Meet the Writer/Director

J.P. Haynes is an award-winning writer, director, producer, creative consultant, and entrepreneur whose career spans theatre, television, film, live entertainment, brand development, and original intellectual property. With more than a decade of experience developing stories, productions, brands, and creative ventures, Haynes has built a career that moves fluidly between the entertainment industry and entrepreneurship. Her work has taken her from stages and rehearsal rooms to writers’ rooms, production environments, creative development tables, and consulting engagements with studios, production companies, founders, executives, and emerging brands.

Haynes is the creator, writer, and director of the award-winning Selma the Musical which she has developed and expanded over the course of a decade. The production has toured throughout the United States, been presented internationally aboard Royal Caribbean, and garnered national media attention, including coverage from Good Morning America, the TODAY Show, SiriusXM, Sway in the Morning, and other outlets. Her theatrical career extends beyond her own productions. Haynes has worked in professional theatre environments including the 2024 Broadway revival of The Wiz and served as Assistant Director of The Color Purple at City Springs Theatre Company. She was also commissioned by the Viola Ford Fletcher Foundation to write and develop Black Wall Street The Musical, a theatrical work inspired by the history and legacy of Tulsa’s Greenwood District and the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

Beyond the stage, Haynes works across television, film, theatre, and studio development as a creative consultant and behind-the-scenes creative partner. Her consulting practice encompasses concept and story development, script development, ghostwriting, creative producing, pitch and presentation development, brand storytelling, and the creation and refinement of original intellectual property.

She is also sought out by founders, entrepreneurs, executives, and established brands at moments of growth, transition, or reinvention. Haynes helps clients clarify their voice, strengthen their positioning, refresh brands that have outgrown their original identity, develop founder narratives, and translate big ideas into stories and creative strategies audiences can understand, remember, and connect with.

Whether developing a television or film concept, strengthening a theatrical property, ghostwriting in another person’s voice, repositioning a founder, or rebuilding the creative identity of a brand, Haynes’ strength lies in seeing both the story and the strategy behind it.

She is the founder of Infecting Change, a creative ecosystem built to develop original intellectual property and create work across theatre, television, film, streaming, and emerging media. Through Infecting Change, Haynes continues to build projects and partnerships that connect storytelling, culture, entertainment, and entrepreneurship.

Her work has earned recognition including Entrepreneur of the Year honors and the NAACP Trailblazer Award.

At the center of Haynes’ career is a simple throughline: building ideas into stories, stories into brands, and brands into experiences that move people. From Broadway and national touring productions to television, film, founder development, and creative consulting, she has established herself as a multidimensional creative whose value extends from the first spark of an idea through strategy, development, execution, and audience connection.