Writers
Welcome to ULSC’s member database! Each writer is hand-selected, vetted, and referred by our team and industry professionals. This list is alphabetized by last name with keywords to help you navigate our roster of talented writers and multi-hyphenates!
SARAH WALLER
EMILY ABBOTT
Bio:
Most recently, Emily served as a Staff Writer on the final season of Sony and Netflix’s COBRA KAI. Emily grew up in Detroit, Michigan, in a motor industry family amidst the industry’s economic collapse. She sugar babied to put herself through college at UCLA, studying both English Creative Writing and Film & Television. Emily’s passionate about writing for characters who are usually the butt of the joke in media; bimbos, sex workers, sorority girls, and dumb blondes are the grounded, dynamic heroes in her scripts. She’s a bisexual, elder Gen Z, with a keen eye on pop culture and a passion for Bravo TV shows. Prior to Cobra Kai, Emily worked as the Writer’s Assistant on Netflix’s OBLITERATED, and she is currently developing television projects with Executive Producer Lindsay Goffman. You can hear way too much else about her life on her podcast “Open To It”, available on both Apple & Sportify.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager
Dana Jackson and Nick Arnstein, Echo Lake Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Female-forward, sex-positive, grounded, Gen-Z, dramedy, rom-com, female friendship
SARAH WALLER
EMILY ADAMS
Bio:
emily adams is a screenwriter, actor and croissant enthusiast born and raised in suburban southern california. she graduated from Brown University with a degree in literary arts. her comedy feature, Margot, made the 2020 Blacklist and is currently in development with Canary House Productions. adams has worked as production assistant for Apatow Productions and as a writers' PA for ABC's A Million Little Things. she currently resides in los angeles with her english bulldog, Winifred.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager
Tracy Kopulsky, Grandview Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
comedy, goofy, heartfelt, character-driven, spunky, witty
SARAH WALLER
HANNAH AHN
Bio:
Hannah Ahn is an Asian-American writer who’s still trying to figure out what it means to be Asian-American. Born in Oakland, she has all the coping mechanisms of an immigrant but none of the purpose: she once ate 100 frozen tater tots to save them from the garbage. Hannah majored in anthropology at Columbia University, worked on Rikers Island, and finally moved to Los Angeles. Since then, she has been writers' assistant on THE BEAR (FX/Hulu), WASHINGTON BLACK (20th/Hulu), THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES (Paramount/Disney+), and an untitled show for Amazon. She regrets nothing, not even the tots.
Writes:
Hour TV
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Female-led thriller, grounded sci-fi, Asian-American Gen Z
SARAH WALLER
LISA ALFORD
Bio:
Lisa Alford is from Springfield, MA, and is a feature film and television screenwriter who specializes in grounded character-driven dramas and offbeat, heartfelt comedies. She has been named a Writer to Watch on the 2018 We For She WriteHer list, which is comprised of 25 original, unproduced pilots nominated by industry executives and creatives, and she has had two drama pilots advance as Second Rounders in the Austin Film Festival. Lisa currently works as a development executive at Johnson Production Group, a boutique production company that specializes in TV movies for Netflix, Tubi, Lifetime, and Hallmark. Prior to joining Johnson Production Group, Lisa worked as an executive at TriStar television where she specialized in identifying IP that supported TriStar’s mission to feature diverse, authentic characters and champion underrepresented voices.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Offbeat comedy, character driven, female forward, heartfelt, grounded
SARAH WALLER
GRACE ANACLERCIO
Bio:
Grace is a comedy writer and performer. She is also the leading consumer of ice cream in the city of Los Angeles.
Writes:
Half-hour TV
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Comedy, satire, silly, topical, heart
SARAH WALLER
MICHELLE ALEXANDER
Bio:
Michelle Alexander is a Canadian writer who escaped the cold for the Los Angeles sunshine. She writes mostly comedy and horror (or a bloody/funny mash up of the two).
Currently she is writing on a new AMC feminist horror anthology series. In the past few years she wrote a Thriller for Reel One, was a staff writer for the second season of Haunted Case Files and - much to the surprise of her introverted heart - was a finalist in the Austin Film Festival's 2020 pitch competition, as well as the 2018 Just for Laughs pitch competition.
Michelle is also an actor whose award-winning short film, Blow Out (which she wrote and starred in) has screened at festivals worldwide, winning 8 awards *including winning the Best Performance Award at the Whohahalloween Film Fest.
She's also a graduate of the University of Windsor, was the youngest Associate Artistic Director of Nightwood Theatre - Canada's National Feminist Theatre, and is the youngest in her family by 8 years and spent most of her childhood hiding in closets, and having deep conversations with her dog figurine collection.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
comedy horror, comedy, horror, feminist, grounded humor, surreal comedy
SARAH WALLER
JAMIE ANDERSON
Bio:
Jamie Anderson was recognized as “The New Female Director to Watch Out For in 2020” by Viva Glam Magazine, and “Top 25 Writers to Watch in 2018” by The International Screenwriters’ Association. She has written, directed, and produced three short films that have all won awards, including Best Director for Punching Bag, Best Dark Comedy for I’m F%$#ing Fine, and Best Dark Comedy for Me Too Nice, which was selected for eighteen festivals in 2020. She directed English romantic comedy, I Won’t Say I Love You, in the UK, winning Best Romantic Short, Best Romance, and Best Actress. Most recently, Jamie wrote, directed, and produced her comedy pilot, Pumas, in Los Angeles, safely during the pandemic.
Having grown up in Mississippi, and then Florida, Jamie's work is inspired by the Redneck Riviera, as well as her dating life in Hollywood, both of which are a wealth of material that guarantees she’ll never run out of something to write about. At times with crass humor, she has a knack for turning the painful into the absurd, always with depth and heart. After an acting career in film and television, Jamie realized her greatest love was writing and directing, and helping others shine on screen.
Next, she will direct romantic feature film, Summer in Rome, which she co-wrote, in Italy. Subsequently, she is slated to direct her comedy feature film, Pregnant in Las Vegas, in 2021.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Comedy, Dramedy, Dark Comedy, Romantic Comedy, Romance, Satire
SARAH WALLER
BRITTANY ASHLEY
Bio:
Brittany Ashley is a Chicago-born, Second City sketch writing grad. For three years, Brittany worked at BuzzFeed, where she created digital series like Lesbian Princess, and wrote and produced over 100 sketches and short films. Since, Brittany has written on a DreamWorks TV series, created an LGBTQ news show, and hosts a grief/pop culture podcast called Don’t Tell The Babysitter Mom’s Dead, where she interviews other guests who have lost a parent. Most recently, Brittany was an Outfest Screenwriting Lab Finalist for a queer romcom feature she wrote.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Representation:
Manager:
Colleen Washington, Fourth Wall Management
Keywords:
queer, comedy, 90s, death, dramedy, horror comedy
SARAH WALLER
GIA EL AYNAOUI
Bio:
Rising in sweet victory from the ashes of a soulless existence in Arizona, Gia has recently relocated to LA. Gia is an Army veteran, Writer’s Assistant Network Fellowship winner and PAGE quarterfinalist. Gia researched, wrote, directed, and produced the 2012 documentary Women of War (as always, ladies must do EVERYTHING), which was selected by the San Diego Film Festival. Gia serves on Roadmap Writer's Diversity Steering Committee and is the creative director of the upcoming horror video game, Colony, as well as the voice of the Freetown podcast.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Female driven, dark comedy, action adventure, military, social justice, interesting characters
SARAH WALLER
LETÍCIA AYROZA
Bio:
Letícia Ayroza was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil. Growing up loving all things nerd instead of samba, soccer, or anything you typically think of when you think of Brazil made her a bit of an outsider, yearning to belong. So, evidently, she turned to Science-Fiction and Fantasy, and now loves writing about finding one’s purpose and coming into power. Letícia worked as a script supervisor for nearly four years before finally following her dreams and going to the AFI Conservatory Screenwriting Masters program. In 2021, she was selected to be part of the inaugural class of the Mentorship Matters Fellowship. She was the Showrunner’s Assistant on the pilot EPIC for ABC and is currently working as Showrunner’s Assistant for Sera Gamble on Netflix’s YOU.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Allard Cantor and Anastasiya Kukhtareva, Epicenter
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Grounded sci-fi and fantasy, psychological horror, female perspective
SARAH WALLER
MARY ANN ANANE
Bio:
Mary Ann Anane is a Ghanaian-born, New Jersey-raised screenwriter. She is a graduate of Northwestern University with a concentration in playwriting. Anane was a 2022 San Francisco Film Rainin Grantee, a 2021 Sundance Screenwriters Lab Fellow, a 2020 Athena Feature Lab Fellow, and a 2020 Film Independent’s Project Involve Fellow. All her titles are lowercased.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Female
SARAH WALLER
ROSE BACCI
Bio:
Rose was born in a hut in Kauai and raised all over California. She was a professional ballet dancer for years before having the epiphany that she could combine her three favorite things - writing, TV and comedy - into a profession. She immediately quit dance and started studying screenwriting at UCLA and improv/sketch at Upright Citizens Brigade. She has worked at variety of entertainment offices and on television shows, including docuseries for Amazon, Epix, and Hulu. She has written for advertising campaigns, and is a podcast producer and writer for companies including iHeart Media. Rose has placed in several screenwriting competitions and fellowships including Austin Film Festival, Screencraft, and Sundance Episodic Lab.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager
Josh Dove, Circle of Confusion
Preferred Contact:
Manager
Keywords:
Dramedy, comedy, broad comedy, satire, dark comedy
SARAH WALLER
LORI BALABAN
Bio:
Lori Balaban is an award-winning screenwriter Her Family Guy spec script won Scriptapoolza, and Arrested Development spec was a semifinalist in the Austin Film Festival. Balaban advanced in the Fox’s TV Writer’s Lab and WIF/Black List episodic lab. She’s a member of the WGA and PGA. Balaban has recently crafted five original television pilots—three dramas and two comedies—ready for submission. She also has two finished screenplays to shop.
Balaban has written, directed and produced tv and films including the short film Dog Stalker, which featured The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’s Ellie Kemper, and aired on the CBS Comedy Night School. Learning Curve and Nie zu Spat debuted at the AFI Ripfest Collaborative Film Project. She has written and produced series for National Geographic, TLC and directed award-winning large scale branded content for NBC, Harley Davidson, A+E and Sundance. She directed Ron Howard for AMC’s Toronto Film Festival content, and worked on projects with such Hollywood talent as Kathy Lee and Hoda Jared Leto and Jeremy Renner.
Balaban is also an accomplished novelist. She has completed two literary thrillers. Left of Bang, which won the prestigious City College of New York’s Jerome Lowell DeJur Prize, and the screenplay won the graduate award in memory of David Dortort—who produced the NBC TV show, Bonanza. Even though there’s plenty of sarcastic Jewish girls already in LA, Balaban dabbles in Improvisation and sketch writing at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade and Second City while teaching screenwriting at NYFA LA and directing at UCLA. However, she still cannot parallel park a car, even a small one.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Manager
Kim Veasey, Merak Management
Preferred Contact:
Manager
Keywords:
Dark comedy, edgy, topical
SARAH WALLER
EMILIA BARROSSE
Bio:
Hello, my name is Emilia and I like to think of myself as a human being. I've always loved story telling, whether it was at age 5 when I wanted to be an archaeologist to tell the story of dinosaurs, or or age 16 when I wanted to be a journalist to tell the story of humanity, or at age 21 (JUST after I earned my degree in journalism) when I realized what I really wanted to do was tell the stories I made up on my own :)
Writes:
TV
Representation:
Manager
Casey Neumeier & Maggie Haskins, Artists First
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
FUNNY! honest, sharp, progressive, witty
SARAH WALLER
SCARLETT BERMINGHAM
Bio:
Oh man. I could copy paste my bio from the before times but that feels disingenuous to the person currently sitting in front of her laptop pondering if it’s time to move over to the standing desk in 2021.
I’m Scarlett. Re-writing my own bio. I’m deeply excited for when the time comes that other people do this task for me so I can focus on important things like painting my nails at my desk and which treat I’ll procure next from the kitchen.
I started out as an actor and only an actor and that kinda sucked a lot of days so now I write as well and it’s going...well.
I’m currently writing a ghost movie. I can’t say more than that. But it’s a comedy about grief. I’m doing it for the company Particular Crowd, a subsidiary of Warners. And I’m excited about it.
I have pitched three TV shows to everyone in LA, your uncle in Tampa, your fourth grade teacher and your sister’s ex. They went well. They did not sell. It’s okay.
I’ve turned one of them into a novel so in six years it can be reverse engineered and some studio exec can snap it up and slap “based on the book” on the poster. It’s a pretty airtight plan.
The other one I'm turning into a movie with Canary House and Big Cat Productions and I’m eternally grateful for their consistent confidence in me.
The third one I lit on fire and threw into the Atlantic Ocean.
I’ve developed with Lucky Chap, Milojo, James Frey’s 3BLKDOT. I spent a few years pre-pandemic as a writer deep in branching narrative /choose your own adventure shows with Eko. Epic Night, which I’m super proud of and the yet to be released Damage Control which stars Ben Schwartz, Busy Phillips and wait for it…Billy Zane. My seventh grade Titanic loving brain is still splattered all over the floor.
My favorite thing I’ve ever written is a play. It’s a Lady Macbeth origin story in rhyming verse. I want more than anything to get it produced. Once we can theatre again.
In closing: ask me about my plants.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager
Cavalry Media, Jared Ceizler
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
scarlett.bermingham@gmail.com
Keywords:
Comedy. Dark Comedy. Hijinks heavy. Female...forward?
SARAH WALLER
NADINE BHABHA
Bio:
Nadine’s an award-winning actor-writer-producer from Toronto, or "The Six", if you're Drake or stuck in the early 2000s. She’s produced shorts, is developing several features, has written for "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" (Canada's SNL), Roku's "Children Ruin Everything", and is making a name for herself as a comedy-driven actor on the scene. She’s best known for her performances on "This Hour Has 22 Minutes", "Letterkenny", and you can find her on CBS/Roku's original series "The Holiday Shift", as well as "One More Time" premiering on CBC in early 2024. She has two CSA nominations for Best Supporting Actor and Best Writing for Sketch Comedy. She’s received New York Web Fest’s award for Best Supporting Actress (Bell Media's "Barbelle"). The lens from which I write is a die-hard Torontonian, perpetually single, down-for-whatever, second generation woman who can’t digest dairy. I want to make you think, feel, and LAUGH. I want to tell stories that capture tiny weird bites of life that make people feel seen. To be understood is the sexiest thing that can happen to a person! And what’s life if not the pursuit of sexiness?
