Abby Ajayi graduated from Oxford University with a law degree and began her career working in script development at the BBC before turning to writing. After writing episodes on shows including: Eastenders and Hollyoaks in the UK, Abby was a Fulbright Scholar, studying screenwriting at the New York Film Academy. In the US, Abby’s credits include: How To Get Away with Murder (ABC/ Shondaland) and the TV adaptation of Four Weddings and a Funeral (Hulu/ MGM). Most recently, she was a Supervising Producer on the upcoming Inventing Anna (Netflix/ Shondaland). Abby is currently developing film and television projects in both the US and UK.

A member of the 2016 Nantucket Screenwriters Colony, Ajani Jackson grew up in a middle-American college town, the son of professors; both forged in the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. After studying under Kevin Willmott at the University of Kansas, Ajani earned his Screenwriting MFA from Columbia University where his short projects received the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Short Film Award & the Everest Entertainment Development Award, before playing at film festivals around the world. During that time, he worked in development at Cine Mosaic before developing stories with directors Jeremy Xido (Death Metal Angola) and Zachary Heinzerling (Cutie & the Boxer). His screenplay, “Margaret Grey,” garnered second-round consideration for the Sundance Feature Screenwriting Lab.

Ajani is currently writing for the video game Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, developing a feature script with Circle of Confusion and a television series with eOne and Cedar Park Entertainment (David Ayer and Chris Long’s company).

ALAN R. BAXTER (he/him) is a Chinese-American writer whose grandparents entered the country illegally by boat. He grew up in a mixed-race family in the desert town of Valencia, California. Inspired by his grandparents’ stories, he discovered a love for writing and attended Chapman University earning a BFA in Film/TV Production. His work at a local bank provided great fodder for his scripts such as catching a drug dealer laundering money and uncovering a financial advisor sending illicit wires. Eventually, he left banking to be a stay-at-home dad and care for his young daughter with special needs. Despite its challenges, they absolutely love their time together. Alan was selected as a TV fellow in Variety's High Scribe Writing Lab, Middlebury Script Lab and Screenwriters Colony Episodic Lab. His mentors include Showrunner Hawk Ostby (The Expanse) and Co-Executive Producer Laurence Andries (Blue Bloods). In addition, Alan became a finalist in NBC's Writers on the Verge program.

Aleem Hossain is a filmmaker, ar/vr creator, and professor. His father is a Muslim from Bangladesh and his mother comes from a white New England Roman Catholic family. This multi-racial/multi-cultural background shapes his creative work. Aleem wrote and directed After We Leave, a sci-fi feature film that premiered at Sci-Fi London in 2019. In 2017, as part of the VR Action Lab, he wrote and directed No Easy Answers, a 360-video anti-bullying project for middle schoolers in collaboration with Google, Harmony Labs, and Screenwriters Colony. In 2016, he was selected for the initial Oculus Launchpad program, a VR incubator run by Facebook/Oculus, where he began developing his VR docu-series, I Never Told You. Aleem is the Assistant Professor of Digital Storytelling at Occidental College where his teaching is focused on expanding how we tell stories and who gets to tell them.

www.aleemhossain.com

Alexandra’s films have screened at venues such as New Directors/New Films, The Los Angeles Film Festival and The Starz International Film Festival, The Hamptons International Film Festival, The Nantucket Film Festival among others. Her film, Bittersweet Place, premiered at the Tribeca Film festival, garnering a special Jury Commendation and was acquired by the Sundance Channel. In 2012, her short Crazy Love was commissioned by AFI. She is developing the feature Tillie and Dorry starring Mary Stuart Masterson. In her copious spare time, Alexandra is a commercial producer and director as well as a photo editor.

Alexandra is the recipient of the Tribeca Film Institute’s Next Exposure Low Budget Independent Film Completion Grant Program. She is an alumnus of The Nantucket Screenwriters Colony, the Film Independent Screenwriters’ Lab, a Fulbright scholar and received her MFA from The Yale School of Art. She is set to launch her production company Qualitypictures.co with friend and collaborator, Mary Stuart Masterson.

www.alexandrabrodsky.com

www.qualitypictures.co

Andreas Trolf is the writer and co-creator of the Emmy-nominated Sanjay and Craig. He is also the writer and producer of the Adult Swim series Tigtone and has written and produced a pilot for Amazon Studios. He has directed music videos for, among others, Datarock and The Fresh & Onlys. His fiction has been widely published in magazines and literary journals, as well as collected in the anthology Life and Limb. He divides his time between New York and Los Angeles.

You can connect with him at www.imdb.com/name/nm5643946/ , andreastrolf.com or @andreastrolf

Annie J. Howell is a screenwriter and director. Her most recent credit is for the independent film YELLOW ROSE, starring Eva Noblezada (HADESTOWN), which she wrote with director Diane Paragas. That film is the recipient of three Grand Jury Prizes for Best Narrative Feature: LA Asian Pacific Film Festival, CAAMFest in San Francisco, and Geena Davis’ Bentonville Film Festival. Howell also wrote the screenplay for LITTLE BOXES, starring Melanie Lynskey and the late Nelsan Ellis, which premiered at Tribeca 2016 and sold to Netflix worldwide. She has co-written and co-directed two features with Lisa Robinson: SMALL, BEAUTIFULLY MOVING PARTS (2012, starring Anna Margaret Hollyman) and CLAIRE IN MOTION (2017, starring Betsy Brandt). Each film premiered at SXSW and played festivals and select theaters nationwide. She is the recipient of the Sloan Feature Film Prize, an IFP Emerging Narrative Award for Best Feature and a San Francisco Film Society/Rainin Foundation grant.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0397927/

ayla xuan chi sullivan (they/them) is a Black and Vietnamese, non binary, interdisciplinary arts practitioner from Denver, Colorado. They are an actor, a playwright, a director, a poet, an educator, and a co-founder of Shift 23 Media. They create and question the nature of performance through their desire to dismantle and disengage with the white supremacist commitment to the Hierarchy of Humanity. Sullivan’s genre crossing work is often referred to as “love poems addressed to people in our community we are conditioned to forget”: Black, Indigenous, Asian, Queer and Trans People of Color, those experiencing homelessness, immigrants, and anyone who is (or has been) caged. In New York, they are currently developing The Gift Quest, a year spanning theatre for one performance series for the Incarcerated, and their solo musical show lockdown cockdown, based on how they survived six active shooter situations. Their real passion is speaking to the most people possible, which is why they want to dedicate themselves to the world of television. So far, they are the creator and star of You, Me, and the FAFSA (currently being taught in television courses at Emerson College) and the short film D.A.M.E.

Beanie Barnes is a Nicholl Fellowship Finalist, a BlueCat Screenplay Competition Winner, and a Film Independent “Project Involve” Writer-Director Fellow.

Beanie began her career as a Casting Associate on “Barbershop” and “Spy Kids 2.” She went on to become an Associate Producer on “Lords of Dogtown,” to help establish the DRM strategy for Cinetic Media, and to theatrically distribute Joshua Sanchez’s, “Four,” through her company, 306 Releasing, in partnership with AMC Theatres.

Beanie resides in N.Y.C. where she is the 2018-2019 Screenwriting Teaching Artist for the Ghetto Film School, a published opinion writer on matters of film, race and culture, and a Film Programmer for the Bushwick Film Festival.

A former Junior Olympian, Beanie earned her B.A. from the University of Nebraska, where she was the first woman to play with the men’s varsity football team. She earned her M.B.A. from Yale University.

LINKS

imdb

website

Ben is the writer of the four-hour ABC miniseries, MADOFF, starring Richard Dreyfuss and Blythe Danner, for which he received a 2016 WGA Award nomination.

