October Colony 2023
We are thrilled to announce these four outstanding writers who will join us on Nantucket for our October Colony. As always, three were selected from an incredibly competitive pool of nominated writers and one was the winner of the prestigious Nantucket Film Festival’s Tony Cox Screenwriting Award. Each cohort of writers brings endless possibility because humans and stories will always have endless possibility. Now they will have an entire month to do what they want to do: write.
Yeon Jin Lee was born in Seoul and raised in Seoul, Jakarta, and Southern California. She earned her B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley, and worked as a computer scientist in the Intelligent Robotics Group at NASA. After five years at NASA, she left Silicon Valley to pursue filmmaking full-time. In December 2020, she earned her MFA in Film / TV Production at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. In 2021, Yeon Jin wrote and produced JACK AND LOU: A GANGSTER LOVE STORY, an audio drama series starring Lisa Kudrow in the lead role. The podcast won the Best Audio Fiction Series Award at the 12th Annual Indie Series Awards. She is also one of the writers of the upcoming feature film based on the same story. Her feature screenplay, SILICON VALLEY GIRL, was selected as one of the six projects for 2022 The Black List Feature Lab. She’s in the 2023 cohort of the WGA Writers Access Support Staff Training Program.
Courtney Zhì-Xián Loo is a Chinese-American writer and director based in New York City. Her short film SLICK TALK premiered at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival. Her other short film POST OFFICE premiered at the 2021 Slamdance Film Festival and was programmed at the Asian American International Film Festival – it was later released online via Short Of The Week and received a Vimeo Staff Pick. Both narrative films draw on Loo’s personal experiences as a Chinese-American woman and explore themes of identity, language and female objectification.
As a business woman, Loo co-founded Thrice Cooked – a music management company that manages multi-platinum artists Pink Sweat$ and KIRBY. As a film director, Loo has collaborated with renowned talent such as Kehlani, Allyson Felix, 6lack, and D Smoke, and brands such as Honda and Athletic Greens. She is represented by Lauren Greenfield’s production company, Institute, for commercials & branded content.
Courtney is currently developing her feature film debut, BANGBANG TEAHOUSE, and is represented by WME and Entertainment 360 for Film + TV.
Greg Scharpf is an East Coast based screenwriter who lives with his wife, their daughter, and miniature dachsund. Recently his feature screenplay SMOKE AS DIRECTED, about the true origin story of medical marijuana in America, won the 2023 Tony Cox Feature Screenplay Award at the Nantucket Film Festival.
Greg has written several other features on spec and for hire including but not limited to a tragi-comedy called ONE FELL SWOOP that was selected to The Black List and a horror comedy called FEAST that was a Finalist in Launch Pad’s Feature Screenplay Competition. Before all of that, Greg worked as an assistant to Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick for six years all the while honing his craft (screenwriting, but also minoring in women’s pumps, sandals and stilettos). A common thread in Greg’s writing is extracting humor and heart from dark, tragic situations while hopefully sparing the sentimentality. Greg is represented by Jeffrey Belkin at Zero Gravity Management and Robert Koch at law firm HJTH.
Evan Twohy is preparing to direct his first feature, BUBBLE & SQUEAK, from his script, which was featured on the 2020 Black List. He is developing a television pilot with Amazon Studios. Previously, Evan wrote plays in New York City, where he was a member of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and dog. Evan apologizes if this bio is too skimpy; he’ll explain later.