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager
Thruline Entertainment, Ruth Bornhauser & Michael Rimock
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
buddy comedy, female-forward, dry wit, weird, appropriately esoteric, broad comedy, dark humour, horror-comedy, action-thriller, BIPOC lens, sketch, zeitgeist humour
SARAH WALLER
ERIN BISHOP ROSEN
Bio:
From idyllic Bend, Oregon when it was pop. 40,000 (and currently boasts the only Blockbuster on the planet), Erin, an adoptee, juggled cheerleading practice, a horse, and at 14, became caregiver for her dad who suffered a stroke. His sense of humor about his condition and taught Erin to value every day, take chances and laugh. (He was a CPA that died notably on April 15th, of course, without filing an extension on her family’s taxes that year). Erin then drove her dad’s Buick to UCLA to pursue writing. With advice from her first mentor, TV Producer Samm Art Williams, Erin learned the craft from the best in the business as an assistant on the original Murphy Brown, The Hogan Family, and umpteen pilots. After the WB Writing Program, her first gig was on Cybill, and one of her scripts won the Gracie Allen Comedy Award, the Genesis Award, and the Dialogue Award. She also wrote for The Jersey. Now she has a vast library of stories—from fertility issues to raising two boys who have 5 competitive grandmas since finding her biological family, to becoming an organic ketchup entrepreneur (Whole Foods/Jamie Oliver’s food truck). Now, after being a caregiver to her cancer-surviving hubby and adoptive mom with Alzheimer’s, she’s ready for new adventures in writing with her kick-ass millennial writing partner.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
comedy, character-driven, moody, quirky, satire, strong female leads, dramedy
SARAH WALLER
ABIGAIL BLOOM & LAURA HUIE
Bio:
Abigail Bloom and Laura Huie are screenwriting partners currently living in Los Angeles. The two have been inseparable since they were cast as conjoined twins in a painfully amateur high school theater production. These ladies grew up in the sticks of North Carolina and couldn’t wait to get out. Laura comes from a Taiwanese-American household and firmly believes that rice is life. Abigail, well, she’s white bread all the way but Laura loves her just the same. As best friends and platonic soulmates for almost a decade, their dark comedy projects are rooted in female friendship which serves as a vehicle for empowerment, vulnerability, and a hell of a good time. Laura received a publishing degree from Belmont University, and Abigail has a degree in opera from Indiana University—she sings loud enough to wake the dead. When these two aren’t writing, Abigail and Laura like to dance around their living room, eat until they can’t breathe, and of course, finish each other's sentences.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Female-forward comedy, dark comedy, comedy-dramas, satire, silly, offbeat/surreal humor, character driven, heartfelt
SARAH WALLER
RITZA BLOOM
Bio:
Ritza Bloom was born to loving, yet loud, Haitian immigrants, and just barely survived the many oddities from her Floridian childhood. She attended Duke University, where she studied Sociology & Theatre when she wasn't starting a secret society or throwing inappropriately-themed parties. Since moving to L.A. in 2013, she’s worked in the digital sphere, creating a web-series (Lalaland the Webseries), and writing/producing/directing content for Issa Rae Production's Facebook platform, The Peak (including BSU the Webseries, and Thanksgiving with Black Families that cleared over 1-million views in it’s first week). She was a semi-finalist in the HBO All-Access Writing Fellowship and was selected as a participant in the 2018 Disney/ ABC Writing Program, which led her to get staffed on Grown-ish Season 2 (Freeform), where she got her first script. She was recently staffed on High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, and currently writes for a family show on a “streamer” synonymous with your phone (unless you’re a green-bubble texter). Outside of work, you can find her hanging out with her husband and baby boy, passionately cheering on the Blue Devils, or floating (face-up) in the calming waters of the Pacific near her home in Playa Vista.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent
APA
Kyle Loftus, Mike Goldberg, Danny Alexander, Halle Mariner
Zero Gravity
Eric Williams
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager, Self
Keywords:
Comedy, Provocative, Female-Driven, Black/Immigrant Identity Pieces, YA/Coming of Age
SARAH WALLER
MADI BOLL
Bio:
Hey there, fellow filmmakers! I'm Madi Boll, and my passion for storytelling has been fueled since I was a kid. I’m primarily a director who is writing a feature for the first time and stumbling upon all the roadblocks and cringey first passes at dialogue that come with it! I got into filmmaking at the age of 11 by making a short documentary about my brother Braden’s profound autism. I discovered the profound impact of storytelling through film. It became clear to me that movies had the power to bridge gaps and connect people in ways that words alone couldn't achieve. Growing up in overseas in China and Thailand undoubtedly influenced my perspective. It's taught me the importance of empathy and the value of embracing multiple approaches to problem-solving. My journey took an exciting turn when I had the privilege of attending USC film school. There, I honed my skills and deepened my understanding of the art and craft of filmmaking. Since then I've worked as an assistant films like CREED III and TV shows for Marvel and currently season 4 of The Morning Show. I love crafting narrative films and music videos that dive deep into topics close to my heart, such as queer love, mental health, and supporting individuals on the autism spectrum. So looking forward to meeting you all and making awesome projects together.
Writes:
Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
romance, drama, family drama, levity, international appeal, empathy driven
SARAH WALLER
MARGARET BORCHERT
Bio:
Margaret Borchert is a proud "vintage gay" who firmly believes her parents should have predicted her coming out years in advance because the only part of Star Wars she had any interest in was Princess Leia's metal bikini. She still holds a deep affinity for beautiful women in elaborate costumes and plans on including them in everything she makes. An LA native who's lived all over the world, she co-wrote, directed, and produced THE PARTY - a web series with over 1 million views on YouTube. She now works as the assistant to TV writer Scarlett Lacey (The Royals; Magnum P.I.; Empress) and spends her free time playing Dungeons and Dragons with her friends.
Writes:
Half-Hour TV
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
sitcom, nerd comedy, female-forward, queer comedy
SARAH WALLER
SOPHIE BRAMNICK
Bio:
Sophie is a Jewish writer based in Brooklyn, New York. She writes hard funny, pop culture-driven comedy and would be thrilled to write jokes about The Masked Singer on your half-hour comedy. She got her start as a script runner (literally just sprinting scripts up and down flights of stairs, thank you calves) on THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON and then started working in scripted television, most notably on the last two seasons of THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL. She currently serves as the Script Coordinator on PALM ROYALE for Apple TV+ starring Kristen Wiig, Allison Janney and Carol Burnett. She was a finalist for the 2020 NBC Late Night Writers Workshop, famously the last one in existence. She is also epileptic and once had a seizure while cater waitering in front of Nicki Minaj but Nicki didn't notice (it was a little one).
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Broad comedy, female-forward, pop culture-driven, campy.
SARAH WALLER
Janis Brody
Bio:
Janis Brody writes high concept laugh-out-loud film and TV comedy with heart. She’s creator and co-executive producer of THE FLUX REPORT, a pilot produced by Viacom. Amazon and HBO/MAX are interested in two of her new TV projects. Janis’ published books include the international bestseller “Your Body: The Girls’ Guide” (St. Martin’s Press). Girl readers sent Janis grateful emails that made her heart swell.
Her feature scripts attracted major talent, including Greta Gerwig and Dan Fogler, and development interest from top companies. Her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from UC Berkeley deepens her characters’ journeys and made her a sex and relationship guru in the media, from “Cosmo” to “The Washington Post.” She wrote and directed THE LUCKY ONES, a stop motion animated short that screened in festivals.
Janis studied dramatic literature at Columbia College in New York City, graduating with the highest honors. But her sense of humor was born downtown in Greenwich Village, where she grew up in a family of funny people. Janis divides her time between LA and NYC. As if comedy writing isn’t fun enough, Janis she roller-disco skates in Central Park and sings with musicians in Washington Square Park.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
janisbrody@gmail.com, Self
Keywords:
High concept, female-forward, hard comedy, laugh-out-loud, irreverent, buddy comedy, action comedy, romantic comedy
SARAH WALLER
NINA BROOKS
Bio:
Stunning Director, Producer and Writer Nina Brooks debuts her short film, "The Passport" this summer. Early last year, Nina joined and worked alongside the likes of Emmai Alaquiva Jazmine Lewis and Baron J. Littleton to grow and gain her knowledge in film and TV. Brooks made her TV debut in the poignant TV Series portraying the troubled life of an in inner-city Pittsburgh single mother, The Lovers Lyfe, and continued on to work with Lana Bettencourt in The Family Business and Emmy Award winning "Unspeakable", Created by Emmy Award-winning Film Director Emmai Alaquiva, this outstanding :60 second PSA features the voices of the Deaf community and their support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Unspeakable was entirely filmed in and around the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. Making her directorial debut on The Passport Nina continues her work as writer and producer and behind the camera and is developing a documentary film that centers on strong and inspirational women from all backgrounds. In addition to her film and TV work, Nina's passion lies in serving her community. With her family roots planted in Pittsburgh, PA Nina's long term goals are to mentor young girls in film and empower them to regain their self-esteem and teach them life skills. Nina was born in York, PA to Evelyn Brooks, a seamstress. She now calls Los Angeles home where she lives with her fiance, Chris, co-owner of their independent film production company, CEP Productions, LLC. When she's not juggling between her career and domestic life, she enjoys staying active by doing hiking, swimming, and yoga. Brooks also finds pleasure in traveling and experiencing different cultures throughout the world. One of her favorite locations to visit is Paris, where she can reflect and refuel.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Urban romance, drama, crime
SARAH WALLER
VALERIE BROOKS
Bio:
I am a filmmaker, writer, and performance artist. I have a deep love for our earth, for people, and for the energy flowing through all things. I think of writing as a weaving of life’s deep and complicated tapestry, as a way to make sense of a world that is seemingly more confusing than ever. I write about consumerism, classism, and environmental destruction, and tend to explore how our continual adaptation to technology shapes our desires and perceptions of reality. At the heart of my work is a sentimental goop who loves a good one-on-one conversations at a crowded party. I want to cry, to laugh, to find devastation and then salvation in the work I consume, and in the work I make - whether it’s comedic, dramatic, experimental, or what have you. My favorite films are Dog Day Afternoon, Beau Travail, the Servant, The Gleaners and I, and The Fly. My work has been broadcast on the PBS Filmmaker Series and screened online on Nobudge.com and the IndieBoom Project. I've been commissioned by Art Center South Florida (Oolite Arts) and the Time Warner Media One Initiative. In 2023, my short experimental film, Agita, won the Vanguard Award at the Art of Brooklyn Film Festival.
Writes:
Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Funny, earnest, Soul Searching, Existentialist, Witty, Off-Kilter, Unique, Honest, & Genre-Blending.
SARAH WALLER
CHRISTINA BROSMAN
Bio:
Christina Brosman was recently awarded the 2019 Humanitas New Voices fellowship for her pilot, Sacrificial, which she developed with ULSC's own Morgan Pichinson during her time at Mosaic. She also won the 2016 New York Television Festival Scripts Competition with her comedy pilot, Medium Well. That script was named One to Watch on WeForShe's 2017 WriteHer List as well. She is currently the Writers Assistant on an as-yet-untitled project by Maria Semple. In 2019, she served as the Script Coordinator on Showtime’s The L Word: Generation Q and the final season of The Affair, and on Lena Dunham & Jenni Konner's HBO comedy series Camping in the year prior. She’s written for the forthcoming podcasts Wellness and Other Crimes, produced by The Paragon Collective, and Fishpriest, produced by Treefort. She'll talk to you about Star Wars and Top Chef with equal and possibly alarming passion. She has killed every succulent she's ever owned.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Agents:
Melissa Darman & Sara Nestor, Verve
Manager:
Merideth Bajaña, Grandview
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager, Self
Keywords:
Grounded-ish genre comedy (like, people acting like actual humans would in outlandish situations, that vibe)
SARAH WALLER
KEAH BROWN
Bio:
Keah Brown is a journalist, author, studying actress and screenwriter. She is the recipient of Ulta Beauty’s Muse 100 award, Which is a celebration of 100 inspirational voices around beauty, she is one of The Root’s 100 most influential African Americans of 2018. Keah is a cheesecake loving rom com aficionado with great music taste. She creator of the viral hashtag, #DisabledAndCute. Her work has appeared in Town & Country Magazine, Teen Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire UK, And The New York Times, among other publications. Her essay collection, The Pretty One is and picture book, Sam’s Super Seats is out now. Forthcoming is her YA Debut, The Secret Summer Promise.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Rachel Miller (Haven Entertainment)
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Female-forward, comedy, romantic comedy, LGBTQ+
SARAH WALLER
NYASHA BRYANT
Bio:
Nyasha Bryant is an LA based writer and the founder of Miss Read Books, an independent bookshop that celebrates & elevates stories driven by BIPOC women & non-binary femmes. A military brat with roots in Zimbabwe, Nyasha is well-traveled and channels her international viewpoint into the stories she tells about characters finding their unique place in the world. As both a creative and a business owner, Nyasha’s passion lies in highlighting exciting, relatable stories through unique and diverse perspectives.
Nyasha is currently an associate producer at one of the leading marketing & advertising companies in the country, Herzog & Co. There, she’s worked on projects including Amazon’s UNCLE FRANK, Apple’s GREYHOUND, and Focus Features’ ANTEBELLUM.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Novels, short stories, fantasy, genre, action-adventure, drama, comedy, supernatural, diverse, female-led, offbeat, edgy, dark humor, Black culture
SARAH WALLER
ANDEE BUCCHERI
Bio:
Andee Buccheri is a writer, actor, and comedian currently based in New York (but can be at the airport in like, forty-five minutes.) As a middle child who’s always keeping the peace, Andee uses humor to bring joy and comfort to others. A graduate of NYU Tisch, she appeared on the 2019 National Tour of Legally Blonde the Musical and was a Best of the Fest pick in the 2021 Burbank Comedy Festival. Andee is predominantly a TV comedy writer with an appreciation for crafting story and character development with a flair for collaboration and punching up jokes. She also stumbled into financial and corporate governance knowledge as an assistant at a hedge fund. When she’s not writing, she loves spending time with her dog, Midge.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Irreverent comedy, female-forward, LGBT-forward
SARAH WALLER
LAUREN ELYSE BUCKLEY
Bio:
Hailing from the land of deep-dish pizza, this little Italian Jew came to LA with dreams of becoming the next Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Or at least playing her on TV. After studying theatre and screenwriting at LMU, I dove into the world of TV and film and began working consistently as an actor. Since covid, I've been able to stretch in a variety of creative directions acting, directing, producing, and writing.
Writes:
Film
Representation:
Manager:
Malissa Young Management
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Young adult coming of age dramadies
SARAH WALLER
RACHEL BURGER
Bio:
Hi, I’m Rachel Burger (like a hamburger). I took a very boring 5-day road trip from Chicago to LA in 2012. I’ve spent the last 7 years working Dan Fogelman’s TV production company, Rhode Island Ave. Productions. I know. It was the longest commitment I’ve ever had. But, it allowed me to really craft my writing voice, while also learning what it takes to be a successful producer and showrunner. His credits speak for themselves while mine are just getting started. I’m currently working in the writer’s room for the upcoming 20th/Hulu show, Only Murders in the Building, starring Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez. It probably will air next year. What else do you need to know? I like hockey, dogs, and have acquired zero extra skills during this quarantine.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Managers:
Tracey Murray & Josh Levy, Industry
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Dark comedy, grounded, heightened reality, adventure
SARAH WALLER
ALEX BURNS
Bio:
Alex Burns has penned over 50 episodes for Spotify’s FEMALE CRIMINALS, a weekly podcast that dives into the psychology of women who break the rules. In her TV work, she writes stories about young women who are stuck in a box and have to fight their way out — whether that’s literally or metaphorically.
