Quinton Cockrell is a native of Birmingham, Alabama. He is a graduate of Birmingham-Southern College and The Alabama Shakespeare Festival's Professional Actor Training Program. Quinton has worked with numerous theatres throughout the United States, including Riverside Shakespeare Company, Westbeth Theatre, Soho Rep, The John Houseman Theatre, Playwright's Horizons, Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, Studio Arena Theatre, Heritage Repertory Company, Birmingham Children's Theatre, City Equity Theatre, Red Mountain Theatre Company, and Barter Theatre. Quinton is a recipient of the Alabama State Council on the Arts Fellowship in playwriting for his plays Low Life and Shot House (which premiered in Paris at L’Ogresse Theatre in July 2007).  

Quinton’s writing has been selected as a finalist in Oregon Shakespeare’s Ashland New Play Festival, The O’Neill Center’s National Music Theater Conference, The Southeastern Theatre Conference Charles M. Getchell Prize, and The Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Contest.  

Quinton was commissioned by The Red Mountain Theatre Company to write Memorial, a play about historic racial violence, and The Calling which explores the life of civil rights icon, U. W. Clemon.

Quinton’s play City Limits was the first play selected for Barter Theatre’s Black in Appalachia Initiative. Trains is the result of development through the Black Stories, Black Voices program. The play began as a monologue that was presented at Barter Theatre’s first Shine event.

Quinton is a Professor of Performance at Troy University. He is a ten-time recipient of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Meritorious Achievement Award for Excellence in Directing. He is a member of Actor’s Equity Association and The Dramatists Guild of America.