2023 Screenplay Award Finalists

Sunday Blackwell is an author and a scriptwriter. His goal is to see people enjoy the value of their time when they sit to watch a movie or read a book. He has contributed to articles, research, and book publication. When he is not writing or reading books, he enjoys listening and watching comedy

I'm a writer from jolly old England who many years ago, used to write short stories and scripts in my spare time. Somewhere along the way, I stopped writing them until a few years ago where I rediscovered the passion and made a conscious effort to rebuild that love, and hone those skills. Now, I'm

Rachel Leighson is a bi-coastal writer, actor, and singer. Writing credits include: Little Egg, Big World (honorary mention for the 2022 Jane Chambers award in feminist playwriting), Blood on My Mother's Apron (nominated for nine 2021 Broadway World awards, including best new play), The Scarcity of

A lawyer by trade, Ryan recently embraced his quarantine escapism as a new life goal: share all those crazy stories floating around his head. With genres ranging from historical biopics to sci-fi comedies, Ryan hopes to educate and entertain the masses with his unique blend of humor and thrilling

Scintillating sci-fi & historical fusion drive my storytelling. No period-accurate dramas on societal norms here. Instead, try a WW1 body horror about a scientist secretly experimenting on missing soldiers. Wait, that's the plot of my screenplay Phantom Walls. (Screencraft 2023- Finalist). I've also

Rodolfo ‘Rudy’ Salas was born in Brownsville, Texas. His childhood was spent in a hundred-year-old house that stood in poverty. His wild imagination allowed him to escape from his impoverished upbringing. As his social and academic knowledge grew, so did his appreciation for storytelling and film

T. C. Smith's career was launched when he won the Nicholl Fellowship. He has written for the big screen, the small screen and the stage. He has worked for Fox Television, Fox Family Films, ABC, Disney, the Disney Channel, Warner Brothers and Showtime. He co-wrote and co-starred in the controversial

Since dropping out of film school to be a rock star. I've been in love, pain, debt, accidents, bands, bomb shelters, and a bad music video for a Norwegian girl group. I've been writing it all down, reaching the finals at Nashville Film Fest (twice), LA Screenplay Awards, Creative World Awards, and

Drawn to the arts at a young age, Andrew quickly embraced his love of writing and film. The goal for all of his screenplays is to produce scripts with unique opportunities to showcase character development, extensive world building, and a balance between practical and digital effects. Above all, he

Tyler is a writer, filmmaker and producer based in San Francisco, CA. With a degree in Screenwriting from San Francisco State University, Tyler has worked in the film industry for 10 years. Tyler's writing style is high-concept, high-brow. Always tasteful, never pretentious. Exploring genres and

Condemned to writing by audition room butterflies, now serves consecutive sentences in Portland, Oregon. Influences include Shepard, Beckett, Mamet, Pinter, and Stoppard.

I write sci-fi/fantasy screenplays. Aliens, abductions(no anal probing), interspecies romance(Kirk did it), all that wonderful stuff. Well, that and a whole dollop of fantasy thrown in. I have been told “ your stuff is so different” but, I can only do me. I spent a bazillion years developing

Born Nov. 23 1985 in Vladikavkaz, Russia to Inna Tedeeva, who was just a freshman at the time in a Moscow University and Boris Basiev, an aspiring actor at the VGIK drama school. He has Ossetian and Alani ancestry. George spent much of his youth in Brooklyn and graduated from Grover Cleveland H.S.

After earning a B.A. in Theatre Arts from Hofstra University, Denise attended the USC Graduate film producing program while simultaneously holding her first job in Hollywood as a production assistant at Lucasfilm and Steven Spielberg's Amblin’ Ent. Denise was a Story Editor at 20th Century Fox, a

Katy Dore is a screenwriter and director living on California’s Central Coast. Katy creates TV and film projects with relatable stories and social relevance. Her historic drama TV series about Mary Ellen Pleasant, is currently in pre-production with Quincy Jones Productions, Flavor Unit and Goldmann

John Munn is a native of Washington State and is married to his wife of over fifteen years who inspires him to write every day. His two boys, Jack and Max, are his world. He has also lived in the United Kingdom, for a short period, where he studied literature and attended college at the University

Born in Maine, I've lived in Los Angeles, New York, Massachusetts and Ireland for stretches. I'm inspired by the real people in my life, love to research to enrich my projects beyond what I've got in my own head, and find the comedy in the serious.

Hilary Angelo is an actress turned writer known for her roles in AMERICAN PIE and CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR. Recently, she sold a spec TV pilot to Mark Gordon/Eone called PATIENT ZERO based on disease detectives at the Centers for Disease Control. Sony TV bought a time travel pilot spec she wrote called

Amy began her career as a Casting Director in New York City where her office served as East Coast Casting for Paramount. From character development to dialogue, Amy’s writing is informed by her years reading with and directing actors. Her projects have found success in well-respected screenwriting

Annique Arredondo is an outspoken Latinx screenwriter, filmmaker, and social activist who, growing up along the border of San Diego, was never Latin enough for the Latinxs, or American enough for the Americans. Her goal: to convey a fresh perspective on what it means to be bicultural, female, and

Ryan is a West L.A. based emerging screenwriter with over twenty finalist selections from the top screenplay comps in the industry. Ryan looks for highly marketable projects with a focus on genre-bending true stories and biopics, where sports, crimes, vices, drama, comedy, and inspiring real-life

Dru Bhattacharya is an author, poet, screenwriter, and aspiring novelist. His pilot feature, The Grey Eminence, has received numerous accolades, including placement in the L.A. International Screenplay Awards; The Film Empire Diversity Mentorship; Table Read My Screenplay Genre Screenplay

I was born in Cincinnati and lived in Chicago for a couple of years before moving to Los Angeles. I won the Let's Make it! competition 4th addition(2020) & was a quarterfinalist in the SWN competition(2021). I also completed screenwriting classes at Second City.