Previously, Alex assisted the writer/director on Netflix’s JINGLE JANGLE and EL CAMINO CHRISTMAS. She is a graduate of USC’s Writing for Screen and Television program.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Managers:
Michael Botti & Brandy Rivers (Industry Entertainment)
Preferred Contact:
Manager
Keywords:
Female-forward, YA, fantasy, sci-fi, genre
SARAH WALLER
RACHAEL BURKE
Bio:
Rachael is a comedian, producer, writer, impressionist, and actor. Currently, she is a Writer/Producer at The Drew Barrymore Show. Her career started when she won Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’s Dance Challenge with an original dance move and was interviewed on the show and danced with Jimmy to a song by The Roots. Rachael went on to become a Contributing Writer at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and the longest tenured member of the show’s digital team that won 2 Emmy awards while Rachael worked there. While at The Tonight Show, Rachael recieved NBC's Going the Extra Mile Award for "exceptional work and leadership that extends above and beyond what is asked.” Rachael appeared on several episodes of NBC’s Bring the Funny with the sketch team she created, Kids These Days, performing their own original sketches. When they're not on TV, Rachael and Kids These Days has a monthly sketch show at the People's Improv Theater in NYC, has toured the country to SF SketchFest, NY Comedy Festival, and more. Rachael also worked in the research department at The Late Show with David Letterman. Rachael wrote and performed her celebrity impressions, voice acting for a new America’s Funniest Home Videos show.
Writes:
TV and Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Female-forward, comedy, socially conscious, grounded comedy, satire, mockumentary, workplace comedies, road trip movies, sketch comedy, musical, musical comedy, Christmas
SARAH WALLER
JACKIE CANINO
Bio:
Jackie is an LGBTQ+ writer who grew up in the Bronx, where she developed a passion for social justice and a love for genre television and movies. Jackie attended Harvard University with the intention of being pre-law, but ended up spending all of her free time there writing and producing plays instead of legal briefs. Much to the disappointment of her traditional Italian family, she graduated with a degree in Film Production and immediately moved out to Los Angeles. Jackie worked in television development at FX Networks, Morgan Freeman's Revelations Entertainment, and DC Comics Entertainment before following her true calling and making the transition to television writing.
Jackie has written two episodes of DC'S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW, one of which featured an epic Bollywood musical number and was named one of the Best Television Episodes of 2019 by Paste Magazine. In her spare time, Jackie is a pagan priestess.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV
Representation:
Agent:
Kasey Murazsko, A3 Agency
Manager:
Mike Vanderhei, Rain Mgmt
Preferred Contact:
Reps, Self
Keywords:
grounded sci-fi, character-driven genre, female-forward, LGBTQ+
SARAH WALLER
ANNA CHRISTOPHER
Bio:
Anna Christopher is a television and film writer and director who grew up in Illinois, writing stories and riding horses. Most recently, she was staffed on Amblin’s GREMLINS: SECRETS OF THE MOGWAI for HBO Max. Previously, she wrote on the Emmy-nominated HELPSTERS (Apple), MY LITTLE PONIES: EQUESTRIA GIRLS (Discovery Family), SCREAM: THE TV SERIES (MTV), and the beloved teen comedy AWKWARD (MTV). Currently, she’s developing an IP-based, hybrid live-action/animated pilot with Warner Bros. Animation and Warner Bros. Television. In film, Anna has developed a high school comedy series with Awesomeness TV which she is now adapting into a feature. Her other feature writing work includes a romantic comedy for Maker Studios, adapted from the book WE SHOULD HANG OUT SOME TIME by Josh Sundquist.
As a director, Anna’s short films have screened at film festivals worldwide and won numerous audience awards, a student Emmy and Best Family Pilot at The New York Television Festival. Anna has also directed branded digital and broadcast content for Dannon, Olay, Trojan, Lactaid, and the acclaimed Proctor & Gamble “Raising an Olympian” series. Her recent narrative work includes the comedy short NEVER SEEN YOU SHINE SO BRIGHT starring Lance Barber (Young Sheldon).
Anna’s other talents include key lime pie, losing power struggles with her toddler, and Instacart.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Aaron Kogan, Aaron Kogan Management
Preferred Contact:
Manager
Keywords:
comedy, dramedy, YA, rom-com, female-driven, action comedy adventures, big genre fun with heartfelt feels
SARAH WALLER
RACHEL CALLMAN
Bio:
Rachel is a TV/Film writer with a focus on strong characters, exploring relationships, and the humor that comes from just being a person. She currently has a comedic biopic about the co-founder of OPI Nail Lacquer in development at Cavalry Media with Dana Brunetti (THE SOCIAL NETWORK, CAPTAIN PHILLIPS) with Robert Luketic attached to direct and a half-hour pilot in development with Idina Menzel's Loudmouth Media. Previously, she was a Contributing Writer/Digital Associate Producer on Tosh.0 for over four years. She has made the final round for the Creator's Program at Comedy Central, been a finalist for the WB Writer's Workshop, a second-rounder for Austin Film Festival’s Screenplay Competition, and in the Top Ten for Final Draft's Big Break competition. Rachel also serves as the Director of Operations for Untitled Ladies Script Club, a group that empowers femxle screenwriters to build lasting, supportive relationships within the entertainment industry. Additionally, her work has been featured on McSweeney's Internet Tendency, NickMom, XOJane, and in two college textbooks on comedy that her mom keeps on her coffee table.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Managers:
Tracy Kopulsky and Delaney Morris, Grandview
Preferred Contact:
Managers
Keywords:
Grounded, Comedy, Dramedy, Supernatural Comedy, RomCom, Jokes, Late Night, Narrative, Very Good, Hirable, Peanuts?
SARAH WALLER
LAUREN CANNON
Bio:
Lauren Cannon attended Bryn Mawr College, where she converted from literal choir girl to full-blown feminist. She completed the Screenwriting MFA program at USC and has written and produced several award-winning short films including DeComposition (Winner, LA Comedy Film Festival, Finalist Scripted “Narrated Tale” Contest, LA Comedy Shorts Fest) and I’m Dating the Antichrist, (Winner, LA Comedy Film Festival “Best of the Fest.”) Her pilot The Young Lady’s Guide to Surviving Death won the Page International Screenwriting Awards - Gold Prize. Throughout 2020, her short film Basic Witch is making the socially-distant festival rounds. She lives in Santa Monica with her husband, son and a cat named Marco.
Writes:
TV and Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Female-forward, socially conscious, grounded comedy, satire, magical realism
SARAH WALLER
JULISSA CASTRO
Bio:
Julissa Castillo is an Afro-Dominican writer who was born in NYC but raised in the self-proclaimed mule capital of the world (Columbia, TN -- seriously, Google it). Scared by the prospect of becoming someone who celebrates Mule Day as a serious holiday, Julissa left Tennessee and moved to Chicago, where she earned her MFA in Writing for the Screen + Stage from Northwestern University. She has previously written for Story House Entertainment (Univision) and is an alum of the NHMC Writers Program. She worked as a staff writer on an upcoming Apple TV+ show and is currently developing a show for HBO with Steven Canals. She co-hosts a podcast called QUE FUNNY where she discusses romcoms and other foolishness with her cousin/BFF. In 2020, Julissa achieved the ultimate nerd's goal when she was a contestant on Jeopardy!
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
Rukayat Giwa, CAA
Manager:
Tracy Kopulsky, Grandview
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager, Self
Keywords:
dramedy, grounded, family, dysfunctional
SARAH WALLER
LAUREN CIARAVALLI
Bio:
Lauren Ciaravalli is a WGA-Award nominated writer/director with a passion for putting women and young people at the center of cinematic magic. When she's not writing about teenagers, you'll likely find her on set directing them in a variety of narrative, digital and commercial content. She recently directed L.O.L. SURPRISE THE MOVIE (Netflix) which peaked as the #6 Movie on Netflix in the USA in October 2021. On the writing side, Lauren has developed with Jennifer Lopez's Nuyorican Productions and is a graduate of the Nickelodeon Writing Program. In 2019 she was tapped to direct Season 1 of BratTV’s series SUNNYSIDE UP. Prior to that, AwesomenessTV hired Lauren to write and direct an episode of the romance anthology series LOVE DAILY (Netflix), for which she earned a WGA Award Nomination. A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and prolific independent filmmaker, Lauren’s films have played at Oscar-qualifying festivals across the country. Originally from NYC, Lauren makes frequent trips back to the east coast to load up on her love of live theater. More can be found at www.LaurenCiaravalli.com.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Evan Angle (Zero Gravity Management)
Keywords:
female-driven comedy, modern romance, YA
SARAH WALLER
SUSAN CINOMAN
Bio:
My work as a playwright has taken me down many wild, twisty roads from being the client of one of the most famous literary agents in NYC, to not being able to produce a thing when trying to toggle back and forth between motherhood and commuting into the city. My biggest break on television came through a former student, Adam F. Goldberg. We worked together for many years on The Goldbergs and Schooled, and created the recurring character of Miss Cinoman, Adam's Drama teacher, played by Ana Gasteyer. I repeat, I was Adam's actual drama teacher, Miss Cinoman--puts the Me in Meta!! My plays have been done at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Naked Angels, Miranda Theatre Company, Gulfshore Playhouse and Westport Country Playhouse in NYC and Connecticut and various other theatres nationally. Publications include plays in Applause Books, Dramatic Publishing and Next Stage Press. I've also made a couple of independent films based on plays and won Best Connecticut Filmmaker of 2007, Best Narrative Film New England Film and Video Festival and selection by Berkshire Film Festival. I've won the Maxwell Anderson Playwrights Prize, The Guilford Prize in Drama, Ellie Playwrighting Award at Ivoryton Playhouse. So all of that is great and I'm happy to have gone through those experiences. My big dream now is to make my show Represent. which I've been pitching. It takes place in a 1940's New York City and it's about a woman playwright trying to get her work produced in a Broadway ruled by men. It's a big ticket item, but nothing against hoping, I guess!
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent: Michael Moore (Michael Moore Agency)
Manager: Mark Meyers (Citizen Skull)
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager, Self
Keywords:
female-driven comedy, modern romance, YA
SARAH WALLER
EMILY SARANE COHN
Bio:
My name is Emily Cohn (she/her) and I'm a writer/director/editor who’s finally overcome a fear of elevators. Here's a list of my other accomplishments:
- "CRSHD," my first feature film premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival and is currently available on Hulu and other online movie places
- The NYTimes included me as one of 9 filmmakers who should be on your radar
- I've worked professionally for MoMA, American Empirical Pictures, MTV News and a number of other film and TV productions
- Graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in Creative Writing from Oberlin College
- Studied screenwriting and directing at the Prague Film School where my diploma film "Czechlist" won the audience award at our graduation screenings
- I was a 2012 Tribeca Film Institute Tribeca Film Fellow where my short film "Pierced" received the top level of funding and went on to win Best Drama at the All American High School Film Festival
- My high school web series, “The Do Not Enter Diaries,” was featured in the NYTimes
- 5s on AP calc and AP French –– since I know no one will ask, but it makes me feel unique
- Fifth generation New Yorker who somehow has a driver's license
- Proud member of Free the Work and Film Fatales
I'm currently revising my second feature script, writing a New York-set comedy pilot and directing the upcoming Riot Grrrl-inspired feature "Guts," written by Isabelle Barbier –– among other passion projects and freelance work.
Some of my all-time favorite films are "Little Miss Sunshine," "Superbad" and "When Harry Met Sally."
Well. That's me! I'd like to move out of my childhood bedroom before I'm 30, so, please hit me up with any and all collabs!
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
Hannah Davis, Amanda Hacohen, WME
Manager:
Anna Weinstein, Avalon
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager, Self
Keywords:
Dramedy, Coming-of-Age, Surreal/Inventive, Comedy
SARAH WALLER
SASHA COMPERE
Writes:
Hour TV
Representation:
Manager:
Anne Hong, Mosaic
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Self
Keywords:
Grounded and POC/Immigrant based
SARAH WALLER
CAMILLE CORBETT
Bio:
Camille Corbett is an Atlanta native and a queer-identifying, first-generation Jamaican American. She is a graduate of the University of Alabama and a Fulbright Scholar. Camille was recently staffed on the Jamie Foxx series, DAD, STOP EMBARRASSING ME, for Netflix. She has also written episodes for the Quibi series BREF produced by DreamCrew. Camille currently has an original animated pilot BADDIES in development with Cartuna. In addition, Camille has directed music videos, proof of concepts, and commercials. In fact, Camille is currently in pre-production for THE ISLAND, a horror film funded by Outback Presents, where Camille is set to direct and play the villain, Martisha. Pre-Covid, Camille raised a Kickstarter goal and for her independent pilot CRYSTAL & CHELSEA, that she starred in, wrote, and produced (ask for link) that is currently being distributed by Comcast. Not to mention, Spring 2022, Camille will release her comedic rap album, The Witty Girl. Previously, She was the TA for the NBC writing fellowship: Writers on the Verge.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
Angela Nikas (Lit)/Chris Allen (Theatrical), Buchwald
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Self
nichole.corbett@fulbrightmail.org
camillecorbettcreations.tumblr.com
Keywords:
Comedy, Sharp Humor, female-forward, Caribbean, Jamaican, Dark Comedy, Dramedy, Multi-Cam, Animation
SARAH WALLER
BETH CURRY
Bio:
As a toothless child with a red-headed afro and a giant forehead making me like like Eric Stotlz in Mask, I turned to telling jokes to keep the attention off of my appearance. To this day I love the shit out of writing. Yes, I'm a dork and actually friggin' love it. I need it for my mental health. A world that I can control? Uh...yeah, sign me up.
