Thomas Montgomery Gregory (August 31, 1887 – November 21, 1971) was a dramatist, educator, social philosopher and activist, historian and a leading figure in the National Negro Theatre Movement.

Montgomery Gregory, a native of Washington, D.C., was key in cultivating and nurturing the concept of a National Negro Theatre Movement during the early decades of the 20th century against the backdrop of an 80-year-old minstrel tradition and the popularity of Black-themed dramatic works by white writers, underscored by the commercially fledgling efforts of Black playwrights in America.

At Howard University, Gregory founded the acclaimed college theater troupe, The Howard Players. Formerly, the university's theatre interests were served by the College Dramatic Club, developed in 1909 by English instructor Ernest Just and a group of students. Gregory was the organizer of the Howard University Department of Dramatic Art and Public Speaking in 1921 and co-creator with Alain Locke of The Stylus literary club.

Gregory was appointed the first director of the drama department and was joined in his efforts by acting coach Marie Moore Forrest, and stage designer Cleon Throckmorton of the Provincetown Players. The department's course in Pageantry and Drama was the first of its kind in the U.S. to be offered for credit. Through his work at Howard, Gregory generated national interest in legitimate Black drama, collaborating with important playwrights such as Willis Richardson, Paul Green, and Eugene O'Neill, and creating, via The Howard Players, a critically acclaimed forum for student-written plays and performances. George Pierce Baker of the 47 Workshop at Harvard University cited The Howard Players as one of the two most creative college theatre companies in the United States, with The Carolina Playmakers of the University of North Carolina being the other.

Gregory was educated at Williston Seminary (1902-1906), then Harvard University, graduating in the celebrated Class of 1910 which included T. S. Eliot, Walter Lippmann and John Reed. His father, James Monroe Gregory, who transferred from Oberlin College in 1868 to become the first student enrolled in Howard University's College Department, was in the university's first graduating class of three men, and stayed on as a member of the faculty. His mother, Fannie Emma Hagan, a former Howard student of Madagascan descent, was an independent-minded woman, who, while a Howard faculty spouse, mentored young students and devoted much of her life to the up-liftment of “colored women.”

The family's home on the Howard campus stood on the present site of the Ira Aldridge Theatre. The elder Gregory was instrumental in acquiring the first significant Congressional endowment for Howard. In 1897, the James Monroe Gregory family left Washington, D.C. for Bordentown, New Jersey, where Professor Gregory took the helm of the Bordentown Industrial and Manual Training School.

In 1910, after completing his studies at Harvard University, Montgomery Gregory was appointed English Instructor at Howard, rising quickly to Professor and, in 1919, Head of department. In 1918, he married Hugh Ella Hancock of Austin, Texas. Their offspring were writer/poet Yvonne (deceased), Thomas Montgomery Jr. (deceased), Hugh Hancock (deceased), Eugene Chandler (deceased), Mignon (deceased), and writer/former television producer Sheila Gregory Thomas, who resides in Washington, D.C.

In 1919, Gregory organized The Howard Players, and in 1921 became the first director of the newly organized division of Dramatic Art and Public Speaking. "During the period from 1919 to 1925, drama at the university reached a peak both financially and technically."2 It was during those years that Gregory began orchestrating his dream of a National Negro Theatre.