Ben has also written or developed shows for HBO, USA, WGN, and Discovery Networks, was a staff writer on the ABC show FINAL WITNESS, and has taught screenwriting at both NYU and Columbia. Working in film, he has had numerous original feature scripts optioned or commissioned. A native of Cleveland, Ohio and an alumnus of Yale University, he lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Born in Asunción, Paraguay, Bettina Escauriza is a filmmaker, writer, and artist living in Philadelphia. She is a natural storyteller from a family of frustrated mystics, spectacular liars, ill-fated thieves, and awful politicians. Her work deals with Indigenous knowledge (specifically Guaraní epistemologies), colonization, immigration, anarchism, and exile. Her aim as a filmmaker is to tell stories about Indigenous people and people of color that are lush, sensual, thrilling, and complex — whose aim is to tell the truth about the communities she comes from by centering narratives of joy, defiance, and resistance in the face of oppression. Bettina also does international human rights work at the United Nations, focusing specifically on the role of Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous knowledge in mitigating the current climate crisis.

Bettina is a Sundance Knight Fellow, a Flaherty Seminar Fellow, a Research and Curatorial Fellow at Slought (UPenn), and an IEar Fellow (RPI).

www.bettina-escauriza.com

http://ciis.academia.edu/BrandonMauriceWilliams

Bryce Kass wrote and executive produced LIZZIE, starring Chloe Sevigny and Kristen and Stewart, which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and was released worldwide by Roadside Attractions. He currently has two projects in development with George Clooney and Grant Heslov's Smokehouse Productions, a WW2 biopic with John Lesher's Le Grisbi Films and is in pre-production on a sci-film drama with director Lasse Hallstrom and producer Laura Bickford. In addition, he has a grounded sci-if TV pilot in development with NBCU.

Callum Smith is an ex-dressage rider from Stratford Upon-Avon, UK, who writes scripts for attention because he is quite insecure.

He has, somehow, graduated from Columbia University's MFA Film program and received accolades including his short film Haxxors being awarded a production grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and his pilot script, ‘Minor’, being selected as a finalist in the AMC One Hour Pilot Contest at the Austin Film Festival. His short film ‘East Hell’ premiered at the Buried Alive Film Festival 2016 and played at festivals around the US. As a director and writer of branded video content his client list includes JCPenney, Swarovski and Vox Media. He has worked with Pinewood Studios directing the performances of voice actors on multiple AAA video games, including ‘Tom Clancy’s The Division 2’ and the upcoming 'Watch Dogs: Legion".

He is based in London, which he chose because of its dangerous levels of air pollution and terrible food.

Instagram

http://www.jaijamison.com/the-team

CHASE PALMER is a Brooklyn-based writer/director. His two award-winning short films, NEO-NOIR and SHOCK AND AWE, have played at film festivals worldwide, including Sundance, the BFI London Film Festival, and Deauville.

Current projects include writing/directing a feature adaptation of the PEN-prize winning book A NAKED SINGULARITY with Ridley Scott producing; adapting the Josh Malerman novel UNBURY CAROL for the director Cary Fukunaga, writing THE ROBBER for JC Chandor and Amazon, and adapting the New York Times series THE OUTLAW OCEAN for Netflix and Appian Way.

Past projects include co-writing IT CHAPTER ONE for Warners and New Line; THE ALIENIST for TNT, adapting the New York Times best seller THE SEARCH FOR WONDLA by acclaimed children’s author Tony Diterlizzi for Paramount; and the Civil War heist movie NO BLOOD, NO GUTS, NO GLORY for producer Kevin Misher and Focus, which was on the 2009 Hollywood “Black List” of best unproduced screenplays.

Chris Galletta ('10) is the screenwriter of the coming of age comedy "The Kings of Summer" and an upcoming stop-motion animated comedy-fantasy for Laika, Inc. ("Coraline", "Kubo and the Two Strings"). Before screenwriting, he was a contributing writer to The Late Show with David Letterman. His work can also be found on sites like Vanity Fair and Vice. He is based in New York.

https://pro.festivalscope.com/director/roquet-clara

After learning his wife was pregnant via Skype on his last day at the Colony, Clark got stuck on island by a Nor’easter then escaped on a commercial barge two days later. He spent two years in Los Angeles toting golf bags and has since settled in Austin, TX with his wife and son. His Showtime Tony Cox Award-winning script, Early Plus Infinity, is in preproduction with Teddy Grennan and Alexa Woodward set to produce. He’s just finished The Cusack Crisis, a comedy about a man who seeks vengeance against the movie star he feels misled him in his youth. He’s also adapting two pilots into features since he’ll never live in L.A. again. Substance takes on adolescent drug addiction while Beeing, an animated comedy, is about a bumblebee who learns his sole duty in life is to fertilize the queen then die. Both are semi-autobiographical.

Clay Liford has written and directed four features to date, including WUSS (SXSW 2011, AFI 2011 Audience Award Winner), EARTHLING (SXSW 2010, Sitges) & SLASH (SXSW 2016, Edinburgh, Munich, Fantasia,

Fantastic Fest). His award-winning short, MY MOM SMOKES WEED, has played over 40 festivals, including the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.. As a cinematographer, Clay has shot over twenty features, including the award winning ST. NICK (SxSW 2009) and GAYBY (SxSW 2012). Clay is represented by Melissa Breaux at Management 360.

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0509828/

Lebanese writer/director, based in New York and Beirut. His feature documentary, ‘The Swing’ (2018), premiered in Karlovy Vary and won awards in El-Gouna, Rome, London, Budapest and Tunisia. The Hollywood reporter called it an ‘intimate and moving […] meditation on truth, love and lies in the face of illness and death’. His fiction short ‘The President’s Visit’ (2017), premiered in Toronto (TIFF) and played in over 60 film festivals.

Aris holds an MFA from Columbia University and is a voting member in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences®. Currently, he is in development for his first fiction feature, ‘It’s a Sad and Beautiful World’, selected at the 2019 TIFF Filmmaker Lab, the Screenwriter Colony in Nantucket, the Cine-Gouna platform in Egypt, and a residency at the Cité-des-Arts in Paris. It won the A.R.T award at the 4th Beirut Cinema Platform.

Darius Clark Monroe (Black 14, Random Acts of Flyness) is a writer, producer and director. Monroe’s collective work has screened at SXSW, BAMcinemaFest, Full Frame, BlackStar, MoMA, Whitney Museum, Palm Springs, Sundance, True/False, New Directors, AFI Fest, Telluride, Tokyo, Uppsala, on HBO, PBS, Netflix, and innumerable galleries, schools, churches, backyards, and random hotel banquet halls.

Monroe was born/bred in Houston. Lives in Brooklyn.

DAVID ANDERSON is an LA-based, Minnesota-born writer and director. With a unique yet accessible voice, Anderson’s work is a hybrid of Coen Brothers’ deviance with Kermit The Frog genuineness, all packaged in a tidy Midwestern bow.

Anderson’s peerless style can be seen in his recently completed feature film, AFTER THE REALITY (starring Matthew Morrison and Sarah Chalke). It was distributed by THE ORCHARD/1091 MEDIA and is now available across the country (on all digital and cable platforms) and the globe. He is currently putting financing together for his next feature, BLACK APPLE (MICHAEL CLAYTON meets FARGO), a neo-noir thriller about school standardized testing. Over the past year, he was a staff writer on the CBS Saturday morning show, THE INSPECTORS. In addition, his completed pilots ZEN OF RADISSON and AMERICAN LETHAL are just starting to be pitched to producers.

Prior to AFTER THE REALITY, his award-winning short film BOATS AGAINST THE CURRENT (starring Jason Ritter and Kelen Coleman) screened at dozens of festivals and will soon be available on iTunes.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1379002/

Born & raised in Chicago, Donald’s Academy Award-qualifying short, SLEEP, premiered on HBO in 2013.