This year I won the Nicholl Fellowship for my feature Lemon which was just optioned by Mandalay films. I have a few other features in various stages of development. Just honored to be included into a group of badass creative ladies. I love what I do...and am grateful to be a part of this empowering community.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Representation:
Agent -
Sheryl Petersen, APA
Manager -
Jenny Wood, Raquelle David, Elevate Entertainment
Keywords:
Honest, funny, dramedy, grounded, real, quirky, accessible, unique voice
SARAH WALLER
MELODY COOPER
Bio:
I'm a genre writer focused on social issues, BIPOC characters, and female protagonists. I was raised by parents who were activists and teachers in a Blerd (Black nerd) family that loved science and literature, and proved that Black people DO go camping. And yes, my brother is Chris Cooper, the Central Park Birder, and I'm the one who posted his video on Twitter and wrote that NY Times Op-Ed piece. After writing a Defund the Police article and doing a WGA panel on the need for more Black writers in cop show rooms, I was tapped to become story editor on the 22nd season of NBCUniversal’s Law & Order: SVU. I was selected for the 2020/21 Sundance Episodic Lab’s new Idea Lab to develop a grounded sci-fi pilot. I started out in TV in 2019 as staff writer on the second season of the CW series Two Sentence Horror Stories for which I wrote two wild episodes. In 2020 I also co-wrote a comedy sci-fi episode starring Wayne Brady for The Insiders, a new series headed by Greg Grunberg. A 2019 HBO Access Writing Fellow, I was winner of the 2018 Grand Jury Prize for Best Screenplay at the Urbanworld Film Festival with my dramatic feature script NORTHERN CROSS about a Black woman and Latine immigrant on the run. My horror TV pilot, SUNDOWN, has been a Finalist for several labs. Winner of Stowe Story Labs Tangerine Entertainment Fellowship, I was also selected for AMC Shudder Lab with a supernatural feature script THE SOUND OF DARKNESS. My activist heart beats strong and a short documentary, DETAINED, which I wrote, produced and directed, received a 2018 IndieFest Award of Recognition. Writing residencies I've done include Yaddo (2019) and La Napoule Art Foundation in France in 2018 (in a beautiful, haunted castle on the Mediterranean for a month). Also an award-winning playwright, I received a Ford Foundation grant to travel to Rwanda to develop my play SWEET MERCY, which was later developed by NY Stage and Film, starring Danai Gurira. DAY OF RECKONING about Lucy Parsons and the early Labor Movement in the U.S., was produced in NY and won the Jane Chambers Award. I currently write the comic book OMNI about a Black woman doctor with super intelligence (Issues #5 - 10) published by Mark Waid at Humanoids. I started a group of women horror writers and filmmakers called NYX Horror Collective, and I'm developing an original feature with Fear Works to direct in Canada in 2021. Website: www.melodyMcooper.com
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Brandon Lawrence, Pete Stein, Jim Nicolay, Carlos Segarra & Anna Jinks, CAA
Manager:
Corey Trent Ackerman
Preferred Contact:
Manager
Keywords:
Dramatic thrillers, horror and grounded sci fi
SARAH WALLER
DESTINY COX
Bio:
Destiny Cox is a boundary-pushing screenwriter specializing in dystopian, surrealist, and psychological horror narratives across half-hour TV, short films, and feature-length productions. With an unyielding passion for challenging societal norms, she intricately crafts stories that compel audiences to confront the complexities of the human psyche and the darker aspects of culture. Her dedication to amplifying underrepresented voices from diverse backgrounds infuses her work with authenticity and depth, enriching her narratives with compelling characters and thought-provoking themes. Through her mastery of psychological thrills, Cox leaves an indelible mark on viewers, immersing them in haunting and unforgettable worlds where reality blurs and nightmares come to life.
Writes:
Half Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Psychological Horror, Dystopian, Surrealism
SARAH WALLER
CHELSEA ISABELLA CLARK-JAMES
Bio:
Hailing from Denver, CO, Chelsea’s academic studies of modern language and cultural anthropology were only natural as linguistics and social codes were something she learned at a young age - she grew up a cis hetero girl in an LGBTQIA+ family.
After years in non-profit work around housing uncertainty, substance use disorders, and mental health she took a hard pivot into film and TV production work. Over 15 years, she received a front line production education, while working on shows like NBC’s Grimm to TNT’s Animal Kingdom, and features varying from Coraline to Fast and Furious 7. Additionally, she has produced music videos, short films, and online marketing content. She dances the line between Atlanta and LA from her home base in Colorado.
She was a WIF LA 2015 Mentor Circle participant, has been optioned, has an original produced short in festivals currently, and in 2022 won Shore Scripts Short FIlm Fund. The short is in post production, looking to hit the festival circuit spring 2023.
The themes of her work center around identity, faith, confidence and healing, frequently set in the workplace. Her current WIPs include a Buddhist themed dramedy series, a thriller feature, and a short story adaptation.
Aside from writing assignments, she runs her own content writing business for legal professionals, and interviews short film filmmakers for her blog. Away from the computer screen, Chelsea is a practicing Buddhist and smothers her two and four-legged family and friends in affection, which they begrudgingly accept. You can find her on IG @iamchelseaisabella and on Twitter @IsabellaChel
Writes:
Features, Shorts
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
drama, thriller, identity, female-driven, character-driven, faith based, workplace
SARAH WALLER
MORGAN DAMERON
Bio:
Morgan Dameron is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker who has a passion for female-empowerment stories, and an affinity for working with actors. Her feature film, Different Flowers, starring Emmy-Award-Winner Shelley Long, won Best Feature Film at KC Film Fest. After its World Premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and theatrical release in 2017, Different Flowers is now airing on Showtime. As a participant of Ryan Murphy’s HALF initiative, Dameron shadowed Gwyneth Horder-Payton on American Horror Story Season 7. She was also selected for the Paul Feig FUSE mentorship program, and a competitive Producers’ Caucus fellowship. Her digital series and branded content have garnered tens of millions of views online for brands such as MTV, Halo Top Creamery, Canadamark Diamonds, and Nickelodeon.
Dameron got her start working for J.J. Abrams at Bad Robot, on films Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. Dameron was honored with Kansas City Women in Film and Television’s “Spirit of Kansas City” award, Duke’s Talent Identification Program’s “Early Achievement Award,” and USC’s “Renaissance Prize,” awarded to only ten students per graduating class. Dameron is currently in development on her second feature, produced by Paul Feig’s Powderkeg and 3BlackDot.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Manager:
Kendrick Tan, Lit Entertainment Group
Preferred Contact:
Manager
Keywords:
Comedy, sci-fi, heartwarming
SARAH WALLER
KELLY LYNNE D'ANGELO
Bio:
Kelly Lynne D'Angelo is a Two-Spirit Tuscarora (Haudenosaunee) and Muscowpetung Cree writer, performer, and activist who has done her fair share of storytelling in different mediums, including television, books, and stage musicals. Recent credits include TBS’ Miracle Workers, Netflix’s Spirit Rangers, and Adult Swim's Final Space. Her musical, Starry, beside her co-writer Matt Dahan, is set to run on London’s West End in 2023. You can also catch her on various online platforms as a professional Dungeon Master - yes, that's right - for Dungeons & Dragons, Geek & Sundry, College Humor, Buzzfeed, and more. Awarded "Writer of The Year" at the 2019 LA Skin's Fest Annual Gala and listed on BroadwayWorld as one of the “Top 100 Twitter Accounts to Follow in 2021,” Kelly is also a proud Selection Committee member for Outfest’s Screenwriter Lab as well as Mentor and Coach for Creative Lab Hawai’i’s Ideation Program for Indigenous Storytellers. She also owns a life-sized dragonhead, once worked at a zoo, and directed a version of “Macbeth” with the live audience in a pool because, why not. @kellylynnedang
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agents:
Manal Hammad & Jake Dillman, Verve
Manager:
Impossibly Possible Inc
Preferred Contact:
Agents, Manager
Keywords:
Musical, Earnest Comedy, High Fantasy, Magical Surrealism, Four Quadrant, Historical Absurdism
SARAH WALLER
BEE DAVIES
Bio:
Actor, writer, producer and overall creator in film, fashion, and web3.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Art house horror, queer coming of age, futurist sci-fi, absurdist comedy
SARAH WALLER
TERESA DECHER
Bio:
Teresa Decher is a writer, actor, and more recently, director and author. Whether on the page, behind the camera or in front, Teresa is dedicated to creating space for women to be their beautifully imperfect and messy selves, while often commenting, either directly or indirectly, on mental health. Her background is in comedy and her writing team Yes Please! has reached over one million views on YouTube, collaborated with Comedy Central and Funny or Die, developed a pilot with DiGA Studios (the production company behind "Scream" and "Teen Wolf"), and been featured at Los Angeles Film Festival, NYTVF, Raindance, and more. She has also expanded into sci-fi and horror with her directorial debut “Subject 3”, which premiered at FrightFest 2020, and is currently working on her debut novel in the YA space. Her writing has been featured on Thought Catalog and she was a top finalist for NaNoWriMo’s Los Angeles Anthology competition.
Writes:
TV and Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
female-driven, mental health, messy characters, anti-heroes, misfits, comedy, sci-fi, horror, and young adult
SARAH WALLER
ANA MARIA DEFILLO
Bio:
Ana Maria Defillo is a Caracas-born, Miami-raised, Dominican writer, producer, and recovering people pleaser.
Before her career in television, she paved her road to hell as a Christian missionary, human rights graduate student, & nonprofit professional. Now she’s spreading her gospel of cynicism as a writer.
She studied sketch comedy, improv, and satire writing at the Upright Citizens Brigade, The People’s Improv Theater, and Second City. So yea, she’s heard of Del Close. (And that Viola Spolin doesn’t get enough credit for her contribution to improv. Typical.)
As a late bloomer, Ana’s a proud student of humanity. She lived on four continents while getting her Masters in Global Affairs from New York University, a graduate certificate in Human Rights from Columbia University, and a B.A in Cinema Studies from the University of Central Florida. She learned a lot, mostly how much the Florida public school system failed her, but owes a profane amount of that fake thing that governs everything. Her life’s mission is to abolish the systems that uphold said fake thing with, yup, COMEDY! Yes, she knows. She lived it. Then studied it. Wish her luck.
Ana’s writing has been featured in McSweeney’s, Teen Vogue, Vulture, and more. Her TV credits include Desus and Mero on Showtime, The Read on Fuse, and The Vote on PBS. Ana is a proud alum of NHMC’s Series Scriptwriters Program sponsored by Disney/ABC, NBC, and Netflix. Her high-concept dark comedy, Momentous, won the Rooster Teeth BIPOC Fellowship Award at the 2022 Austin Film Festival. The same script was also a semi-finalist in the Comedy Teleplay and Warner Bros Pilot Award categories.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Managers:
Nick Harris, Avalon
Preferred Contact:
Manager
Keywords:
High concept, comedy, dark comedy, satire, genre-blending comedy, female-forward, people of color, women of color, hard comedy, biting humor, pathos, character-driven, satirical horror, politics, working-class, class issues, race, gender
SARAH WALLER
KIMBERLY DILTS
Bio:
Kim is a writer/producer/director who pens absurd comedy as a balm for the apocalypse. She's the 2023 CineStory Fellow for her feature comedy Brew and is the co-founder of Scrappy Cat, an independent production company with a slate of projects including features, documentaries, music videos and shorts. Kim recently moved to the east coast from LA with her husband and three cat overlords, Howard, Archie and Norman, where she adjuncts at Brooklyn College’s Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema. BA Theatre, University of South Florida. MFA Theatre, University of Texas at Austin. Running through walls headfirst, School of Hard Knocks.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
comedy, satire, absurdist, female-forward
SARAH WALLER
COURTNEY DONNELLY
Bio:
Courtney Donnelly and Jenna Finley Moller (writing partners) grew up as only children just miles from each other in Texas. They both went on to get Journalism degrees from NYU and Baylor, respectively, finally meeting years later in Los Angeles in a comedy class where director Richie Keen made them cry. Well, he didn’t make them cry, but making them sing acapella in front of their peers did.
Knowing they would never win THE VOICE, Courtney and Jenna became a writing team, drawing on their similar backgrounds of being from Texas, performing sketch comedy, and sporting “angry bangs” (maybe that was just Jenna). Writing was cheaper than therapy so they began to hone their voice of whip smart humor, always with a touch of heart.
Jenna and Courtney have collaborated with writer Shauna Cross on an original feature script and recently redeveloped it with Sean Robins and Debra Neil Fisher who is attached to direct. As for TV, they just locked a half hour comedy pitch with Tracy Mercer of Amasia Entertainment with veteran Cindy Caponera attached to showrun. They have many fans in both the TV and feature worlds and are eagerly writing new material. Just please don’t make them sing.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Managers:
Syndey Blanke & Colleen Washington, Fourth Wall Management
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Comedy, female-driven, heart
SARAH WALLER
FIFI DOSCH
Bio:
Fifi Dosch has been a stand up comic since 2011, but you’re not going to be able to Google her from around then. That’s probably because she began her career as a man before transitioning into a fabulous lady in 2020! You’ve seen her boy-self on Comedy Central’s Roast Battle. You’ve heard her write jokes on the Comedy Central Roasts and Beavis and Butthead. Her rapidly blowing up TikTok page (@fifidosch) placed her on E! Online’s list of “21 TikTok Stars to Follow.” She even recently performed on the 2022 Netflix Comedy Festival, and she is the first transgender Paid Regular at LA’s Comedy Store. Fifi is a joyfully fearless and fearlessly joyful lady that will blow an audience away and leave them shaking with laughter."
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
Amanda Hacohen, WME
Manager:
Anna Weinstein, Avalon
Preferred Contact:
Self
josephine.delilah.dosch@gmail.com
Keywords:
Comedy
SARAH WALLER
EMMA DUDLEY
Bio:
Born in Philadelphia and raised in the Bay Area, Emma Dudley is a comedy and drama writer transplanted to Los Angeles. She has developed series for DreamWorks and Nickelodeon, staffed on DreamWorks series for both Netflix and Hulu, and has written for Netflix, Warner Bros., and Miramax in the feature space. FOREVER HOLD YOUR PEACE was on the 2020 Black List, and Emma's work has also gone through the Sundance Screenwriting Intensive Lab and been featured on the WeForShe WriteHer List. Additionally, she's an ongoing contributor for Reductress.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
Amanda Jo Smith, UTA
Manager:
Lauren Dineley, Writ Large
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
comedy, dramedy, character-driven
SARAH WALLER
CATHERINE DURICKAS
Bio:
Catherine is a writer and sometimes human being living in LA having escaped Boston. Upon graduating summa cum laude* from UVM, she continued her studies in comedy and now has a regular show with her sketch team at the Elysian Theater. Her work is darkly comic, brightly self-deprecating, and medium-ly realistic. When not writing, she does freelance production coordination or pup fostering. She is a 2023 Film Independent Episodic Lab Fellow. She decided to pursue an associate’s degree in Italian during the global pandemic in case you wanted to know what she does for fun. She is repped by Circle of Confusion. *Her mother was disappointed it wasn’t better
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Zach Cox, Circle of Confusion
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Comedy, bouncy, witty, bright, adult animation, sci-fi comedy, action comedy, female protagonists, disarming, precise
SARAH WALLER
SIENA EAST
Bio:
Siena East is a writer, comedian, and actress based in Los Angeles. She was worked on shows like HBOMAX’s upcoming Clone High, was featured in llluminative's 25 comedians to follow, and ABC's Native American Heritage Month campaign where she spoke about the freedom to be flawed, but they cut the part about catching a barf with her hands. Or rather... failing to catch a barf with her hands.
Siena studied Film and Television Production at New York University where she was selected to produce her first short film. Her short film “Lycanphobic” was included in both the LA Skins Film Festival, where it was nominated in the Emerging Filmmaker category, and the NYU First Run Festival, where it won an award for Best Supporting Actress.
In 2018, Siena was a part of the 3rd LA Skins Television Writers’ lab, a lab that works with Native American writers. Her original pilot “Mixed Up” was selected for a live reading at the LA Skins 12th Annual Film Festival. In 2019, she was in You're Welcome: A Pre-Thanksgiving All Native American Improv Show, the first all Native improv show at UCB.
