{{short description|American writer}} {{BLP sources|date=September 2007}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see :Template:Infobox writer/doc --> | name = Ayun Halliday | image = AyunHallidayByDavidShankbone2.jpg |imagesize = 150px | | pseudonym = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1965|03|29}} | birth_place = Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. | occupation = Writer and Actor | nationality = American | alma_mater = Northwestern University | children = 2 | education = Park Tudor School | spouse= {{marriage|Greg Kotis|1995}} | partner = Stephen Colbert (1986–1990) | period = | genre = Zines, Graphic novels, Memoir, Plays, Travel literature | influences = | influenced = | notableworks = | website = {{URL|http://www.ayunhalliday.com}} }} '''Ayun Halliday''' is an American writer and actor.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ayunhalliday.com/bio/|title=Bio|publisher=|author=|date=|access-date=October 2, 2017}}</ref>
She is best known as the author and illustrator (or, as Halliday herself terms it, "the chief primatologist") of the long-running zine ''The East Village Inky''.<ref>{{Cite web |url= https://feministzinefestnyc.com/2014/02/23/interview-with-a-zinester-ayun-halliday/|title=Interview with a Zinester: Ayun Halliday |accessdate= 3 October 2020|author=Halliday, Ayun |date= 23 February 2014 |publisher=Feminist Zinefest }}</ref> The zine got its name from Halliday's living in New York City's East Village, and "Inky" being the nickname of her then-infant daughter India.<ref>{{Cite web |url= http://www.readingfrenzy.com/ledger/2010/02/interview-with-ayun-halliday?PHPSESSID=62218983706ed59d09a6d756adc57fd6|title=Interview with Ayun Halliday |accessdate= 7 March 2010|author=Sabin, Anika |date= 23 January 2013 |work=New York Times }}</ref>
Her first graphic novel, ''Peanut'', was published in December 2012 and was positively reviewed by ''The New York Times''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/23/books/peanut-by-ayun-halliday.html|title=Fitting In/Standing Out: 'Peanut,' by Ayun Halliday|accessdate= 29 March 2016|author=Paul, Pamela |date= 28 February 2010 |publisher=Reading Frenzy }}</ref>
==Early life== Halliday was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. She attended Park Tudor School and Northwestern University, where she obtained a degree in theater performance. She is also a licensed massage therapist, who completed her training at the Chicago School of Massage Therapy. After graduating, she joined the Neo-Futurists, an experimental theater troupe in Chicago. It was during her tenure with the troupe that she met her husband, playwright Greg Kotis.
==Personal life== She lives in East Harlem, New York. She and Kotis have two children: India (born 1997) and Milo (born 2000).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/fashion/weddings/21unio.html?mcubz=0|title=Ayun Halliday and Greg Kotis|work= The New York Times|publisher=|author=Brady Smith, Lois|date=May 21, 2006|access-date=October 2, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joanne-rendell/theater-on-their-own-terms_b_7785570.html|title=Theater on Their Own Terms|work=The Huffington Post|publisher=|author=Rendell, Joanne|date=July 14, 2015|access-date=October 2, 2017}}</ref>
Halliday and Kotis are co-founders of Theater of the Apes.
Halliday created and hosts ''Necromancers of the Public Domain'', a monthly performance series in New York City, wherein a dusty book from the New York Society Library is turned in a low budget variety show.
==Published books== *''The Big Rumpus'' (published in the UK as ''Mama Lama Ding Dong'') (2002) *''No Touch Monkey! And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late'' (2003) *''Job Hopper'' (2005) *''Dirty Sugar Cookies: Culinary Observations, Questionable Taste'' (2006) *''Always Lots of Heinies at the Zoo'' (2009) *''The Zinester's Guide to NYC'' (2010) *''Peanut'' (2012) *''Creative, Not Famous: The Small Potato Manifesto (2022)'' *''Creative, Not Famous Activity Book (2023)'' *''Panther City: Tales of a Gen X Grade 3 Class Project Run Amok (2025)''
==Plays== *''Farang (1992)'' *''Bagel: Anatomy as Simile (1994)'' *''Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (1989-1998)'' *''The Mermaid's Legs'' (2014) *''Fawnbook'' (2015) *''Zamboni Godot (2017)'' *''Nurse! (2018)''
== References == {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.ayunhalliday.com Official website] *[http://www.dirtysugarcookies.blogspot.com Dirty Sugar Cookies food blog] *[http://www.whogoslavia.blogspot.com Whogoslavia? travel blog] *[http://www.publicaddress.net/default,3453.sm#post3453 2006 Interview with Ayun] *[http://www.theater-of-the-apes.com/ Theater of the Apes website] *[https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/12/style/vows-ayun-halliday-and-greg-kotis.html ''New York Times'' "Vows" column] *[https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93aHltb21teWRyaW5rc3BvZGNhc3QubGlic3luLmNvbS9yc3M/episode/ODZkMjMxYjAtY2M5Mi00NWYyLTkxYTEtZDBmZjMwNmZhYThh?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwjwlcuyj-L2AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQCg&hl=en Why Mommy Drinks podcast] Ayun Halliday: What the Freakin' Fudge?
{{Portal |Children's literature}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Halliday, Ayun}} Category:Living people Category:American women bloggers Category:American bloggers Category:American memoirists Category:American humorists Category:American children's writers Category:Writers from Indianapolis Category:20th-century American dramatists and playwrights Category:1965 births Category:21st-century American women writers Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers Category:20th-century American women writers Category:American women memoirists Category:American women humorists Category:People from East Harlem Category:People from the East Village, Manhattan Category:Writers from Manhattan Category:Actresses from Manhattan