Donald was the Associate Producer of Darius Clark Monroe’s feature length documentary, Evolution of a Criminal. In 2018, Donald produced South Oxford, All Iowa Lawn Tennis Club, Maravilla, Serve, a series of four short documentaries based on articles published by Racquet Magazine. Executive produced by Topic, South Oxford, AILTC, Maravilla, Serve premiered at the 2019 Whitney Museum Biennial.

Donald is currently in post production for a six-part political documentary series executive produced by ITVS.

A North Dakota native, Elizabeth Chatelain has directed several documentary and narrative shorts including MY SISTER SARAH, winner of the International Documentary Association’s Award for Best Student Documentary and a Student Academy Award Finalist. Her films have screened at festivals across the country and the world. She is currently working on her first feature project, SUNDOGS, which participated in the Berlinale Script Station, the Hedgebrook Screenwriter's Lab, and was an Academy Nicholl Fellowship Semi-Finalist, Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition Winner and Showtime Tony Cox Screenplay Competition Winner. She holds a BA in Film and Media Culture from Middlebury College, and an MFA in Film and Video Production from University of Texas at Austin.

In the age of remakes and sequels, Emma Needell has made waves and won hearts by championing the power of original stories. Needell grew up on a solar-powered cattle ranch in Colorado and first discovered the larger world through movies. Her talent caught the attention of Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Films, who came on to produce her breakout script, THE WATER MAN. Production on THE WATER MAN has begun, and the team now includes ShivHans producing in lieu of Disney.

Her second screenplay, prison-break musical SONGS OF THE DAMNED, sold to MGM/Orion with Grammy-winning music producer Mark Ronson composing original music and Anonymous Content producing. In 2017, she sold a movie pitch to Netflix with Patrick Osborne attached to direct and Anonymous Content producing. In 2018, Emma began her first TV venture, writing an original episode for Apple and Steven Spielberg's anthology series "Amazing Stories."

www.emdfilms.com

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4928977/

Eva Vives won the Best Short Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and Cannes Film Festival with FIVE FEET HIGH AND RISING, a short she cast, edited and produced. She followed that up with RAISING VICTOR VARGAS, which she co- wrote.

Vives’ short film JOIN THE CLUB premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016. That same year, she attended the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, Directors Lab, Skywalker Sound and Music and the Producers Lab.

Her semi-autobiographical debut feature ALL ABOUT NINA, starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Common, opened in theaters last year and is available on Netflix. Vives directed an episode of the hit TV show THE AFFAIR, which will air in August.

Vives is the recipient of the Best LatinX Director in 2018 by NALIP as well as Sundance’s Momentum Fellowship in 2019.

https://m.imdb.com/name/nm0900284/

Born in Buenos Aires, Francisco Kosterlitz worked in documentary filmmaking in his native Argentina before completing his MFA at the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles. Since then he’s worked as a screnwriter in Argentina, Spain, Mexico and the United States, collaborating with directors such as Bruno Stagnaro, Daniel Barone, Álvaro Brechner, Martín Desalvo, Pedro Martín-Calero and Mikel Gurrea. His wrote the feature film “The Silence of the Hunter”, which was selected to participate in the prestigious Program for the Development of Iberoamerican Projects -organized by Programa Ibermedia and held in Madrid- and currently in post-production. His first english-language script, “Stonefly”, is slated to start shooting later this year. He currently combines his work in feature films with the development of an original series for television for a production company based in LA. He is also developing the screenplay for his directing debut.

https://www.sarahlawrence.edu/faculty/strype-frederick-michael.html

Georgia Lin Sundling holds a BA in Film and Television and an MFA in Screenwriting from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. Her western feature THE LONG SHORT DROP, workshopped at the Nantucket Screenwriters Colony, went on to win a Samuel Goldwyn Award. She participated in the Sundance Institute Screenwriters Intensive with her western gothic CARRY US HOME. Her original pilot KARLSKOGA set in a modern-day oil boomtown was a finalist in Austin Film Festival’s AMC One-Hour Pilot Competition. She lives in Los Angeles.

Gillian Weeks turned to narrative film and television writing after a decade in the documentary space. In 2018, the Tribeca Film Institute nominated Gillian for a Sloan Grant that allowed her to write her feature LET THERE BE LIFE (Zubick Films and Stigma Films), which chronicles the invention of IVF. The following year, Gillian was selected as a 2019 Sundance Fellow. Gillian is now developing an original comedy-horror feature with Paul Feig’s Feigco, a drama series with Franklin Leonard and The Black List, and an original dramedy series with Park Pictures and EP Richard Schiff.

Before writing full-time, she oversaw series development for Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions managing all aspects of Netflix’s SALT FAT ACID HEAT and THE FAMILY and Showtime’s ENEMIES. Gillian graduated with a BA in Political Economy from Williams College and Oxford University. She's represented by Vern Co and Sandra Lucchesi at Gersh and Geoff Shaevitz at Management 360.

Haroula Rose's first feature film ONCE UPON A RIVER was named one of the "most anticipated films of 2019" by Filmmaker Magazine, and recently premiered as the Centerpiece Film at the Bentonville FIlm Festival. It was selected as one of four US in Progress projects in Wroclaw, Poland and continues its screenings around the world. Haroula's pilot LOST & FOUND was created in partnership with WarnerMedia starring Melonie Diaz, Terence Nance, Will Janowitz, and Jennifer Lafleur, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Haroula's work has been supported by a Fulbright Fellowship, Tribeca's All Access, Warner Brothers Directing Workshop, and WarnerMedia's Project 150.

Haroula lives between New York and Los Angeles where she is at work on her second feature film. She was born in Chicago and when she isn't writing or directing, Haroula makes music that’s released via Thirty Tigers in Nashville, and her songs can be heard in many series and films.

FB & IG @haroularose

HARRIS DORAN was shortlisted for the 2018 Film Independent Spirit Awards’ Someone to Watch Award for his writer/director debut feature BEAUTY MARK which won the lead actress Jury Prize at LA Film Festival, Best Ultra Indie Film Award at Woodstock, Audience Award at Austin, and many others. Harris’s short THE STORY OF MILO & ANNIE won the Indie Memphis Film Festival, and he produced PHOTO OP which won best LGBTQ short in SENE. He has written the screenplays ATTICUS BROWN IS STILL HERE (Sundance, Tribeca and Hamptons Sloan grant finalist), COG (Academy Nicholl Fellowship quarterfinalist), IN THE WAKE (Austin semifinalist), the stage musicals BLEEDING LOVE, WASP WOMAN, and SALVAGE, pop songs including “Falling Away” for Marian Raven (#1 European Billboard), and written for the TV series “I LOVE YOU BUT I LIED” for Lifetime. Harris is an acting coach who trained as an actor at The Juilliard School.

My website: www.harrisdoran.com

imbd: www.imdb.com/name/nm1563341

http://henryhay.es/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hern%C3%A1n_Jim%C3%A9nez

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1986692/

Born in Vietnam, Huong Nguyen immigrated with her mother to the US and was raised in Virginia. After graduating from the University of Virginia, Huong worked in healthcare consulting and wrote screenplays at night. She currently works as a writer for Disney’s BUNK’D.

Ian Olympio is a Ghanian-American, New York-based writer exploring identity—how we define ourselves vs. how the world defines us— through an intersectional lens. For the past two years, he’s worked as the Showrunner's Assistant on P-VALLEY, the Starz drama from award-winning playwright Katori Hall which drops July 2020.

Ian is also the recipient of the Made In New York Writers Room fellowship, a diversity mentorship program run by the Writers Guild of America and the City of New York. Out of 500 submissions, his original pilot GREATER HEIGHTS was the highest scored drama.