As a comedian, Siena was first featured in the Kibitz Room’s clean showcase, where she won the audience choice award "The Best of the Bunch" and has performed all over LA.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Agent
Thuan Dang, APA
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Funny, Out of control, broad comedy, flawed characters, discomfort, Native, irreverent, coming of age, raunchy, ridiculous, high concept, conversational
SARAH WALLER
LISA EBERSOLE
Bio:
I write comedy that will make you cry and make your mother blush.
Born and bred in Washington DC, Lisa Ebersole is the Creator and star of 37 PROBLEMS (Amazon Prime Video, Gravitas, Elizabeth Banks WHOHAHA.) She is currently writing an autobiographical half hour, TERRIBLE THINGS about a single, 43 year-old orphan trying to figure out what went wrong; writing/directing a feature Christmas movie for Mar Vista; pitching an adult animation show, MALIBU BEAR.
Lisa received her MFA Screenwriting from UCLA in 2014. Prior to that, she was a NY Playwright known for the Off Broadway plays BROTHER (Samuel French); MOTHER (starring Holland Taylor & Buck Henry.) While spending her money making plays and films, Lisa worked as Editor-In-Chief of the kids’ animated movie site, BrainPOP.com and was a Producer for Disney Interactive’s apps: Toy Story, Cars, Beauty And The Beast etc.
Lisa is a two-time finalist for Juilliard’s Playwriting Fellowship and winner of UCLA’s George Burns Comedy Fellowship and Showcase Competition. During quarantine, she has hosted a monthly Happy Hour for Hollywood Womxn which has lead to jobs, connections, and collaborations when most of our industry has been shut down. Lisa also runs a coaching business for Screenwriters, which teaches writers the process of writing through their Authentic Lens (writing a script that only they can) which is what got her noticed and paid after many years of “i love your wriitng” but no job offers - lisaebersole.net
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Comedy, raw, human, authentic
SARAH WALLER
REEM EDAN
Bio:
Reem Edan is an Iraqi-American comedian, award-winning writer and content creator known for her unique brand of Muslim-ennial humor. After working in marketing at studios including Paramount, Disney and STX Entertainment, Reem took the leap to being a full-time creative and has since performed at venues and universities across the US, Europe, Japan and Middle East. She’s opened for comics including Iliza Schlesinger and Arsenio Hall and has acted in several viral content pieces, including with Elizabeth Banks to promote "Pitch Perfect 3." Since completing the prestigious NBC Late Night Writing Workshop and working as a synposis writer for Netflix, Reem has been featured on ShahidVIP’s "Stand Up Sketch Show," a national campaign for Headspace, Showtime’s "Desus & Mero," and on Bustle’s list of “5 Muslim Women Comedians to Get You Through Social Distancing.” Reem currently pens comedic content for the official Twitter pages of "Tom & Jerry," "Scooby Doo," and "Looney Tunes.”
Writes:
Half-hour TV
Representation:
Agent:
Danny Alexander, APA
Manager:
Matt Sadeghian & Isaac Horne, Avalon
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager, Self
Keywords:
Comedy, buddy comedy, adult animation, identity, multi-cultural
SARAH WALLER
EMILY ELLIS
Bio:
Emily Ellis is a queer comedy writer originally from Cincinnati, Ohio. She moved to Los Angeles after graduating from Columbia College Chicago with a degree in Television Writing and Producing. After three years of retail, she finally booked her first industry job as the Writers’ PA for the final season of CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND on the CW. She was then hired as the Showrunner’s Assistant on Netflix’s FIREFLY LANE for its two season run. While at FIREFLY LANE, Emily got the opportunity to co-write an episode which allowed her to become an Associate member of the WGA. Emily's original pilot STUNTWOMEN placed in the Top Ten in Shore Script's 1/2 Hour Pilot Competition, also placing as a Quarterfinalist in both the Screencraft Comedy Competition and the Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards Diversity Initiative. Emily enjoys writing female-identifying and queer forward stories focusing on finding the humor and creating community in less than welcoming situations. Emily is an absolute joy to be around and was definitely not forced to add this last bit by her mother.
Writes:
Half-hour TV
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
queer focused, female-identifying centered, satirical comedy, magical realism, relationships, camp,
SARAH WALLER
LIZ ENEY
Bio:
Liz Eney is a comedy writer from Larchmont, NY – a one square mile town where her brother was a varsity athlete and her single mom is the mayor. Lacking those mayoral and sporting skills, she turned to comedy. She attended Syracuse University, where she double majored in TV Writing and US History, and later UCB where she took improv classes. Since then, she held a series of industry odd jobs (the NBC Page Program, and a slew of PA positions), until she finally worked her way up to becoming a staff writer on Emily in Paris. She is currently based in LA, although she receives many requests from the mayor's office to return to NY.
Writes:
Half-hour TV
Keywords:
Coming of age, female-forward comedy
SARAH WALLER
CLAIRE EPSTEIN
Bio:
Hi! I'm Claire. I'm originally from Washington, DC, and after college I pursued acting for a while in New York, performing at off-Broadway places and then at UCB. And then TWIST I got a job ghostwriting romance novels and what was supposed to be just a day job turned into a career. I ended up writing 15 books (one was translated into German, which was fun), and while I found that I loved writing, it wasn't a genre I was passionate about - I really wanted to write for TV and film. I decided to write a half-hour TV pilot that then won a festival called SeriesFest, which is how I got my first reps and led to my move to LA.
Since then, I've staffed for a Quibi show, written a freelance episode for Dreamworks, and written for the Calm app and the podcast company Parcast. I've also developed an interactive project with John Milhiser (SNL) for Eko with Powderkeg and Big Breakfast and a romcom feature with The Cartel. I'm currently developing a feminist horror feature with Debbie Liebling and Scotty Landes and an edgy half-hour with Piller/Segan.
I really love to write stories with complicated female leads and use genre to explore some kind of social problem. I want my work to be entertaining before it's anything else. I'm interested in comedy, mystery, horror, thrillers, sci-fi...pretty much anything but sentimental drama. My dream is to be thought of alongside women like Leslye Headland, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Nia DaCosta, Aline Brosh-McKenna, Lorene Scafaria, and Lena Waithe, who work in a variety of genres but always bring their distinctive voice. I'll just come out and say it: I want to write a ten-episode comedy series followed by a Marvel movie.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Christopher Nold, MGMT Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Manager
Keywords:
Comedic, edgy, grounded, fun.
SARAH WALLER
LIZ FANIA WERNER
Bio:
Liz Fania Werner is originally from the Bronx, NY. Her passion for dark fiction with strong female characters started there, watching THE X-FILES with her family on Friday nights. She got her MFA in Writing for Screen and Television from USC where she earned an Annenberg Fellowship, then went on to write for television drama RPM Miami for the Mun2 network, a member of the NBC/Universal family; to develop the feature adaptation of the novel Babylon Sisters by Oprah Book Club author Pearl Cleage and to pen a biopic about WNBA player Abby Bishop for Sentient Entertainment. “Into the Uncanny Valley,” the award-winning thriller short film that she wrote and co-directed with Carlos Montaner, was featured in 11 film festivals, including L.A.’s Screamfest and HBO’s New York Latino Film Festival. Most recently, she wrote and co-directed her first feature film, Waking Karma, a psychological thriller starring Michael Madsen, distributed by XYZ Films.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
John Ferraro, Valleywood Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Thriller, psychological horror, fantasy horror, sci-fi, female-forward
SARAH WALLER
CAROLINE FARAH
Bio:
Caroline Farah is a television and film writer originally from New York City. But it was not exactly a straight line for her to get here. Caroline started out working as a Respiratory Therapist in a Level 1 trauma unit in the ER and I.C.U. She also worked in the O.R. and was bedside for open heart surgeries and babies being born. She should definitely be writing more medical shows, but instead, Caroline writes comedy.
Caroline’s first screenplay was based on a true story – her mom found out her husband was having an affair while watching the "Late Show with David Letterman" (everyone else her mom knew was watching, too). So of course, she had to turn her mom’s horror into a comedy. The script went into development with Marc Rosen at Georgeville Films. Caroline created, developed, and wrote a live-action half-hour with Mark Gordon for ABC. She also created and developed two live-action half-hours with Overbrook Entertainment.
In addition to live-action, Caroline has written on animated shows for Warner Bros. Animation, Nickelodeon, and Marvel. One of her favorites was a Warner Bros. Animation series she wrote on for two seasons with weekly celebrity guest stars. Caroline wrote episodes that starred Cher, Jim Gaffigan, Kristen Schaal, Steve Buscemi, Wanda Sykes, Lucy Liu and the one and only Carol Burnett – as well as many very cool others – but obviously not as cool as Carol Burnett.
In Caroline’s free time, she likes to…oh, wait…she writes in her free time, too. That’s not sad, right?
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Comedy, Dark Comedy, RomCom, Character Driven, Female Driven
SARAH WALLER
RACHEL FARRELL FISCHER
Bio:
Cowgirl. Soldier. Traveller. Pilot. Only sometimes procrastinator. Writer.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Val McElroy, Epigram
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Military. Grounded Sci-fi. Adventure. Mystery.
SARAH WALLER
JANEY FEINGOLD
Bio:
Janey Feingold is a writer, director and lyricist. In 2017, Janey wrote and created the viral teen musical series CHICKEN GIRLS for the Brat Youtube Network. The series received over 100 million views in the first season alone and is currently in its 7th season. CHICKEN GIRLS was nominated for 2018 and 2019 Streamy Awards. Janey has written and directed short films, music videos, branded content and musical theater work. Most recently, Janey produced and directed “Creativity Isn’t Canceled” a digital song cycle live stream event featuring original musical theater work written entirely in quarantine. Janey is a co-founder and Writer-in-Residence of CLUB BYOSS, an organization that works with writers and actors to create community through networking, advocacy, education and creative events. Janey is a graduate of the USC School of Cinematic Arts with a BA in Film Production, and is currently pursuing an MFA in Musical Theater Writing at the NYU Tisch School of the arts.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Manager:
Drew Shenfield, Mosiac Media Group
Preferred Contact:
Manager
Keywords:
Teen, musical, comedy, digital, film, tv, stage
SARAH WALLER
ELISE FELBER
Bio:
Originally from New Jersey, Elise first discovered her love for storytelling through dance and choreography, while studying at the 92nd St Y in Manhattan. After graduating from Boston University with a focus in screenwriting, Elise moved to LA and began developing her own creative projects while honing in on her skills as a producer, writer, and director. Her and her creative partner, Noah Kelly, have since created their own independent production company, Rubber Baby Films. Together, they are eager to create original stories as well as support other creative and independent voices in the process.
Writes:
Half Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Dark comedy, humanistic, female-forward
SARAH WALLER
JORI LYNN FELKER
Bio:
Hailing from the harsh winds of Chicago, Jori once graduated with a Neuroscience degree just to spite an ex-boyfriend. But upon realizing Grey’s Anatomy poorly resembled her vision of working in the medical field, she pivoted into entertainment. Clawing her way across various lit desks, she debuted her cerebral yet heartfelt voice in the frozen-time coming-of-age drama BETWEEN THE RAINDROPS, which currently has Charlie Bean (LADY & THE TRAMP) attached to direct. A true nerd at heart, she produces video game-inspired content centered on tackling gaming from a female perspective. She currently supports the season 2 staff of GABBY DURAN & THE UNSITTABLES on Disney Channel and can touch her tongue to her nose.
Writes:
Film
Representation:
Agent:
David Boxerbaum, Verve
Manager:
Trip Bennewitz
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager, Self
Keywords:
Weird, surreal, YA, coming of age, dark comedy, psychological, fantastical, witty
SARAH WALLER
LAUREN FEREBEE
Bio:
Lauren specializes in stories of badass women who don't take shit fighting systems trying to crush them. Usually they involve science, science fiction, or the supernatural. Her feature script Brilliance was a 2023 selected project for Stowe Story Labs x Sidewalk and a finalist for the Tangerine Entertainment fellowship. Her play Big Money was nominated for 5 awards and won 2 in the 2023 Hollywood Fringe. It was most notable for being an uproarious and violent comedy that was nominated for Best Drama. Prior to moving to Los Angeles two years ago, she got her MFA in playwriting. Ask about one of her many plays featuring drunk mothers, angry mermaids, trash collectors, and video game characters, which have been lauded as both funny and tragic.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Gio Bakunawa, Established Artists
Preferred Contact:
Manager
Keywords:
female-forward, science fiction, weird, supernatural, relationship dramas, social commentary
SARAH WALLER
MELANIE ABRAMS FIERSTEIN
Bio:
Melanie Abrams Fierstein currently lives in Los Angeles, California. She is a first-generation-American screenwriter specializing in brow-raising, character-driven dramas/dramadies, true stories, and IP adaptations. Previously, Melanie was an accomplished speechwriter, organizer, and political consultant for candidates including Secretary Hillary Clinton, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and many other Congressional and local candidates across the United States. Melanie combines her experience in politics with her unique perspective as a disabled woman to write stories with diverse leads that trigger much-needed larger conversations. Melanie’s scripts have been featured on Coverfly’s Red List & Top 1%, and have earned over a dozen accolades including NBCU TV Writer's Program Finalist, Warner Brothers Writer’s Workshop Semifinalist, Austin Film Festival Semifinalist, Golden Script Competition Finalist, Diverse Voices Official Selection, and many more. She also owns the options to THE DOMESTIC DIVA, a New York Times-bestselling series of 16+ mystery novels, and THE GIRL YOU LOST, a gripping thriller by bestselling author Kathryn Croft. When she’s not glued to her laptop, Melanie enjoys reading murder mysteries, painting, and going to Harry Potter World.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Sherice Dugan (Sandstone Artists)
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
True Crime, Family Drama, Female-forward, Thriller, Political, Dark Comedy
SARAH WALLER
MIKA FRANK
Bio:
A native of Cleveland, Mika began her storytelling career as a songwriter. However, the struggles of being a kid parent hindered her from pursuing an unconventional career. Mika then went on to become a pharmacist. After Mika discovered the world of film and television writing, she refocused her talents and moved to Los Angeles. Mika has since placed in the 2018 AFI Directing Workshop for Women, the 2019 WeScreenplay Contest, and the 2020 WB TV Writer’s Workshop. Mika has written and directed the webseries, My Girlfriend is Black, and a number of short films. Mika is best at penning flawed female-driven stories that explore the intricacies of being a strong woman often with an evolutionary arc that leads to liberation. Mika currently works as a showrunner’s assistant on MacGyver.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Conrad Sun, Meridian Artists
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
I am best at writing flawed strong female leads and not the trope-y type of strong, but authentic three-dimensional women. Often times, the character will often undergo an evolutionary arc that leads her to some liberating or freeing place in life.
SARAH WALLER
ARI FRIEDMAN
Bio:
Ari is a queer, bicultural writer and director who grew up Ultra-Orthodox Jewish, only to turn around at 25 and get her hand tattooed like a schmuck. She writes about given versus chosen identity, with an emphasis on strong female leads and mental illness. Her tone has been described as "traumedy" and "who hurt you???". Currently she works on Star Trek: Discovery (P+), and previously worked on The Cool Kids (FOX), and Bless This Mess (ABC).
