David Alan Mamet (/ˈmæmɪt/; born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, author, and filmmaker. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony nominations for his plays Glengarry Glen Ross(1984) and Speed-the-Plow (1988).

He first gained critical acclaim for a trio of 1970s off-Broadway plays: The Duck Variations, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and American Buffalo. His plays, Race and The Penitent, respectively, opened on Broadway in 2009 and premiered off-Broadway in 2017. Feature films that Mamet both wrote and directed include House of Games (1987), Homicide (1991), The Spanish Prisoner (1997), and his biggest commercial success, Heist (2001).