Syd has penned various stage productions in both Chicago, Texas and Los Angeles. He also wrote and performed his one man show Brother’s Tellin’ in Los Angeles which was nominated for a NAACP Theatre award. Syd was then selected for the Mark Taper Playwright’s Program. He went on to write a string of produced plays including Akashic Permutations, Unsung Heroes, Patterns, Flossie, Zu’s Earth and many others. Soon thereafter, Syd was employed at Paramount Studios where he learned under mentors in the TV industry with the nation’s top rated shows.

Rushing was grateful to be a winner in the Queensbury Theatre New Work Playwright series and a recipient of the Lorraine Hansberry Distinguished Achievement Award at the Kennedy Center. He was the recipient of the Inaugural August Wilson Playwright Fellowship for 2021 and received the honor of 21st Century Voices for 2022. He is a graduate of the American Musical & Dramatic Academy in New York, the University of Mississippi, Writer’s Boot Camp Screenwriting in Los Angeles, Kingwood College and Texas State University’s dramatic writing program. He thanks Greenlight Production Company for hiring him to write numerous plays, the people that did not give up on him and the Grahams.

Before playwriting, Syd enjoyed a career performing in hundreds of professional productions in summer stock theatre, regional theatre, tours and Off-Off Broadway. Lastly, as an educator, he has taught every grade from K-12 to college while winning Teacher of the Year three times. He gives the glory to the Maker of All Things while staying humble, happy and close to the earth. Thanks to two of my favorite directors Liz Fisher and Isaac Byrne. And thanks to my favorite angels that nourished my love for theatre and for being a decent human – my parents Mr. & Mrs. Rushing. Rest in Honor.