R.L.’s life in film began at Miramax Films followed up by earning an MFA from USC. His short THE KNIFE GRINDER’S TALE screened at festivals around the world, including The Telluride Film Festival. After taking a break from the film industry to take care of his ailing father, get married and raise

Leila's writing and filmmaking journey started when she travelled from the UK to New Zealand without flying. Inspired by all the stories she found, she decided to pursue film and applied for Sydney Film School in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Having won awards for her films and writing, she can

Julien Wagner was born and raised in Switzerland. Finding passion on stage and in front of the camera, he moved to LA to pursue a career as an actor. After completing a program at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute he decided to focus on becoming a screenwriter. Having worked for Constantin

Growing up in Europe before moving back to the USA in his late teens, Michael enjoys bringing an outsider perspective to high-concept genre stories. A graduate of UCLA's Professional Program in Screenwriting, Michael enjoys writing elevated horror, action-comedies, and grounded science fiction. A

Dylan Wilson is an independent screenwriter and published short story author based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Dylan hopes to one day pursue a career in professional wrestling once they find a way to make it not hurt so much.

Jimmy Prosser is a writer/director from Los Angeles. He is a graduate of New York University's (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts, Kanbar Institute of Film and Television, where his pilot for the limited series "John & Meryl" was selected by NYU Tisch faculty as the Outstanding TV Drama Thesis. The

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aspiring screenwriter

Bill Taylor is an award-winning queer filmmaker who is committed to telling stories deeply rooted in the human condition. After making a slew of independent short and feature projects, he’s currently looking for representation to take his career to the next level. He’s at home writing in Drama

STATON RABIN is a screenwriter, and a YA novelist (Simon & Schuster) with a global audience. She's hired for her skill in adapting IP, true stories, & biographies into screenplays with roles that are catnip to A-list actors. She wrote a feature script based on Alex Rosenberg's Holocaust novel "The

Kevin has directed eight short films and his credits as a producer have exceeded 50 at the time of this writing. His recent works include three short series starring Golden Globe and Tony Award winner Barry Bostwick and Saturn Award Winner Doug Jones, and a short musical/educational video starring

Michael is an award-winning screenwriter and producer, and Facebook’s former Chief Privacy Officer. Michael writes, directs, and produces elevated genre and prestige projects for film and television. He is currently producing Only Apparently Real based on an award-winning screenplay which he wrote

Micah Sloat is best known for starring in the micro-budget hit PARANORMAL ACTIVITY. Combining that successful franchise with his degrees in philosophy and psychology, as well as his extensive background in the occult, he's currently creating and co-hosting PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE PODCAST for

Lover of words. Observer of humans. Connoisseur of weirdness. Changing the world one slang silver bullet at a time. Notable accolades: Winner with 'Sleeper' - SWN Short Screenplay Competition, 2nd Place award winner with 'City of Rats' - Film Pittsburgh Shorts. Born and raised on the fair emerald

Andrea’s experiences as a nurse, flight attendant, and avid traveler have provided her with a unique global background from which she draws her inspiration. It imbues her scripts with a level of detail and authenticity that have been well received in the industry. Her first screenplay titled “The

Andrew Essig was born in Cincinnati, Ohio but moved to Los Angeles after earning a degree in screenwriting and producing from Ohio University. In LA, he co-produced a half dozen comedy skits as one half of the What a Guy Media creative team, as well as a couple short films that have performed

I write. Sometimes code. Sometimes screenplays. Sometimes lengthy work emails. I've been told that all three make people cry. But I suspect it's for vastly different reasons.

David Ward was born and raised in Salt Lake City and has lived in Shanghai, Honolulu, Taiwan and northern Virginia. Drawn to writing by his love of Russian literature, he supports his writing habit by working as a corporate attorney.

I'm the son of a kidney transplant recipient and I wrote, 'Maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe never' because I wanted to tell a more relatable story about organ donation. Not one about miracles, or second chances or waking up in a bathtub full of ice in a war-torn country. My writing background is

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Miguel del Campo (Writer, Director, Producer, Editor) is a filmmaker born and raised in Mexico who grew up fascinated by the Hollywood industry. Molded by the vast culture and beauty of his home country Mexico, Miguel's passion for the entertainment industry was born from his dream to share his

I’m a full time and life long practitioner and teacher of the yogic arts currently living and working in a spiritual community in central California. For me, writing and creating are an integral part of the process of spiritual life and development. Realizing my inner inspiration and my unique

A writer/director whose short films have been selected for various festivals, most notably Palm Springs International. In 2022 he directed a pilot for a 6-part television series set in London. Tim is determined to make meaningful action films that his wife and daughter would watch over and over

My scripts have placed in numerous competitions and have even won a few awards. Creating new worlds and unseen lands at the tip of a pen is exhilarating. Stories should excite and inspire. They should leave the reader in a different headspace from when they first started. Best job ever. Happy

Teodora is a freelance screenwriter with a love for romance, drama and mystery. She started writing scripts in college but her love for storytelling really grew in University, where she started working independently on her own script ideas. She values her ability to have ideas in a range of genres

Shirley's training in mental health counseling inspires her fiction. Her stories often include various features of psychology as she loves researching and learning about unusual psychological conditions, then surprising her readers with those elusive conditions in her stories. She's also a single

I was born and raised in Cardiff, Wales. I emigrated to the United States, receiving my MA and PhD from UCSB. I taught English studies and creative writing at CSU, Chico. I am a multiple national and international award-winning screenplay writer. I also have won awards for my stage plays and novels