Moisés Kaufman was born and raised in Venezuela.

He first received international acclaim for his Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde. He subsequently wrote The Laramie Project, about the reaction to the brutal murder of gay university student Matthew Shepard, and directed Doug Wright's Pulitzer Prize–winning drama about East German transvestite Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, I Am My Own Wife, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. His new theater piece, 33 Variations, recently premiered at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.