Jeffrey James Keyes

is the co-author of the New York Times Best Seller Killer Chef with James Patterson and a graduate of Columbia University's MFA Playwriting Program. His theater credits include The End of Days (SoHo Playhouse/New York International Fringe Festival), Southies (Samuel French OOB Festival), The Biltmore Academy (New York Madness, Prologue Theatre), Imaginary Friends (Samuel French OOB Festival & Prologue Theatre), I'm From Driftwood (Project Y/Access Theater), Immortal: The Gilgamesh Variations (Bushwick Starr), Dance Dance Arden (Old Vic/New Voices, 3LD), Cell Beget Cell (Old Vic), Room 407 (59E59), Josh Groban Fanclub (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Into the Shallow End (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Moonshine on the Rocks (78th Street Theater Project), and Williamsburg (Manhattan Rep).

As a producer, Jeffrey worked on the travel series Out in GayCities with Lexus, the Sundance series Revealing featuring Joe Zee, and MTV's True Life. His short films 181 and Uniform were showcased at over 30 festivals. He received the 2019 Artists' Patron Fund Gold Award for Cream City, a television pilot co-written with Matt W. Cody, and the 2022 Fresh Fruit Festival Audience Favorite Award for his short Christmas. His script for Digital Arrest, a virtual reality project, won the top prize at the 2019 NYC Media Lab. Additionally, his monologue Safe Word (The 24 Hour Plays) was nominated for Best Digital Entertainment at The Queerties.

Jeffrey is the inaugural recipient of PEN America’s L'Engle/Rahman Prize for Mentorship, awarded through its Prison and Justice Writing program. His work spans multiple genres, including his acclaimed collection of ghost story plays currently being adapted into DRAMA - an aural experience, an audio fiction podcast through AKS Immersive. Episodes are released biweekly, and more information can be found at drama-pod.com.

He regularly contributes to LGBTQIA+ media, including his popular "On the Go" column with GayCities. Additional writing and projects can be found on New Play Exchange and his YouTube channel.

KILLER CHEF

Eat, drink, and be murdered.
Someone is poisoning diners in New Orleans’ best restaurants. Now it’s up to chef and homicide cop Caleb Rooney to catch a killer–who has an appetite for revenge.

Co-authored with James Patterson for Hachette Book Group and Little, Brown and Company. 

Read an excerpt here