After receiving his BA in film and media art from American University, Ian spent two years at CAA and worked for the Chief Diversity Officer.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2635731/

Jason Kim is a Korean-born playwright and screenwriter. Jason is currently a Producer on BARRY for HBO. He most recently was a Consulting Producer on DIVORCE for HBO, a Consulting Producer on LOVE for Netflix, and an Executive Story Editor on GIRLS for HBO. He is developing KTOWN with Greta Lee for HBO, THE MIDDLESTEINS for Showtime with Nina Tassler producing, and overseeing the UNTITLED KID FURY PROJECT for HBO with Lena Waithe. He is currently adapting the upcoming true crime book THE FLAWLESS for Fox Searchlight Pictures. His play THE MODEL AMERICAN opened the Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2017 on the Nikos Stage. His musical KPOP premiered last year to rave reviews and sold out crowds at Ars Nova Theater in New York and won the Richard Rogers Award, the Off-Broadway Alliance Award, and Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical.

www.waytooserious.com

Jennifer Kushner received her MFA in Production from the USC School of Cinematic Arts where she wrote, directed and produced several short films that have played festivals across the country. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Northwestern University, where she majored in Performance Studies. She worked as an actor in New York performing in plays and experimental theater before deciding to pursue filmmaking. After graduate school she worked as a director’s assistant on the film I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, worked as development assistant at Sobini Films, and finally joined the staff at Film Independent. As Director of Artist Development at Film Independent, Jennifer is a passionate advocate for bold voices in the art of visual storytelling as well as inclusion and diversity in the film industry. She is an alumnus of the Screenwriters Colony Writers-in-Residence Program on Nantucket.

Jennifer Maisel recently developed an original pilot called The 626 with Super Deluxe and adapted two Jane Green novels for television. She is currently working on a movie about campus rape and institutional betrayal with Just Singer Entertainment. Her screenplay, Lost Boy, was filmed starring Virginia Madsen. Other produced credits include The Assault, The March Sisters and Double Wedding. She co-created the critically acclaimed web series Faux Baby. Jennifer’s play THERE OR HERE recently had its London premiere; her THE LAST SEDER ran off-Broadway with Gaby Hoffmann after productions around the world. The screenplay adaptation of THE LAST SEDER won Showtime’s Tony Cox Screenwriting Award which brought her to the Colony. She has developed original pilots with ABC Family, Bunim-Murray, Ineffable, Stun Media and MomentumTV, written independent features as well as movies for NBC, MTV and VH-1 and worked on an animated feature for Disney.

www.jennifermaisel.com

Jenny Deller is an award-winning writer-director. Her debut feature, Future Weather, stars Amy Madigan, Lili Taylor and Perla Haney-Jardine as a troubled young environmentalist. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was distributed worldwide. Future Weather received the Showtime Tony Cox Award for Screenwriting. The project also received three grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for its unique portrayal of climate change. Most recently, Jenny produced Claire in Motion, starring Betsy Brandt and Sakina Jaffrey, written and directed by fellow SC alum Annie J. Howell. It premiered at SXSW. Jenny’s short documentary, Containing Addiction, was commissioned by the Science and Entertainment Exchange. Trained as an actor, Jenny has appeared on Law & Order. Her work has been supported by Netflix, Film Independent, Tribeca Film Institute, Women in Film and The Wexner Center. She is currently developing a psychological thriller with producers Katrina Wolfe (Nightingale) and Ryan Cunningham (Broad City).

Joe Keohane is a veteran journalist who has worked at--and/or whose work has appeared in--Esquire, New York magazine, Wired, the New Yorker, the Boston Globe, Washington Post, Slate and other publications of varying repute and quality. A still-aspiring screenwriter, he is currently writing a book for Random House about talking to strangers, due out in summer of 2020. He is also a very good parallel parker, a very bad athlete, and a Leo, which means little to him but which others say is unsurprising.

Twitter @joekeohane

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1552153/bio

Josh Ruben is an award-winning director, writer, and actor best known for creating and/or starring in thousands of comedic shorts for CollegeHumor. For television, Josh has directed sketches for The Late Late Show with James Corden, TruTV’s Adam Ruins Everything, and Netflix’s upcoming The Green Beret’s Guide to Surviving the Apocalypse, produced by Matt Damon and Peter Berg. As a commercial director, Josh has helmed spots for clients like Geico, DiGiorno, Sling, Vogue, Save The Children, Lucky Charms, Lays, and The Bronx Zoo. In 2018, Josh was selected to participate in the Just for Laughs Creators panel. He is also an alumni of the 2017 Screenwriter’s Colony VR Storytelling Program, where he met acclaimed interactive filmmaker Peter Flaherty and subsequently co-produced his 2019 Sundance augmented reality film, THE DIAL. Josh recently directed, wrote, and starred opposite Aya Cash and Chris Redd in his feature film debut, SCARE ME.

Kaitlin Fontana is a writer, director, and producer, and a National Magazine award-winning essayist. She was a finalist in the 2018 HBOAccess Directing Fellowship. Her directorial debut, Franchesca, was an official 2018 Sundance Film Festival selection. Kaitlin is a WriteHer List Honoree, a WGA/Made in New York Writers Room Fellow, and Showtime Tony Cox Award winner, all for her pilot Casey Can’t, which is currently in development. She was born in Fernie, British Columbia, Canada, a distinction she shares with Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson.

Website: kaitlinfontana.com

Kaitlin McLaughlin is a writer/director based in Los Angeles. Her debut feature HOSTILE BORDER was released by Samuel Goldwyn Films and Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2016. The LA Times hailed the film as an “effective crime thriller with a strong visual sense, intriguing tempo and effective economy of words.” Paste Magazine noted, “McLaughlin gives her characters incisive dialogue that keeps the human relations front and center.” HOSTILE BORDER (previously titled POCHA) premiered at the 2015 Los Angeles Film Festival, winning both the Audience Award and a Special Jury Prize in Directing. It also received the Grand Jury Prize for best narrative feature at the 2015 Urbanworld Film Festival.

In 2020, Kaitlin will direct her screenplay THE MURPHYS, which received the 2011 Showtime Tony Cox Award for Best Screenplay from the Nantucket Film Festival. She has also taken the project to the Screenwriters Colony and Film Independent's Screenwriters Lab.

http://themurphysmovie.com

KATE TORGOVNICK MAY (she/her) is a television writer who’s continually fascinated by people and the strange things that make them tick. All of her work is grounded in in-depth research and a desire to understand people’s passions and motivations. Kate built her career as a journalist, writing about female cab drivers and professional roadies for Jane Magazine, bike polo players and Jewish tattoo evangelists for The New York Times and South Korean animators and female politicians of the 1920s for The Atlantic. Her narrative non-fiction book, CHEER!:Inside the Secret World of College Cheerleaders, was published by Simon & Schuster. The CW network transformed the book into the hit series HELLCATS, executive produced by Tom Welling and Kevin Murphy. Kate served as Consulting Producer. After seven years at TED Talks, writing special video series (like the Webby award-winning Small Thing, Big Idea), Kate moved to Los Angeles to pursue television writing full-time. She just finished her run as a Staff Writer on NCIS, the most popular show in the world, for which she wrote two episodes during Season 17.

Katherine Craft is a Texas native, playwright, and theatre maker. She has an MFA in Screenwriting from the University of Texas at Austin, and holds an MA in Applied Drama from Goldsmiths College of London.

She's the creator and writer of Kappa Crypto, a Snapchat Original series. She also received a 2017 HBOAccess Writing Fellowship, and her pilot Halfway, written as part of the program, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. She has written and produced several short narrative films: June (2018), which won first place in the HBO 2018 Asian Pacific American Visionaries showcase, and Charlotte and Charlie (2018), which is a finalist in the PBS Online Film Festival.

She founded Conspire Theatre, a nonprofit that uses theatre to work with women during and after incarceration, and was the Hotline Coordinator for the Lilith Fund, an abortion fund in Austin, TX. She currently splits her time between LA and Austin.

