Bill Nelson is a New York City-based lyricist, bookwriter and playwright. With composer Joseph Trefler, he wrote Men with Money, which premiered at the Aurora Theatre in Atlanta (eight Suzi Bass Award nominations). With composer Anna K. Jacobs he wrote Harmony, Kansas which premiered at The Diversionary Theatre in San Diego (four SCENIE Awards, three San Diego Theatre Critics Circle nominations). He also wrote Bill Nelson’s All-Male Revue—a revue of his songs conceived and directed by William Finn for Barrington Stage Co. His plays have been seen across the country and his songs have been presented around the world, including Lincoln Center's Broadway's Future Songbook: Bill Nelson, Carnegie Hall's Voices of Hope Festival, William Finn’s Songs by Ridiculously Talented Composers at Joe’s Pub and Barrington Stage Company, and New York Theatre Barn’s The Oh, So Sexy Songs of Bill Nelson. Bill Nelson's Nutcrackin' Christmas: An All-Original, Ridiculously Merry Cabaret/Variety Brouhaha! premiered in New York in 2016. Bill's work has been developed and/or supported by NAMT, The Dramatists Guild Foundation, Goodspeed Musicals, Barrington Stage Company, New York Theatre Barn, Musical Theatre Factory, the BMI Workshop, and NYU, among others.

Originally from the Midwest, Bill co-founded Burning Moon Productions, a Kansas City theatre group dedicated to staging works about gay folks. Among the shows he wrote under that umbrella are Tales from Gaydom and Mishappenance. For Imagination Studio he wrote the serial, Welcome to Paradise. He's also penned productions for the Heartland Men's Chorus.

Bill was a winner of 2015’s New Voices Project sponsored by Walt Disney Imagineering Creative Entertainment. He’s a published lyricist, a Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow, and a longstanding member of BMI's Advanced Songwriting Workshop and Librettists Workshop. He was recognized as NEO7 (New, Emerging, Outstanding) Musical Theatre Writer by York Theatre Company. He received an M.F.A. in Musical Theatre Writing at NYU-Tisch where he wrote, with composer Daniel Lincoln, the musical Savannah: a Jazz Fable. He's a teaching artist (teaching theatre writing) for the Dramatists Guild Foundation and a freelance script consultant.