Terrence McNally is an American playwright.

He was born in St. Petersburg, Florida on November 3rd, 1939, and was raised in Corpus Christi, Texas. In 1956, McNally moved to New York City to attend Columbia University to major in English, graduating in 1960. In the same year, he gained membership into the Phi Beta Kappa Society.

After graduation, McNally moved to Mexico to focus on his writing, completing a one-act play which he submitted to The Actor's Studio in New York for production. While the play was turned down by the acting school, the Studio was impressed with the script, and McNally was invited to serve as the Studio's stage manager so that he could gain practical knowledge of theater.

His early comedies such as Next (1969) and The Ritz (1975) won McNally some acclaim, but he achieved his first major success with Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune (1987), for which he wrote the screen adaptation which starred Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer. McNally is gay, and often writes plays with gay themes.