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV
Representation:
John Dunne (Independent Artists Media)
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Traumedy, Quirky, Dark Humor, Broad Comedy, Female Centric, LGBTQ+, Coming of Age, Mental Illness
SARAH WALLER
GABBIE FRIED
Bio:
Gabbie Fried is a midwestern transplant originally from Kansas City (the Kansas side), and moved to LA in August. Gabbie has degrees in acting and psychology from NYU Tisch, but discovered she hated making herself cry and began taking classes at UCB and Second City. Since then, she’s been on a house sketch team at the PIT, and writes for a sketch show in LA. Gabbie has performed stand up at Caroline’s on Broadway, The Comedy Cellar, Stand Up NY, and Flappers. Additionally, Gabbie has appeared in segments on The Drew Barrymore Show, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and SNL. Gabbie recently finished the UCLA TV Comedy Writing Professional Program. Having worked as a preschool teacher, a middle school dance teacher and a celebrity’s babysitter (it's true)– Gabbie loves to write stories about connecting with kids in a meaningful and comedic way. Jewish, strong, queer, female protagonists who are learning to find themselves through embarrassing and awkward circumstances are her love language. Gabbie is repped by A3 and Daniel Hoff for commercials, and Carrie Macy Talent Agency for TV/Film.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
coming of age comedy, female forward, broad comedy, hometown, queer
SARAH WALLER
KAITLIN FONTANA
Bio:
Kaitlin Fontana is an Emmy-nominated TV and film writer, director, and producer, and a National Magazine award-winning essayist. In a not-so-distant past life, she was a music journalist. She's the current host of the WGAE's craft and process podcast, OnWriting.
Kaitlin's feature film script, GIRLFRIEND ON MARS, is on the 2019 Black List. She is a 2018 NYTVF Development Deal recipient (Audible) as well as a finalist in the 2018 HBOAccess Directing Fellowship. Her directorial debut, FRANCHESCA, was an official 2018 Sundance Film Festival selection. She was a Field Producer on Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. Kaitlin was a 2018 WriteHer List Honoree, an inaugural 2017 WGA/Made in New York Writers Room Fellow, 2017 Showtime Tony Cox Award winner, 2017 Nantucket Comedy Colonist, and 2017 Bitch List Honoree.
Kaitlin sits on the Writers Guild of America, East council and believes in the power of collective action. She lives in Los Angeles, CA and was born in Fernie, British Columbia, Canada, a distinction she shares with Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Manager:
Christina Campagnola, GRLBND
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Elevated dark comedies with genre twists, weird dramas, magical realist sci-fi
SARAH WALLER
AUDREY ELLIS FOX
Bio:
Audrey Ellis Fox is a narrative and commercial filmmaker known for her splashy and bold storytelling. Audrey has directed projects for Nike, Amazon, Proactiv, Epic Records, Sony, Vogue/Conde Nast, 88Rising, Columbia Records, Republic Records, Warner Records, Atlantic Records, and many more. Her roster of artists and athletes she has collaborated with includes Khalid, Dove Cameron, Simu Liu, Future, Chloe Bailey, Jackson Wang, Sha'Carri Richardson, Maddie Ziegler, and Joshua Bassett. In 2022, She was nominated for an MTV VMA for her directorial work with Avril Lavigne, Travis Barker, and Blackbear. On the narrative front, Audrey's script "NDA" was selected for the 2023 Women in Film X Black List's Feature Residency program and is currently in development with producer Anna Gerb (“Margin Call”, “All is Lost”, “A Most Violent Year”) attached. Audrey’s shorts "Retreat" and "Patricia Drive" played at Oscar-qualifying festivals around the country including Hollyshorts, LA Shorts, Urbanworld (HBO), Rhode Island International Film Festival, Maryland Film Festival, and SLIFF. Writing accomplishments include feature "Scam" (Sundance Development Track second round), "Real Talk" (Page International Screenwriting Awards Semi-Finalist), and "Holy Dumpling!" (Sundance YouTube New Voices Lab second round). Audrey received her Bachelor of Arts from Brown University.
Writes:
Hour TV and Film
Representation:
Manager:
Matt Dartnell, Writ Large
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Drama, Psychological Thrillers, Dark Comedy
SARAH WALLER
MEAGAN FULPS
Bio:
Born in a small Denver suburb where playing sports and going to outdoor concerts were the only things to do besides drugs, young Meagan Fulps desperately prayed that she’d become a professional athlete and marry Nick Jonas. Thankfully God knows best and only one of the two came to be. Despite being height challenged and reminded her whole career that boys sports were somehow more important, she excelled as an elite baller and makes sure to remind every single person she meets for a general multiple times. In addition to championing female athletes on the page, she has an affinity for asshole characters and quirky, contemporary worlds. When she’s not pounding the keys, she’s being told to “f*ck off” (lovingly) by her training clients or attending couples therapy with her fiancé in the form of paintball.
Writes:
Half-hour TV
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
comedy, dramedy, grounded, female led, workplace
SARAH WALLER
ROBIN FUSCO
Bio:
Robin creates layered crime and medical dramas that take the women you love to hate, put them in fucked-up situations, and make you root for them. She previously coached physicians from around the world on empathy and medical ethics, and she draws on this expertise to bring emotional truth to complex, morally ambiguous narratives. A new media medical series she was hired to write is scheduled for release this year. Robin is a 2022 WIF Writing Circle Mentee and was a NYSCA Screenwriting Fellow, and her scripts have placed in numerous competitions including WeScreenplay, ScreenCraft, and Cinequest. She’s also a commissioned and published playwright whose work has been produced internationally. A proud member of the WGA Independent Writers Caucus and The Dramatists Guild, she was awarded an MFA in screenwriting from Point Park University. Robin tells stories that immerse us in lives unlike our own, and when she’s not writing, you can often find her out in nature hiking and conquering mountains — another way in which she expands her perspective.
Writes:
Hour TV
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
female-centric, dark drama, twisted, medical, crime
SARAH WALLER
YAEL GALENA
Bio:
Raised in a macrobiotic modern-orthodox Jewish home, Yael Galena, an agnostic carnivore, is familiar with avoiding the beaten path. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from George Washington University with a degree in Electronic Media, but cites her two years of traveling the world solo as her master class in character, storytelling and the human condition. Yael spent ten years producing docu-reality television in New York City before moving to Los Angeles to follow her true passion, writing. Yael is drawn to strong female-driven dramedies gleaning from her overly-involved Jewish family, her absurdist backpacking adventures and growing up with parents who thought tropical flavored Tums were an adequate school snack.
She has two original pilots in development, one at Warner Bros. and one at Sony. Her feature script made it to the 2020 Semifinalists of the Nicholl Fellowship. She was featured on 2019’s WriteHer List, 2018’s Young & Hungry List and was one of six Hedgebrook writing fellows. She worked as a Writers’ Assistant on TNT’s hit Claws.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Agent:
Maude Reilly, APA
Manager:
Corrine Aquino, Artists First
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
grounded, female driven dramedy and comedy
SARAH WALLER
KIANA GARNER
Bio:
Kiana is a Los Angeles native from the diverse region of the South Bay, specifically Torrance and Inglewood. At a young age she was inappropriately allowed to watch “In Living Color” and SNL and dreamed ever since of becoming the black Tina Fey. Kiana enjoys writing stories about people with diverse backgrounds & intersectionalities and the quirkiness of everyday life, whether it's in the form of a stoner comedy or a dramedy about being haunted by the ghost of your terrible ex. Kiana has written for web series’, TV review sites, and was a punch up writer for Comedy Central’s "The Legend of Chamberlain Heights." Her current project is writing and developing "For Evan's Sake," a half hour dramedy streaming on Tubi. In her free time she enjoys cooking vegetarian recipes from Pintrest, discovering new music on KCRW and experimenting with natural hairstyles.
Writes:
TV
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Comedic, topical, quick witted
SARAH WALLER
CASEY GATES FREY
Bio:
Casey Gates Frey is a creator who loves to tackle high-concept comedies with emotionally grounded characters. Before entering her mom era, she worked on dozens of TV sets as a Digital Producer including NBC's The Good Place, where her work contributed to a 2019 Emmy nomination for “Achievement in Interactive Media Within a Scripted Series”. Casey was a top 10 finalist at the ATX Pitch Competition, a semi-finalist in the WIF x Black List Episodic Lab, and her most recent short film Crystal won in its category at the Best Shorts Film Festival. If she's not roller skating down the Burbank bike path, she's probably at a coffee shop working on her (hilarious) memoir about having a baby in the pandemic.
Writes:
Half-Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Zach Carlisle, Framework
Preferred Contact:
Manager
Keywords:
action comedy, horror comedy, high-concept comedy, female-forward, sci-fi comedy
SARAH WALLER
ANNIE GIRARD
Bio:
Hi. I'm Annie, like the orphan. I wish you'd laughed harder at that joke, I killed my parents for it. Ya-yuh. If you couldn't tell by that zinger, I'm a comedy-focused writer/director/performer who's sold shows to Amazon Studios, Joey Soloway's company Topple, Crunchy Roll/VRV, and Animasia LA. I've written animation, live action, narrative podcasts, digital, and TV for Disney, Amazon, Netflix, Warner Brothers, PBS, Dreamworks, MTV, HGTV, and Comedy Central, on a wide range of projects including Legend of the Three Caballeros, Super Wings, Blue Collar TV, and the Regional Emmy nominated Pandemic Playhouse (Great Lakes Emmys are the best Emmys!) The scripted audio series Farah Tunk... that I co-created, wrote, directed, and starred in just won Channel 101’s Frequency 101 Best Show. I love clothing swaps, hiking, SCUBA, and tie-dying things. I have two kids and two dogs and I'm married to my preschool crush, Baby Kermit.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
comedy, action, sci-fi, animation, live-action, scripted audio, sketch, stand up, quirky, edgy, genre-bending, female-forward, motherhood,
SARAH WALLER
ASHLEY GLACEL
Bio:
Ashley Glacel is a screenwriter based in Los Angeles who writes witty, conversational, and funny scripts that attempt to capture the angst of a certain period of life and often center on a group of brazen female friends. At present she has a rom-com called SOMETHING HAPPENED ON THE WAY in development. An East Coast native and political junkie at heart, she previously served as a press secretary and speechwriter in both the U.S. House and Senate. She holds a B.A. from William & Mary, an M.A. from the New School, and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, where her research centered on narrative structure and storytelling. Pieces she's written on the intersection of politics and pop culture can be found everywhere from the Village Voice to long-defunct e-zines from the early 2000s. Her parody of Lizzo's "Truth Hurts" currently boasts a *not-inconsequential* amount of views on YouTube, as do her *NSYNC dance tutorials.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Keywords:
mainstream comedy, indie comedy, rom-com, dramedy, female-forward, witty, conversational, political, music tie-ins
SARAH WALLER
ALYSSA MAY GOLD
Bio:
Alyssa May Gold is a theater/filmmaker, and a native New Yorker. These two things make up almost her entire personality, the rest of which is her deeply held belief that corn muffins should never have lemon or whole corn kernels in them. She holds a multidisciplinary bachelor’s from NYU Gallatin, a master’s in classical acting from the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art, and has been working on stage and screen and behind the scenes for the last two decades. When she couldn’t watch one more ingenue fall in love/to her knees begging for mercy while someone else went on a journey, she founded Pocket Universe, a production company dedicated to reconsidering and reimagining classic stories and conventions. Pocket Universe’s inaugural production of her concept for Shakespeare’s JULIUS CAESAR set in an all-girls high school was hailed by the NY Times as a “radical take on the tragedy…[with] the capacity to take women seriously at the heart.” It was followed by a new spin on ROMEO + JULIET about a modern teenager reading the play for the first time, and an original rom-com-with-a-twist web series, “You Made it Worse,” both of which Alyssa adapted/wrote and directed. Her half hour pilot, MOVE THE FURNITURE, a work-(from home)-place dramedy about a sidelined choreographer and a young, injured dancer who team up to run a company while being haunted by their dream ballet alter egos, was a 2021 finalist for absolutely nothing but she loves it dearly. In 2022, Alyssa will appear in the Broadway premiere of Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer prize-winning play HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE, while continuing to write/rewrite/give up on writing/remember why it’s so important to write stories that upend the cultural narratives that no longer serve us. She believes if we want to change the world, we start by changing the stories we tell.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Patrick Murray, Untitled Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Sharp, Witty, Grounded, Naturalistic, Dramedy
SARAH WALLER
ELANA GOLDBERG
Bio:
Elana Goldberg is a New Orleans Saints fan despite growing up in Philadelphia, and has somehow ended up in Los Angeles. She is a screenwriter and fiction writer, but her sister is a doctor which people usually find more interesting. Most recently, she did script revisions on THE WEDDING YEAR, a romantic-comedy that was released in theaters in the fall of 2019, and is currently building her portfolio. She studied at Carnegie Mellon University's undergraduate creative writing program where she graduated in 2015 with multiple honors. She is currently out to publishers with her first novel.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Manager:
Anastasiya Kukhtareva, Epicenter
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Dramedy, grounded comedy, rom-com, coming-of-age
SARAH WALLER
KARI GRANLUND
Bio:
Kari is an accomplished comedy writer who earned early acclaim when her original action comedy, THE SET UP, landed on the 2015 Black List with Red Hour attached to produce. Since then, Kari has worked on a variety of projects, including THE BABY SHOWER, MR. TOAD'S WILD RIDE, and LADY & THE TRAMP, which she received screen credit for. She also pitched and wrote an original feature for Disney, GODMOTHERED, which was released in December 2020 starring Jillian Bell and Isla Fisher. She's currently developing a television series with Annapurna based on a graphic novel by Tom Gauld, and is also writing a new ROBIN HOOD adaptation for Disney with Carlos Lopez Estrada attached to direct. She hails from Portland, Oregon and the only thing she loves more than writing is the Trail Blazers.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Agent:
Melissa Fried, Chris Noriega, & Bill Weinstein, VERVE
Manager:
Sarah Dodge, Industry Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager
Keywords:
comedy, character-driven, female-driven, left of center, action, tentpole, animation
SARAH WALLER
STEPHANIE GROFF
Bio:
Stephanie Groff is a screenwriter and an award-winning copywriter living in Los Angeles. She got her career start working at Twentieth Century Fox in Feature Film Production and left the studio to pursue screenwriting, getting her first big break adapting Dean Koontz’s best-selling memoir, A Big Little Life.
As a copywriter, Stephanie creates original content for major film franchises, such as Spiderman (Marvel/Sony), Wonder Woman (WB), X-Men (Fox/Disney), and Jumanji (Sony). She won a Golden Trailer Award for her featurette, “Planet Pandora," an original piece promoting James Cameron’s Avatar.
Stephanie is a Career Member of Women In Film and advocates for female-led content and increased opportunities for women in entertainment.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
SARAH WALLER
NIKKI GROTON
Bio:
Nikki Groton is a queer writer/director telling surreal female-driven stories and rollerskating in Los Angeles.
In 2015, she produced, directed, and edited the feature documentary The Melting Family. The film made its world premiere at DOC NYC, America’s largest documentary film festival.
In 2020, she released the feature film Darkness in Tenement 45, a psychological thriller that she wrote, directed, and produced. The film had an unstoppable festival run and is currently available across VOD platforms.