Katherine Nolfi is a Los Angeles based screenwriter. Currently, she is writing on DreamWorks Animation and Netflix’s critically-acclaimed SHE-RA AND THE PRINCESSES OF POWER, finally gaining approval from her childhood self in the process. She has written and directed numerous award-winning films which have played at SXSW, Slamdance, and the Los Angeles Film Festival, among others. A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts’ film program, she is an alumnus of the Nantucket Screenwriter’s Colony, the Film Independent Screenwriter’s Lab, and the FOX Writers Fellowship.

Kevin Seccia is a comedy writer living in Los Angeles. He is the author of the book Punching Tom Hanks. He's written for NBC, Amazon, MTV, Cartoon Network, Disney, and Paramount. He's currently the head writer on an upcoming Netflix animated show called Kid Cosmic. He is @kevinseccia on twitter if twitter is still around when you are reading this.

K.D. Dávila is a Chicana filmmaker from Los Angeles. Upon graduating with a degree in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University, she had to decide between joining the CIA or taking her chances at becoming a screenwriter. She chose to give Hollywood a shot, not realizing that the safer option probably would have been to join the CIA. After earning her MFA in Screenwriting from USC, she went on to be a 2016 Universal Pictures Writing Fellow and a 2017 Film Independent Project Involve Fellow. While at Film Independent she wrote EMERGENCY, which won Best Narrative Short at SXSW 2018, and the Special Jury Award at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. She was recently a Staff Writer on Salvation, and is currently a Story Editor on an upcoming series.

IMDB:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4944814/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1

Lily Baldwin is a multi-faceted creative working in NYC and LA. Her films are featured in The Criterion Collection, Filmmaker Magazine, NOWNESS, Vimeo Staff Pick, Short of the Week and Fandor. Lily's recent VR project, THROUGH YOU, co-directed with Saschka Unseld, premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was a recipient of the 2016 Sundance Institute New Frontier / Jaunt VR Residency. Prior to filmmaking, Lily worked extensively as a professional dancer, performing with The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Trisha Brown Dance Company, and with David Byrne on his EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS WILL HAPPEN World Tour and in its documentary RIDE RISE ROAR (SXSW premiere).

She has participated in the Screenwriter’s Colony Fellowship and Independent Film Week’s Emerging Storytellers in NYC. Lily has recently been a juror for the Tribeca Film Festival and World VR Forum and was named recently by Independent Magazine as one of "10 Filmmakers to Watch.” www.LilyBaldwin.com

Madalyn Baldanzi is a comedy writer, director, and teacher in New York City. She recently wrote for Go90's Mr. Student Body President. At the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theatre, Madalyn wrote for several house teams and shows including running shows Bullshit Women, A Date With Every Boy, and currently, Sketch Cram.

She was a 2017 Made In New York Writers Room Fellow. She is the co-writer of Above Average series Katie: A Lady and was a long-time contributor to Funny Or Die.

Madalyn is extremely fond of teaching sketch comedy and pilot writing at the Upright Citizens Brigade Training Center. She also enjoys directing live theatre, as well as directing and producing videos through her production company, Fancy Family.

Madalyn graduated from Swarthmore College and has an affinity for contemporary fiction. She is an avid follower of the US Women's National Soccer Team.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3004860/

MARCUS RAYE PĖREZ (he/him) is a proud Tejano hailing from a small town in South Texas called Bishop - total population: less than 3,500. After a lengthy high school & collegiate career in the world of speech & debate, Marcus moved to NYC to study at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. After one semester, he dropped out and continued auditioning professionally. In 2015, he was accepted into the Mason Gross School Of The Arts MFA in Acting program. Through this conservatory Marcus was able to study at the Shakespeare’s Globe in London and perform as the famous fat knight, Falstaff, in a production of Henry IV on The Globe stage. Since graduating, Marcus has continued to pursue a professional career as an actor in commercial, television and film. Most recently, Marcus guest-starred on the season 4 premiere of HBO’s ‘High Maintenance.’ Marcus began writing during the pandemic after an introductory course taught by Screenwriters Colony alum Kat Craft. He hopes to utilize his knowledge as an actor to create character driven stories that hope to diversify the meaning of what it means to be Latino in today’s world.

Matt Fennell is a New York based screenwriter hailing from the snowiest city in the United States— Syracuse, New York. Matt just wrapped his first season as Staff Writer for BILLIONS and is currently developing a television series along with Damien Echols and Lorri Davis with Cary Fukunaga’s production company Parliament of Owls. He is a Columbia Blue List Finalist, a 2nd Rounder at Austin Film Festival, and was one of four writers recommended and selected to the 2019 Screenwriters Colony Episodic Drama Residency where he worked with mentors Veena Sud, Beau Willimon, Jessica Mecklenburg, and Stefanie Berk.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3643930/

Matt Hobby is currently a series regular on CBS's Young Sheldon, as "Pastor Jeff." He recently co-created and co-wrote the pilot presentation KidLit for Hulu, and has previously written on the pilots Gettin' Some Strange and Better Dumber Faster, both for Kurt Braunohler and Comedy Central. He co-created the long-running character showcase in Los Angeles, “American Town Hall,” which is a fake city council meeting for a real town in America. In NYC, he was part of “New Exc!tment,” a highly physical sketch comedy group that performed at the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival.

IG @matthobby

A comedy writer with dashes of absurdity, genre, and darkness, Meg Favreau escaped the birch-fingered clutches of northern New Hampshire and now lives in Los Angeles. During her time in LA, Meg has written on multiple animated series, and she created and wrote the first season of TOTAL ECLIPSE (a tween dramedy with the thing most tween dramedies are missing: fantasy sequences about living on the moon). Meg’s prose humor has appeared in The American Bystander, Real Simple, The New Yorker, and McSweeney’s; she also has over a decade of sketch comedy experience.

Beyond comedy, Meg has worked as a food, weird history, and personal finance writer. Highlights include the cookbook LITTLE OLD LADY RECIPES (Quirk Books) and an interview on MARKETPLACE MONEY that netted several complaints about Meg's use of curse words when discussing savings accounts. In her free time, Meg promotes THE EYE, a source of oddity and friendship.

http://www.megfavreau.com

https://variety.com/2005/film/markets-festivals/megan-holley-1117924602/

MIKE ROMA is a writer and director based in Los Angeles, where he earned a BA in Film and Television Production from USC's School of Cinematic Arts.

Upon graduation, he wrote and directed DANNY THE MANNY, which earned over 500,000 views. In addition to coverage on HuffPost, The Advocate, and Logo TV, MANNY screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Calling it "nearly perfect", Indiewire named DANNY THE MANNY one of the Best Web Series of 2016.

Roma premiered his debut feature film DATING MY MOTHER at Frameline41, the world’s largest LGBT film festival. Starring Kathryn Erbe, Kathy Najimy, James Le Gros, and Paul Iacono, DATING MY MOTHER is now available on iTunes, Amazon, and Hulu through Gravitas Ventures.

In addition to his work as a writer and director, Roma video edits for a number of media companies, including Snap, ATTN:, and Viacom.

As a writer-director, Mitchell’s ANGELICA premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2015. HAPPY TEARS (written at the Colony) premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2009. TEETH premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007.

RESURRECTION, a short, premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2005

As an Actor, he had roles in Ang Lee's THE WEDDING BANQUET (Golden Bear - Berlin Film Festival 1993, Independent Spirit Award Nomination: Best Male Lead), and Robert Altman’s STREAMERS (Best Actor - Venice Film Festival 1983).

Mitchell is a Graduate of Bennington College (BA), and The Yale School of Drama (MFA).


