the Berlin Prize and a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship in creative nonfiction. In 2017, he was given a prestigious Art of Change Fellowship from the Ford Foundation, named Theater Person of the Year in 2015 (National Theater Conference), as well as an Alumni of Notable Distinction (University of Minnesota). His former positions include: Director of HowlRound Theatre Commons, Co-artistic Director ArtsEmerson (Emerson College), Director of Artistic Development, Steppenwolf Theater, and Producing Artistic Director, The Playwrights' Center, Minneapolis. Carl holds a PhD in Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society from the University of Minnesota. He was born in Elkhart, Indiana, and now lives in Boston with his spouse, the writer Lynette D'Amico, and their dogs Lenny Obama and Sonny.