Alongside her own writing and directing, she also produces and directs digital content regularly for clients such as Apple, Netflix, and Starbucks. Additionally, she has written and directed two short films.
She has also been recognized for her screenwriting. She was a semifinalist at the Academy’s Nicholl Fellowships and has been recognized by Finish Line, Fresh Voices, Austin Film Festival, PAGE, HollyShorts, Storypros, and Script Pipeline, amongst others. She was featured on Coverfly’s Red List and held the top 1% of screenplays on the platform.
Writes:
Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
magical realism, fantasy, female-forward, LGBTQ, queer, surreal, fantasy
SARAH WALLER
MARY GULINO
Bio:
Mary is an LA-based writer from New Jersey. She's currently staffed on the animated series Hailey’s On It! for Disney as well as writing the adapted screenplay of The QB Bad Boy and Me, starring Noah Beck. Previously, she staffed on Upload (Amazon Prime) and consulted on Decoys (CBC Gem). Her satirical writing has been published in Reductress, The Belladonna, Points in Case, The American Bystander, and more. Mary got glasses when she was two, and would love to talk optometry sometime. Find out more at maryegulino.com or on Twitter @maryegulino. (Or don’t—you probably have a lot of things going on.)
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agents:
Ilana Goren and Norris Brooks, CAA
Manager:
Lisa Mierke, Mosaic
Preferred Contact:
Self, Reps
Keywords:
character-driven, comedy, horror comedy, genre-bending, cynical optimism
SARAH WALLER
JUSTINE COGAN GUNN
Bio:
I write kids live action and animation along with a nice dose of rom-com. I love creating weird, imaginative, wish-fulfillment-packed worlds for puppets and humans where life’s comedy plays out in bright colors and soft felt--always with a little heart.
My writing partner on family scripts--Brian Newlin--and I were staffed on TAB TIME, a hybrid live action-animation preschool show for YouTube Originals. We just delivered our original family comedy for the Jim Henson Company and Universal. We’ve got a live action family project with MiMO Studios and we’re currently pitching a kids three-camera sitcom with producers.
Independently, I write female-driven rom-coms of all different flavors. I’ve written and co-written a few that have aired on the Hallmark Channel and Lifetime—COOKING WITH LOVE (2018), praised as a Hallmark unicorn where the guy changes HIS plans to fit the girl’s and HOLLY’S HOLIDAY (2012).
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Managers:
Alison Mann, Colleen Washington, Fourth Wall Management
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
character-driven, family, kids, rom com, animation, magical, emotional, aspirational
SARAH WALLER
ALI GUSBERG
Bio:
Ali Gusberg is a comedy writer with two feature films in development with production companies, and she wrote and developed two movies for Hallmark. She wrote on the Amazon show FOREVER starring Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen. She also wrote, directed, produced, and starred in her short comedy film COUPLE FRIENDS. Her Hollywood break came when she won a $500-screenwriting contest with her 30 ROCK spec script that shuttled her into a showrunner’s assistant job for former 30 ROCK writer Matt Hubbard under his NBCUniversal deal. Ali helped Hubbard take three pilots through production and a fourth through script, developing with Tina Fey, Robert Carlock, and Mike Schur.
Prior to screenwriting, Ali was a copywriter at Ammirati, a New York City advertising agency, where her clients included Vitaminwater, Smartwater, Pirate’s Booty, Woodchuck Cider, among others. Before that, Ali was a copywriter at Coca-Cola’s wholly-owned subsidiary Glaceau. Previous to Glaceau, Ali worked on the management team of Savored, a restaurant reservations technology start-up.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Manager:
Ken Freimann, Josh Adler, Circle of Confusion
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
grounded comedy
SARAH WALLER
SIERRA HALL
Bio:
Sierra Hall is a comedy writer with a a bent towards strong female characters with jacked-up lives. She’s writes features and TV that fall somewhere in the action-comedy-mystery categories. She considers herself a tequila connoisseur among other things (steak, cheese, Lays Stacks... if you call yourself a "connoisseur" it sounds better than "shameless glutton"). Sierra is repped by Kersey Management.
Writes:
Half Hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Andrew Kersey, Kersey Management
Preferred Contact:
Manager
Keywords:
comedy, spy, female, high-concept, four-quadrant, fantasy, action, adventure, buddy
SARAH WALLER
NIKITA T. HAMILTON
Bio:
Born and raised in Miami, Nikita is a first-generation Jamaican-American. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania and later moved to Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, where she earned her Masters and Doctorate in Communication. Her research focused on representations of Black women in television, culture, and gender, and it was towards the end of her studies at USC that Nikita realized she wanted to write for television and not just write about it. With that decision made, Nikita landed a position as the Writers’ Assistant for the second season of FX’s acclaimed series, ATLANTA, which not only gave her a crash course in comedy writing, but also solidified that creating engaging shows was what she wanted to do with her life. Nikita has contributed a book chapter about HBO’s GIRLS, entitled, "So They Say You Have a Race Problem? You're in Your Twenties, You Have Way More Problems Than That" to the book, HBO's Girls: Questions of Gender, Politics, and Millennial Angst and wrote, co-produced, and starred in the short film CALL OUT BLACK, which received the Dolores Huerta Award at the Long Beach Indie Film Festival. This year, Nikita co-created and wrote for the comedy web series “(Best) Friends.” She is currently a Staff Writer on ABC’s A MILLION LITTLE THINGS.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Manager:
Korin Williams and Monique Nash, Kronicle Media
Preferred Contact:
Manager
Keywords:
comedy, dramedy, grounded, women-centric
SARAH WALLER
CARLI HANEY
Bio:
Carli Haney has worked in Film/TV development for the last decade as a Creative Executive and Director of Development. She’s worked with A-list companies such as Jennifer Lopez Enterprises, RatPac Entertainment, and most recently, Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat Productions. Under these banners, she has sold and developed TV and Film projects at most major studios and networks. Additionally, Carli produced and starred in the Netflix Docuseries KEVIN HART: DON’T F**K THIS UP and Executive Produced Sony’s FATHERHOOD. Carli has a BFA in Technical Theatre, Stage Direction, and Play Analysis from Creighton University. She’s a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community and teaches Indoor Cycling in Studio City.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Matthew Einstein, Tradition Pictures
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
High concept comedy, broad comedy, female-forward, character-driven
SARAH WALLER
BRIANA HANSEN
Bio:
Briana Hansen is a comedic writer and actress based in LA. Her hyperactive imagination, sharp and often-wicked sense of humor, and general Midwestern do-gooder sensibilities seep their way into almost all her stories. Her writing typically features unique female protagonists who are often relatable weirdos and fish out of water searching for some sense of belonging. A big fan of shaking up traditional narratives, she recently wrote, produced, and starred in an interactive Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-style sketch comedy show for AmazeVR available on Oculus. She studied and performed writing, improvisation, and sketch comedy at The Second City Chicago, iO, The Groundlings, UCB, and a bunch of other places you've likely never heard of. She has a stand-up comedy special on Amazon called "Articulate Neanderthal" and continues to work regularly as a SAG AFTRA actress, VO artist, and freelance writer. She's obsessed with her dogs, always available to listen to a good ghost or alien abduction story, is a big fan of crystals, conspiracy theories, and pretty much all of life's mysteries. She does not, however, want to discuss vampires. She's also a new mom and generally running on fumes.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Manager:
Daniel Clark, Anthem Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
comedy, dark, irreverent, goofy, absurd, playful, supernatural, philosophical, heart-felt, character-driven
SARAH WALLER
TATE ELIZABETH HANYOK
Bio:
Tate Hanyok is a writer-actor focused on female-driven comedy and young adult stories. She was named one of the AFF & Moviemaker Top 25 Writers to Watch and named one of the Top 100 Emerging Writers on Tracking Board's 2019 Young and Hungry List. Her perspective is steeped in backyard humor, themes of awkward displacement, found family, and the endlessly unpredictable (and hilarious) reality of the underdog. Her stories are chock full of characters with fresh and unique perspectives.
Most recently, she's been hired by Picturestart to adapt the Watt Pad novel Along for the Ride into a motion picture, has also written Pet Nup and Family Week for Mucho Mas. Her TV Series April F*#ing May is in development with Blue Ant Media. She’s produced the independent feature Love and Baseball, and is currently producing her feature script Sex APPeal alongside American High for Hulu .
Guest starring in comedies such as The Office, Superstore, Community, Shameless, Transparent, Burt Wonderstone, and many more, Tate has a rich actor's perspective to bring to her characters. She’s the private performance/comedy coach to many teens on numerous network TV series/studio films, and is also a seasoned improviser and alum of UCB.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
Ayala Cohen, Melissa Orton Cortez, James Robins Early, ICM
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Self
Keywords:
Female forward, feminist, character driven, diverse, progressive, socially conscious, environmentalist, comedy, dark comedy, dramady, romance, adaptation, stage comedy, sketch comedy, YA, Teen, coming of age, edgy, sexual awakening, family, mockumentary, workplace, Christmas, anti-heroes, misfits, heart-felt, character-driven
SARAH WALLER
ASHLEI HARDENBURG-CARTAGENA
Bio:
Ashlei Hardenburg-Cartagena is a queer German-Puerto Rican writer originally from Jersey City, NJ. She writes gritty crime dramas peppered with casual violence and grim realism. Ashlei began her career working in production on documentaries as well as on New York based shows including ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK and JESSICA JONES. Since turning to writing, Ashlei's screenplays have been honored at various festivals and competitions including as a quarterfinalist in the Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Contest, the Outfest Screenwriting Lab and as a selection for the RoadMap Writers Diversity Initiative. Ashlei has a B.F.A. in Film from Vassar College and finds guilty pleasure in karaoke and historical dramas.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Manager:
Jason Lubin, First Story Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Dramatic, Violent, Authentic, Blunt
SARAH WALLER
NATALIE JASMINE HARRIS
Bio:
Natalie Jasmine Harris is a Black queer writer, director, and producer from Silver Spring, Maryland currently based in NYC. She received her BFA in Film and Television from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in May 2020.
Her NYU thesis film, "Pure," received The 2020 Directors Guild of America's Student Film Award and recently finished a film festival run that included over 40 festival screenings worldwide. In February 2022, the short film was acquired by HBO and is now available to stream on HBOMax. Natalie is currently adapting the concept behind "Pure" into a feature-length film of the same name that is a 2021 recipient of The SFFILM Rainin Grant and was selected to be a part of last year's Gotham Project Market and Outfest Screenwriting Lab.
Natalie is currently a Creative Culture Filmmaking Fellow at The Jacob Burns Film Center and is in post-production for her very first commercial that she directed for Hyundai.
Natalie's work has been featured in publications that include Teen Vogue, THEM Magazine, The Cut, and NBC.
Writes:
Film
Representation:
Manager:
Christina Campagnola and Kim Veasey, GRLBND
Preferred Contact:
Manager
Keywords:
Coming-of-age, drama, female-forward, queer, dramedy
SARAH WALLER
ROBIN J. HAYES
Bio:
Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Dr. Robin J. Hayes was born in Brooklyn before it was artisanal. Working with the producers of QUEEN OF THE SOUTH and TRANSFORMERS, she was Co-Executive Producer on Fremantle’s forthcoming pirate series SANDOKAN. Prior to her career in film and television, Robin studied at Yale, NYU, and the Sorbonne, led humanitarian aid missions to Latin America (where she hung out with rebel leaders who wore ski masks, Rolexes, and AK-47s), and was a professor of international affairs and management at prestigious institutions including Williams and Northwestern. She wrote, directed, and produced the award-winning documentary BLACK AND CUBA (Peacock, Tubi), which was exhibited at film festivals, campuses, and community-based organizations throughout the US and internationally. In addition to collaborating on acclaimed films for Netflix and PBS, Robin was selected for The Black List Episodic Lab and Women in Film Shorts Lab, funded by Google. She’s also a trilingual surfer, fashionista, and fine art enthusiast. Robin is based in Santa Monica, California.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Keywords:
Ravishing, relentless, ratchet, women-driven, high concept drama, international appeal, sticky, twisty, unifying, LGBTQ+ inclusive, hopeful, socially relevant
SARAH WALLER
JESSICA HAYMOND
Bio:
Jessica Haymond is a writer and actor who regularly performs at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and has been featured on Drunk History as well as in various national commercials. Jessica created and directed the MTV series “Fast Food Heights” starring Nicole Byer. Jessica has written for Adult Swim, MTV, The New York Television Festival, and several shows at UCBLA. She studied Public Policy at USC and is a licensed attorney in California. She once wrote a joke that Beyoncé retweeted.
Writes:
TV
Representation:
Manager:
Tracy Kopulsky, MXN Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Comedy, absurd, satire, female, fringe
SARAH WALLER
RACHEL HEIN
Bio:
Rachel grew up in Kansas City, watching the Chiefs lose every Sunday at Arrowhead and playing softball, before leaving to play for Dartmouth College, and eventually landing in Los Angeles, where she now watches the Chiefs win every Sunday from her couch. She recently worked on THE REHEARSAL with Nathan Fielder for HBO where she also served as an associate producer on set. She was also in the room on THE CURSE with Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie for Showtime. Before that, she served as Associate Producer on BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM, where she traveled across the US and abroad going between working in the writers’ room and new shooting locations daily. Her previous writers' room experience includes Netflix’s SANTA CLARITA DIET for two seasons as well as ATYPICAL. Between seasons of The Rehearsal, Rachel served as a story and comedy consultant on the staff of Justin Willman’s new magic comedy show for Netflix and Abso Lutely Productions, as well as a consultant for Amazon Freevee’s JURY DUTY for punch ups. After being selected for the Telluride Film Festival Student Symposium in 2015, she returns every year to work at the Herzog Theater during the festival.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV
Representation:
Manager:
Josh Marks, Untitled
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
dark comedy, satire, female-driven, absurdist, mental illness
SARAH WALLER
LESLEY HENNEN
Bio:
Born and raised in the suburbs of Minneapolis, Lesley Hennen is a writer, producer, and recovering publicist currently based in Los Angeles. She holds a B.A. from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, and is also a graduate of The Second City’s Harold Ramis Film School, where she honed her niche of telling female-driven dark comedies, often inspired by her own life experiences of living with a physical disability.
Lesley’s original pilot script, "Walk & Roll" recently placed in the second round of both the 2021 Austin Film Festival and Sundance Episodic Labs, as well as in the top 100 scripts of The Tracking Board’s 2021 Launch Pad Pilot Competition. "Walk & Roll" was also a Finalist in WeScreenplay’s Diverse Voices Lab, and TV Pilot Contest, as well as a Semi-finalist in ScreenCraft’s TV Pilot Contest. Another of Lesley’s original pilot scripts, "Uninspired", was chosen as “Best of Fest” at the 2020 Women in Comedy Festival’s "Pitch Your First Five Pages" competition, presented by HBO.
Lesley is currently one of eight Fellows in Blackmagic Collective’s All Access: Disabled Filmmakers on the Move career advancement initiative, as well as an inaugural member of Tribe, a mentorship and networking program for writers led by Executive Producer, Amy Aniobi (Insecure).