Website: http://mlichtenstein.com/

Nicki Paluga is a Los Angeles-based writer who has worked on the staffs of The OA (Netflix), Ash vs. Evil Dead (Starz), Resurrection (ABC), Perception (TNT), Noir (Starz), and Legend of the Seeker (ABC-S/Tribune).

Raised in Ohio, Nicki is a graduate of Columbia University's MFA Film Program where she penned a supernatural feature entitled The Swiss Village. It garnered the Zaki Gordon for Excellence and Kathryn Parlan Hearst awards, and magnetized Screenwriters Colony and IFP, and the Blood List. She’s collaborated with Raimi and Tapert's Ghost House Pictures for Disney, and developed autobiographical material at HBO with Groundswell (Michael London) and Debra Granik producing.

Currently, Nicki is developing with Imagine Entertainment and is also teamed up with the Oscar-winning producers from Plan B, Universal Cable Productions, and ABC Signature Studios to bring a provocative, genre-busting series about the power of the female body to USA/SyFy.

Please visit Nicole’s work at: http://www.nicolebrending.com/about

Patrick Alexander is an award-winning filmmaker who currently serves as Professor of Screenwriting and Directing at Ringling College of Art & Design. He co-wrote the feature film, SHE'S IN PORTLAND, which completed production in 2018 and is due to premiere in 2019. Patrick wrote and is attached to direct the feature film, HOMEWRECKER, set to begin production in Florida. Patrick is also the co-founder and co-director of The John Alexander Project, a media nonprofit that produces international stories for NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Patrick currently splits his time between Los Angeles, CA and Sarasota, FL.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1955834/

Please see Patrick’s work at http://www.patricktobin.net/

After writing scripts for two major studios and lots of pitches and meetings all over LA, I’ve shifted focus. I enjoyed every experience and was really fortunate to meet so many talented people who championed my work both as a writer and a director. I still have a project or two that periodically gets renewed traction, but I spend most of my energy producing and art directing in NYC, working on a side venture, and practicing and teaching aikido.

Peter Flaherty is a director and interactive artist whose work has shown in over a hundred international venues. He conceived and directed The Dial, an interactive narrative combining AR & projection mapping (Sundance 2019). He created and directed The Surrogate, a groundbreaking Virtual Reality narrative (SXSW Interactive Innovation Award Finalist 2016). He created a massive, 5-hour video projection for Parsifal at the Metropolitan Opera and will return to the Met in 2020 to create an interactive version of The Flying Dutchman. His video installation, Pass Back a Revolver, premiered at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. On Broadway, he created the Video and Projection Design for Sondheim on Sondheim, later adapted for HBO's documentary film, Six by Sondheim. His video art showed at the MIT Media Lab and the home of Agnes Gund (President Emerita of MOMA). He is Head of the Interactive Media for Performance MFA Program at CalArts.

www.flahertypictures.com

Roberto Bentivegna grew up in Milan and London, attending Emerson College in Boston before pursuing an MFA at Columbia University. His short films have screened at film festivals including Locarno, Atlanta, and Miami, and are distributed by Film Movement and Shorts International. Whilst at Columbia University, Roberto was awarded the Carla Kuhn fellowship, the Hollywood Foreign Press Award, and the Alfred P. Sloan Screenwriting award.

His screenplays include SHELLA for acclaimed photographer Albert Watson; THE EEL starring Sam Rockwell and Jon Bernthal- which was featured on the Black List and is produced by Scott Free Productions and K Period Media; SPIRIT HOUSE for Film Nation; MAY WE BE FORGIVEN for Cuzon/Artificial Eye to be directed by Simon Curtis; THE DISAPPEARANCE OF A QUIET MAN for producers Chris Coen and Alan Moloney; A HARD DAY for Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and Ivanhoe Productions; and GUCCI for Scott Free Productions. Ridley Scott is set to direct.

Rory Haines entered the Nantucket Screenwriters Colony in 2009 as a student on Columbia University’s MFA Film program. In New York, Rory formed a long-running writing partnership with fellow student, Sohrab Noshirvani. In 2013,  their original feature script, FROM HERE TO ALBION, was named on the Blacklist and purchased by Participant Media. In 2016, the duo sold their original feature script, THE STATE, to 20th Century Fox. Their debut TV series, INFORMER, was produced by the BBC and Amazon in 2018 and was nominated for Best Drama Series at the 2019 BAFTA Awards. The duo are signed to FX Networks in the US and are currently penning Michael Mann’s adaptation of Mark Bowden’s best selling Vietnam epic, HUE 1968.

Rose Lichter-Marck’s essays, criticism, reporting, and photography have appeared in publications such as Vice, The New Yorker, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Rookie. She is the screenwriter of Stand Clear of the Closing Doors, a film about a boy who disappears into the NYC Subway while his mother searches for him. Stand Clear played over 60 festivals worldwide, winning prizes at Tribeca, Deauville, and Athens, and was distributed by Oscilloscope Labs in 2014. The New York Times called it “a small miracle of a film,” and the mother (Andrea Suarez-Paz) was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the 2015 Independent Spirit Awards.

Rose Surnow used to be a tiny baby but then she was like, “Fuck that.” Now she’s a grown-ass woman. Over the years she’s been a hippy, a punker, and a stand-up comedian.

She is now a writer/director in Los Angeles which is like a cliche, wrapped in a stereotype, stuffed in a pig’s mouth.

Rose was selected out of thousands of screenwriters to participate in the prestigious Sundance Episodic Labs in 2017. She was also a TV comedy writing fellow at the Screenwriters Colony in Nantucket in 2016.

In addition to writing for TV, web series and magazines, Rose is also a filmmaker who has directed and produced countless viral videos for BuzzFeed, ATTN, Soul Pancake and more.

Relax, peruse, nama-stay a while!

Russell Harbaugh’s debut film LOVE AFTER LOVE, a NYT “Critics Pick”, also garnered praise from IndieWire, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Village Voice, and many others. Esquire named it the third best film of 2018 and it earned him a Jerome Foundation grant.

Harbaugh's short ROLLING ON THE FLOOR LAUGHING played at 2012 Sundance and dozens of festivals & venus globally including the Film at Lincoln Center & MoMA co-curated “New Directors/New Films.

For his collaboration on John Magary’s THE MEND, Harbaugh was nominated for a 2016 Independent Spirit Award.

2013 Sundance Screenwriter and Director Labs welcomed him and he received a Sundance Institute Cinereach Feature Film Fellowship. He also participated in IFP’s 2013 No-Borders.

Harbaugh graduated from Wabash College and earned a MFA in Film from Columbia University in 2011. He lives in Brooklyn and is an assistant professor at Hofstra University, where he teaches screenwriting.

Originally from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sabina Vajraca immigrated to the U.S. as a war refugee in 1994, and started her professional career in theatre. Her first film, the critically-acclaimed feature documentary BACK TO BOSNIA, premiered at the 2005 AFI Fest and won Director’s Choice at 2006 Crossroads.

Most recently she directed a Warner Bros./USC feature drama VOODOO MACBETH, and an Alfred P. Sloan-winning short VARIABLES, which premiered at the 2019 Sarajevo Film Festival, won Best Student Short at 2019 Vail Film Festival, and was a 2019 Student Academy Award Semifinalist.

She also assisted writer/director Max Mayer on his feature film ADAM, starring Hugh Dancy and Rose Byrne (2009 Sundance/Fox Searchlight); and shadowed TV director James Whitmore on MADAM SECRETARY.

Sabina holds an MFA from USC School of Cinematic Arts, is an Annenberg Scholar, member of Film Fatales, Women in Film, WIMPS, and Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and was recently selected for the 2019 Ryan Murphy Half Directing Mentorship and Nantucket Screenwriters Colony.

Sameh Zoabi is an international award winning writer-director. His work has been shown in many international film festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, and Sundance. Most recently, Zoabi premiered his feature film, Tel Aviv On Fire (2018) at Toronto Film Festival and the 75th Venice International Film Festival, where the film received The Orizzonti Award for Best Actor.

Zoabi graduated from Tel Aviv University with a dual degree in Film Studies and English Literature. Zoabi then received a Fulbright Fellowship to study Filmmaking at Columbia University, earning an M.F.A. in 2005.

IMDB: https://m.imdb.com/name/nm2108295/?ref_=m_nv_sr_1

Her film BUSTER’S MAL HEART was Academy Award winner Rami Malek's first lead role in a feature. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and enjoyed a world wide release. Her first feature, THE MIDNIGHT SWIM, won six top prizes on the festival circuit.

Sarah has also been making waves in the TV space. She helmed HANNA for Amazon, which premiered this spring and was renewed for a second season. Most recently, she directed the pilot of John Green’s LOOKING FOR ALASKA for Hulu.

Sarah and her producing partner Jonako Donley founded their company Everything is Everything to fight for social justice through storytelling. They are currently producing Sabaah Folayan’s sophomore documentary feature AIN’T I A WOMAN?

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2262138/

Sarah Jean is a writer/director who has also written for Lifetime, Blumhouse, Bad Robot and Sony. In 2017, Sarah Jean directed two episodes of ABC's 20/20: IN AN INSTANT. In addition, she's written and directed commercials for Cheerios, Hamburger Helper, Delta, Mott’s and 3M, as well as several shorts, which have played around the world at prominent film festivals and garnered several awards such as the Barbra Streisand Fellowship for women filmmakers, IFP Fresh Filmmaker Grant, and Hollywood Foreign Press Donor Award. Not to mention, she is a proud alumni of the Screenwriters Colony, Comedic Episodic Lab. Go Cranberry Boggers!

In her spare time, Sarah Jean dabbles in experimental animation, co-hosts the podcast GARBAGETOWN and continues unsuccessfully to attempt to learn French.

Website: www.sjkruchowski.com

Representation: Eric Borja - eric@embpictures.com

Sarah Treem is an American TV writer-producer and playwright. She is the co-creator and showrunner of the Golden Globe-winning Showtime drama The Affair, which won for Outstanding Drama Series, and was a writer and co-executive producer on the inaugural season of House of Cards, which was nominated for nine Golden Globes, including Outstanding Drama Series. She also wrote on all three seasons of the HBO series In Treatment.

Sehaj Sethi is an Indian American screenwriter and alumna from the New York University Graduate Film Program. She is currently partnering with I Can & I Will Productions on her TV series Bad Betis, produced by Gina Rodriguez. Sehaj is a staff writer on the CW show Two Sentence Horror Stories and previously worked as a staff writer at Luma Pictures, focusing on sci-fi feature projects. Early in her writing career, she created a horror feature for Paperclip Ltd. headed by Yeardley Smith.

Sehaj has been awarded fellowships by the Anderson Center and the New Orleans Writers Residency. Her script The Third Rule was a finalist for the 2017 Athena List. Her script My Husband's Corpse placed on the 2012 Purple List, selected by industry judges as one of the best screenplays from New York University, and was an official selection at the Female Eye Film Festival. She is a member of New York Women in Film and Television, an organization supporting women in entertainment, and of Kalakars, a community promoting and supporting South Asian filmmakers. Sehaj is represented by Corrine Aquino at Artists First Management.

In 2010 Heder won a Peabody Award, along with her fellow writers, for her work on the acclaimed U.S. television series, Men of a Certain Age. In 2011 she wrote and directed a short comedy, Dog Eat Dog (A Short Tale) starring Zachary Quinto to raise awareness for pet adoption, and that short film can be watched for free on YouTube. She wrote for seasons 1-3 of the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black before taking time off from that job to direct the film Tallulah.

In 2015, Sian Heder directed Tallulah, starring Ellen Page and Allison Janney. Tallulah was backed by Route One Entertainment, Maiden Voyages Pictures and Ocean Blue Entertainment. The film was set to premier as one of 65 films selected for Sundance Film Festival January 21–31 in Utah. Netflix obtained worldwide rights to stream Tallulah in January 2016. The film received positive reviews from critics, and was released on July 29, 2016.

Silas Howard is an award winning director, writer, and executive producer focused on telling honest, boundary-shattering narratives filled with groundbreaking characters. His recent work includes executive producing and directing on FX’s Pose, directing Sundance premiere and IFC Films internationally distributed film A Kid Like Jake. He’s also directed episodes of Amazon’s Emmy award-winning Transparent, Freeform’s , Freefrom’s The Fosters, MTV’s Faking It and NBC’s This Is Us and HBO’s High Maintenance.

Most recently, Silas executive produced and directed an episode of FX’s Pose as well as directed feature film A Kid Like Jake starring Claire Danes, Jim Parsons and Octavia Spencer. A Kid Like Jake premiered at Sundance, showed internationally and was ultimately distributed internationally by IFC Films.

Please see more about Silka at https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5111085/

Filmmaker Simbiat Hall graduated with honors from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, is an alumna of AFI’s prestigious “Directing Workshop for Women,” “The Guy Hanks & Marvin Miller Screenwriting Fellowship” at USC and studied acting at HB Studio in NYC and with Sam Christensen in LA.

Ms. Hall wrote SUNDAY MORNING while in residence at the Nantucket Screenwriters Colony and will direct; film veteran Cheryl Boone Isaacs is producing.

Ms. Hall’s short film LONG STORY SHORT received prizes and praise from many festivals including AFI Fest, the Boston and Chicago International Film Festivals and SXSW. (https://vimeo.com/73877731 Password: short) Simbi Hall was also honored by the Los Angeles County Museum as part of their “Young Directors Night.”

Ms. Hall is currently in development on a number of projects with producer Reuben Cannon, including an adaptation of SINGING IN THE COMEBACK CHOIR for Lifetime slated for a Summer 2020 release.

Sophie Barthes is a French-American film director and screenwriter best known for her 2009 film Cold Souls. Barthes' short film Happiness, which tells the story of a woman who purchases a box of happiness and cannot decide if she should open it, was shown at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.

Stella Meghie is a Canadian film director and screenwriter, whose debut feature film Jean of the Joneses was released in 2016.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4907810/

Steven Doughton is a writer and director from Portland, Oregon. He studied drawing and painting in college and in 1983, moved to New York's East Village where he soon began making short films. Doughton has directed music videos for Aphex-Twin, Stephen Malkmus and The Voluptuous Horror Of Karen Black. He was a cinematographer for Iara Lee's documentary "Modulations" and has shot music videos for Iggy Pop, Blonde Redhead, Pavement, and Alan Vega. His feature film BUOY stars Tina Holmes and Matthew Del Negro. Doughton's films are part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

After graduating from UCLA, Hernandez wrote and directed ​two shorts, “The Slap” and “Baby Fat.” Both films premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. “The Slap” went onto play at the Cannes Film Festival. Her feature “Men Cry Bullets” won Best Narrative Feature at South by Southwest, Best American Film at the Avignon Film Festival, and the Audience Choice Award at Chicago Underground. Hernandez directed two documentaries “Dial T for Torment” for Comedy Central featuring Sarah Silverman, Jimmy Kimmel and Kevin Nealon, and another, “The Chicano Collection,” for actor and comedian Cheech Marin. “The Chicano Collection” played at LACMA, and other museums and galleries. She directed and produced the music video “Pretty Smile” for Sangie Davis, Jamacian singer and songwriter for Bob Marley. Currently, she is doing stand-up at The Comedy Store, and has a weekly podcast and YouTube show called “The Sauna Interviews: Sweating Out The Truth With Nica.”

https://m.imdb.com/name/nm0379718/

Ted Kupper is a writer of film, television and graphic novels living in Los Angeles. He wrote the film PERFECT, directed by Eddie Alcazar, featuring Abbie Cornish and music by Flying Lotus, which premiered at SXSW 2018. He was a staff writer on season 4 of USA’s Mr. Robot. His graphic novel LET GO, cowritten with Jon Perry and illustrated by Cecilia Latella, is available from SLG Publishing. He was a semifinalist in the 2004 Nicholl competition and a Nantucket colony resident in 2006. He also cohosts a podcast, Review the Future, and tweets @tedkupper.

letgocomic.com

Tian Jun Gu is a first-generation Chinese-American from Walled Lake, a small Michigan town aptly nicknamed “Waltucky" (for its diversity, of course). A formative freshman year experience pushed him to forgo his future in biomedical engineering and instead pursue a degree in screenwriting, an Indiana Jones leap of faith that landed him a Hopwood Award and a Naomi Saferstein Literary Award at the University of Michigan. His works explore the feats, fears, and foibles of characters from marginalized communities because as the saying goes, "if you can see it, you can be it." He's an alumni of the WGAE Showrunner's Training program, and his credits include HOUSE OF CARDS (Netflix), INTERROGATION (CBS All Access), and reminding people his first name is "Tian Jun."

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3458490/

https://www.wgaeast.org/mo/indexed_writers/59497

Check out Tommy’s work at https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6114405/

Vivian Tse is currently a Writer on AMC's THE WALKING DEAD. She has written on History Channel's period epic KNIGHTFALL and ABC's sci-fi drama THE CROSSING. She was also a Sundance Intensive Fellow and Grant Recipient for her feature film These Animals and was a Colonist at the 2013 Nantucket Screenwriting Colony.

Wei Ling Chang is a New York-brewed, Los Angeles-based swim addict, sleep enthusiast, and writer/director. Her feature "The Unlikely Girl,” which she wrote and directed, was acquired by Netflix for worldwide distribution. She is a current fellow of Sundance Episodic Story Lab, Screenwriter's Colony Episodic Drama, and a finalist of Ryan Murphy’s Half Initiative Directing Program. She’s worked in mini-rooms led by Veena Sud and Jessica Mecklenburg, and has been mentored by Graham Yost, Marti Noxon, and Corinne Brinkerhoff. She has an animated series in development at Netflix.

Last year, she shadowed Rodrigo Garcia on the Showtime series “The Affair" and completed the action thriller screenplay “Iron Mom” for Escape Artists (“The Upside,” “Roman J. Israel, Esq.”). Before going narrative, she produced, wrote, and directed unscripted TV shows. She holds a psychology BA from Cornell University and is repped by UTA and Underground.

Learn more on IMDB and her website.

Bio/Link Forthcoming

Will Seefried is a screenwriter and performer. He got his start in the New York downtown theatre scene where he originated roles in works by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Sarah Ruhl, Elizabeth Swados, Lincoln Center, Atlantic Theater Company, HERE, and Sleep No More. He was a series regular on AMC’s critically-acclaimed “Dietland” and made appearances on “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and “The Deuce.”

Will made his first foray into screenwriting with the digital series “Sink Sank Sunk” which he created, wrote, and starred in. The script garnered the attention of actress Laura Linney, who co-starred. The series screened at select film festivals and subsequently was licensed for international distribution. Will’s first drama pilot “Untitled Gender Construct Series” earned various degrees of finalist placement in pilot competitions (Launch Pad Top 100, Final Draft’s Big Break, Austin Film Festival) and is now being produced by Maven Pictures with Josephine Decker and Silas Howard attached as producing directors.

Beyond a childhood spent making short films in his basement, and a life-long obsession with queer literature, Will’s only formal training as a writer is a well-worn subscription to masterclass.com. MFA in Acting, NYU/Tisch.

Bio/Link Forthcoming

Wyndham Lewis is a television writer/producer whose writing credits include multiple seasons on the Emmy Award winning Showtime series, ​Nurse Jackie​ ​as well as developing and contributing to numerous shows for major networks, cable and PBS.

Wyndham is the 2016 Nantucket Film Festival Comedy Writing Award recipient for ​The Godmother​ and was also a 2006 finalist for The Nicholl Fellowship for his first feature film script, ​The 97​th​ Percentile.​ ​Additionally, he hosts and produces popular music commentary podcast ​Brother Brother Brother.

Wyndham is currently co-producing his first documentary with fellow NFF alum Clay Tweel (Gleason, The Innocent Man).

Www.brotherpod.com

Bio/Link Forthcoming

YON MOTSKIN is a New York-based director, writer and producer.

He wrote the film ETHEL for 2929 and Emmy Award-winning actress Elisabeth Moss.

Current projects include a film he’ll direct for A24; SURROGATES, a series he created and wrote (with David Robinson) with multiple Emmy-winning producer Stephanie Laing (HBO’s VEEP, Hulu’s DOLLFACE); a series about con artists he created and will direct for WarnerMedia; and adapting MISSING MAN, Pulitzer Prize-winning Barry Meier’s book.

Recent projects include showrunning and executive producing the highly-acclaimed Netflix series DIRTY MONEY, produced by Academy and Emmy Award-winner Alex Gibney; THE FAMILY for Netflix; an HBO series with Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Bennett Miller and producers Scott Rudin, Barry Diller and Justin Wilkes; writing a series for Robert Downey, Jr; and developing a limited series for Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall and Alex Gibney.

His award-winning short film THE CUTMAN played festivals worldwide, including Sundance, Tribeca and SxSW.

Zach Wigon is a writer/director working in film and television. His debut narrative feature THE HEART MACHINE premiered in competition at the 2014 South By Southwest Film Festival, where Variety named it one of the ten best of the fest. After playing BAMcinemaFest and many other festivals it was released theatrically and on VOD in North America to critical acclaim. He recently wrote for the Golden Globe-nominated TV series HOMECOMING. Prior to THE HEART MACHINE, Wigon contributed film criticism and journalism to numerous outlets, including Vanity Fair and The Village Voice.

Zack Phillips is a comedy writer and performer in New York. He was head writer for Above Average and its sports site, The Kicker, for two years. With Bryan Tucker (SNL), Zack is co-creator and showrunner of a forthcoming comedy series for Audible, starring John Cena. Zack earned a 2018 fellowship from the Screenwriters Colony, and a 2017 "Made In NY" TV writing fellowship from WGA East, where he and writing partner Natasha Vaynblat were mentored by Robert Carlock. Zack wrote and performed sketch and improv comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater for 6 years and currently teaches sketch writing there. He had a 3-episode arc on Steven Soderbergh's The Knick, for no good reason. Other credits include The Onion, Clickhole, and Impractical Jokers. Previously, Zack was a print reporter in Washington DC and played D-3 college baseball. He and his wife have two daughters.

Website: http://zackjphillips.com

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4873155/

Zolan Kanno-Youngs is the Homeland Security Correspondent for The New York Times and a screenwriter.

Based in the Times's Washington bureau, Zolan covers the Department of Homeland Security, immigration, border issues, terrorism and other security issues. He previously worked for The Wall Street Journal in New York City, where he covered law enforcement, breaking news, gangs, terrorism and criminal justice policy.

Zolan is the co-writer of "Jahar," a short film directed by Henry Hayes and produced by Lizzie Shapiro. The film premiered at the TriBeCa Film Festival in 2016. He also shared the Nantucket Film Festival's Tony Cox Feature Screenplay award with Henry in 2018. In 2019, Zolan and Henry's short film, "Rogers and Tilden," premiered also premiered at TriBeCa.

Zolan graduated from Northeastern University and grew up in Cambridge, Mass, where he consistently embarrassed Henry in pick-up basketball at the sacred basketball court, "The Y-Field." Zolan recently adopted Kita, a Jack Russell terrier-beagle mix from Azerbaijan.