In 2020, Lesley was accepted into RespectAbility's Summer Lab for Entertainment Professionals with Disabilities. After completing the program, Lesley continues to work on staff with RespectAbility, facilitating consultation requests from studios, production companies, and independent filmmakers in an effort to promote more authentic representations of people with disabilities on-screen, as well as more inclusive and accessible working environments for disabled creatives behind the camera.
Writes:
Half-hour TV
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
comedy, dark comedy, female-led, anti-hero, disability
SARAH WALLER
WARNESSA HIGHTOWER
Bio:
Hailing from Houston, Texas, Warnessa Hightower has had a love for story since the age of 13. She found her passion to write as one of the most popular B2K Fanfiction writers, and to this day, holds those stories dear to her heart.
With a knack and passion for story structure, Warnessa has spent the last decade curating story development for Urban Theater as Director of Development for Je'Caryous Johnson Entertainment, which granted her the opportunity to develop and help write nationally touring stage plays including Snoop Dogg's inaugural stage play, Redemption of a Dogg, and the stage adaptation of the cult classics Set It Off and BAPs. Stepping out of Urban Theater, Warnessa is currently a story producer for the iconic reality television show, Big Brother and recently wrapped as a talent producer for The Bachelorette. But as her ultimate love for scripted television has persisted, she continues to hone her screenwriting craft building her slate of projects including being a part of the writer’s room for KevOnStage’s first scripted web series Love After.
And as a lifelong philanthropist, Warnessa now serves as President-Elect of the LA Chapter of Texas Exes, the alumni organization for The University of Texas @ Austin, garnering national attention with the chapter’s innovative fundraising activities and social justice initiatives.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Warnessa.m.hightower@gmail.com
Keywords:
dramedy, suspense, Black female lead, dark humor, comedy, drama, anthology
SARAH WALLER
CONSUELO HYLTON
Bio:
Consuelo Hylton grew up as one of seven kids and a twin in Massachusetts. She escaped the noise by writing stories. She graduated from Harvard in 2018, where she studied English and completed a secondary field in Mathematical Studies. Since then, she’s worked for Joe Robert Cole, first on the production of his feature film ALL DAY AND A NIGHT, and more recently working alongside him researching and developing both projects he is writing himself and those he is solely executive producing for both film and television. She has worked with producers at MGM television, Orion, Proximity Media, and ColorForce. Consuelo identifies as a queer black woman with Cuban and African-American roots.
Writes:
Hour TV
Representation:
Manager:
Nick McCabe, Gotham Group
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Big worlds, conspiracy and mystery, character-driven
SARAH WALLER
JULIA HLADKOWICZ
Bio:
Julia Hladkowicz is a comedian, writer and actor in LA by way of Toronto who has written for the CBC, MTV and Much. is a regular at the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal, making her debut in New faces Canada in 2015. You've seen her on Comedy Network, MTV, HBO, YTV, PBS, TruTV, Conan and heard her comedy album “LAD-KO-WITS” on SiriusXM. She's done multiple TV tapings at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal including CBC's comedy night, CTV's All Access and Kevin Hart's LOL. She's a two-time finalist in SiriusXM’s Top Comic and is a part of Laff Tracks on TruTV. Julia has a Canadian Comedy Award and an I Heart Jokes nomination for Best Female Stand-up. Her self titled comedy album “LAD-KO-WITS” debuted at #1 on iTunes comedy. Check out her podcast, IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT? hosting by her and her comedian husband, Matt O’Brien!
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
Carolyn Sterling, Grand Wave Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Agent
Keywords:
Rom com, joke writing, female-forward, sketch comedy
SARAH WALLER
CHRISTINE HOANG
Bio:
Christine Hoang is a Vietnamese American comedy writer whose stories are centered on Southern BIPOC characters trying to find their way. She’s an Unlock Her Potential mentee of Brian Yorkey (2022), WarnerMedia 150 South Pitch winner (2021), and The Writers Lab fellow (2020). Born and raised in New Orleans and now based in Austin, Christine is also a mom, wife, and former lawyer.
Writes:
TV and Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
coming of age, female-forward, BIPOC, Asian American, Southern, broad comedy
SARAH WALLER
TAYLOR HOLT
Bio:
A former Division 1 athlete, Taylor Holt is a Californian who hates the beach. She specializes in writing bitchy women both for TV and film but don’t call it autobiographical; she’ll get angry. Her pilot script MEAN COACH was a finalist at multiple festivals. She currently assists TV veteran Marc Firek.
Writes:
TV and Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Comedy, bitchy women
SARAH WALLER
REBECCA HOOBLER
Bio:
I'm a Los Angeles based TV writer who does a little feature work on the side... I started as a writer on Fox's Duncanville and am currently working on a Netflix series with Alex Hirsch that will one day, hopefully, have a title. I'm a tiny human who apparently gives off "tall person vibes" but I credit that to my massive amount of hair and teeth. I love writing dark and emotional comedy, if it's a little surreal, even better. I'm really drawn to stories about grief, mental illness, forgiveness or the complexity of being alive, you know, the real light-hearted stuff. Or sometimes, I just like writing about cats.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Representation:
Agent -
Chris Noriega, Jake Dillman, Jenna Block, Verve
Manager -
Merideth Bajana and Erick Mendoza, Grandview
Keywords:
Dark comedy, surreal, emotional comedy, character-driven, a moment in time, tv and film.
SARAH WALLER
MICHELLE HSU
Bio:
Michelle Hsu is an exciting new diverse voice in the grounded sci fi/horror genre. With a background in environmental science, Michelle spent time cave diving and conducting water research before starting her career in the entertainment industry. As a second generation Asian American, Michelle is passionate about diversity in entertainment and media. In her writing, she focuses on stories about women, people of color, and LGBTQIA+. She is currently staffed on a soon to be announced Amazon TV show, and writing on SANGUINE, a scripted horror podcast for QCode Media.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Agent:
Mark Ross & Olivia Faletti, Paradigm Agency
Manager:
Matt Dy, Lit Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager, Self
Keywords:
sci-fi, horror, LGBTQIA+, drama, thriller, coming of age, commercial
SARAH WALLER
JOSELYN HUGHES
Bio:
Joselyn Hughes is a Los Angeles based writer and performer. She was named one of "30 Under 35: Female Comedians to Watch" by JaneDough.com, "25 Female Comedians Everyone Should Know" by Flavorwire.com, “18 Funny Women You Should Be Following on Twitter” by the Huffington Post, and “30 Under 30: Comedians You Should Watch” by Splashlife and Funny or Die.
Joselyn has appeared on Chelsea Lately, Tosh.0, The Fab Life, MTV, VH1, Spike and has written for Comedy Central, Vanity Fair, MTV, VH1, OWN, TBS and the Huffington Post.
Her web series DIY, Dammit! can be seen on her YouTube channel and her first book, "DIY, Dammit! A Practical Guide to Curse-Free Crafting" is available now everywhere books are sold.
You can catch her live in Los Angeles performing stand up. Follow and like all her things on the internet so she can feel cool!
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Agent:
Laura McDonald, Gersh
Preferred Contact:
Agent
Keywords:
comedy
SARAH WALLER
KATHERINE HUGHES
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Christina Gualazzi
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Sci-fi, comedy, action
SARAH WALLER
SABRINA JAGLOM
Bio:
Sabrina Jaglom is a LA-based writer & director. She studied film at RADA in London, FAMU in Prague, and graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Film & Television. At NYU, she wrote, directed, and produced several shorts, many of which screened and won awards at major film festivals. Upon graduation, she worked in production on various projects including Showtime’s The Affair and assisted Nancy Meyers on The Intern. Sabrina then had enough of winter and moved back to LA to work in Film/TV development at Whalerock Industries, which had an overhead deal with MGM. She then went on to serve as associate producer on the feature Home Again, which was released nationwide in the fall of 2017. Most recently, Sabrina directed a music video for the Nashville artist Charlie Rodgers, produced a commercial for Walmart/The Oscars, directed an AirBnB commercial, and directed the West Coast premiere of a play titled Empathitrax. Currently, she is writing a podcast for Automatik's QCode Media and is preparing to direct her first feature JANE, which she co-wrote with Rishi Rajani, and will be produced by Debbie Liebling and American High.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Agent:
Anna Flickenger & Charlie Ferraro, UTA
Manager:
Merideth Bajana & Gabrielle Lewis, Grandview
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager, Self
Keywords:
grounded genre, thriller, drama
SARAH WALLER
HYUNJIN JO
Bio:
I was born in South Korea. By the time I was eight years old, I had lived in various places such as Hawaii and Kansas. Primarily, I grew up as a latchkey kid in the western suburbs of Philadelphia, watching a LOT of unsupervised police/detective/ sci-fi television. When I was nine, I adapted a novel into a 110-page screenplay and directed my classmates in the film. I spent many years taking fine art and documentary photographs around the world, spending some time living in Italy. With cinematographer John Alonzo’s mentorship, my film career began as an union A.C. on various productions where I was oftentimes the only female, and only ethnic minority. Several years ago, I was preparing to direct a feature when a woman in a SUV hit me while I was walking my dog. It took a year to hold a pen correctly—longer to deal with the aphasia issues. Because of the constant pain level, I no longer need anesthesia at the dentist. I have quite a bit of knowledge of issues with diseases, physical and mental health, non-combat post-traumatic stress, and the lengths one has to go to pay for health “care” in America (game show winnings has paid for medical care). Additionally, I am developing an essay collection (in the vein of David Sedaris/Sloane Crosley) on my various solo childhood adventures—ranging from being beat up on the walk to kindergarten, to being left in a country where I did not know the language in eighth grade.
Writes:
TV and Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
hyunjin@jojoroadproductions.com
Keywords:
Adaptations and rewrites specialist, thrillers, sci-fi, action, horror, women, strong voice POV
SARAH WALLER
STEPHANIE JOALLAND
Bio:
Stéphanie is usually on the Moon or away with the stars. She is a screenwriter by trade, a film director, a geek by nature and a lover of sci-fi. She was born and raised in Brittany, France, not too far from Jules Verne penned his tales of rockets of the future but London is currently her Earthly home. A globe-trotter, she has lived in Norway, the U.S., Germany, and Canada and studied filmmaking at UCLA. Stéphanie began her career in story development at TF1 International and Canal Plus, worked as a story editor and screenwriter for French TV, co-creating the animated version of VALERIAN for Luc Besson. Her first feature film was THE QUIET HOUR, a sci-fi thriller which starred Dakota Blue Richards, premiered at Galway Film Fleadh, was nominated Best British Film at Raindance Film Festival, won Best Film at Kansas City Film Fest, and showcased at Newport Beach. The Quiet Hour sold to Sky Cinema in the UK and is available on Amazon in the U.S. Her next film as a writer-director, ICE, a sci-fi thriller, was a Finalist of the 2020 ScreenCraft Sci-Fi & Fantasy competition and Top 10 of Creative Screenwriting Unique Voices. NYC-based Visit Films recently boarded ICE to market and distribute the film. Stéphanie’s projects were selected for top genre co-production markets such as Fantasia's Frontières and BiFan's NAFF in South Korea. She is an alumna of Berlinale Talents and IFP Emerging Narrative in NYC. Stéphanie also lectures on filmmaking on Masters of Arts in Screenwriting at the University of Arts London (U.A.L.) and DeMontfort University.
Writes:
Film
Manager:
Jeffrey Belkin (Zero Gravity Management)
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
elevated genre, sci-fi, science-driven, grounded sci-fi
SARAH WALLER
IVY JOHNSON
Bio:
Currently developing several shows, including with MGM, and a feature film with WILDLING PICTURES, Ivy takes pleasure in making the unfunny funny, writing for comedies about the apocalypse (DOOMSDAY BROTHERS, RED KETCHUP, both Adult Swim), alien invasion (EARTHLING HOUSE HUNTRESS, CBC Gem), existential dread (WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE (EVEN JAY BARUCHEL), Crave), and, worst of all, politics (THIS HOUR HAS 22 MINUTES, CBC). When she isn't writing, Ivy plays competitive bridge, very competitively.
Writes:
Hour TV, Half Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Raquelle David, Lit Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
high joke-density, genre comedy, female-forward
SARAH WALLER
GOLDIE JONES
Bio:
Goldie Jones is a nonbinary (she/they) Wyoming born writer/director, aerialist, and artist, with an award winning career in commercial production (and a side quest to run a circus school) under their belt. Their gritty genre stories center characters across the gender spectrum reclaiming their power to define themselves, their lives, and the worlds they live in. They're a Universal Writers Program Finalist, Stowe Launch Fellow, and WIF Mentee in the Director's Circle. She’s won over 100 accolades as a writer/director including 2nd place at Slamdance and Cinequest, Second Rounder for the 2023 Sundance Development Track and the Lynn Shelton “Of a Certain Age” Grant, Top 5% for The Writers Lab 2023, Austin Film Festival Semi-finalist, and Top 5 finalist for production grants from WIF and ISA. Her short film “I’m Sorry, I Tried, I Love You”, starring Finnerty Steeves of ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK, was a Hollyshorts Screenplay Competition Finalist, winner of the 2021 WIF Seattle Professional Grant and premiered at Dance with Films 2022.
Writes:
Film
Representation:
Manager:
Joseph Cavalier & Chris Coggins, Heroes & Villains Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
female led, gritty genre, psychological horror, magical realism, crime thrillers, sci-fi, political thrillers
SARAH WALLER
ALEXANDRA JOSPIN
Bio:
Alexandra "Alex" Jospin writes dramedies with a strong female perspective. She's inspired by her disparate interests in pop culture, New Age wellness, politics, traditional rom-coms, and the local comedy scene.
Alex writes about complicated, unique women and the friendships, work, and relationships that motivate them. She also performs stand-up and is a regular contributor to the podcast NOT MY THERAPIST.
She has worked as a writers' assistant and showrunner's assistant, most recently on the Showtime series ON BECOMING A GOD IN CENTRAL FLORIDA. Before that, Alex was a Page at NBC and an assistant at UTA.
She completed a joint masters program in Global Media and Communications from the London School of Economics and USC; her dissertation focused on Kim Kardashian.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Manager:
Peter Heller, Heller Highwater
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
teen, YA, comedy, dramedy, South, Ancient Egyptia, magical realism
SARAH WALLER
JESSICA KANTOR
Bio:
Jessica Kantor is a single mom by choice to a toddler currently living in Pacific Palisades, CA, though she's never give up her '917' phone number representing her home town, NYC. Jessica is a highly sought-after interdisciplinary artist, most known for her virtual and augmented reality work. Jessica was an artist in residence at Technicolor, a Google JUMP creator, Oculus VR for Good Fellow, and she had her work premiere at Film Festivals worldwide. Having developed a perspective of place, movement, and world-building, Jessica brings that new thinking to traditional filmmaking exploring how technology affects culture. Jessica shares her passion for cinema on her podcast, Raising Cinephiles, where she interviews industry insiders on how they fell in love with film and discusses how they share their passion for cinema with the next generation. Last year, Jessica wrote The Date Whisperer, a romantic comedy Produced by ReelOne Entertainment. In addition, Jessica became a Producer’s Guild Innovation Award finalist for her work as lead producer on Live@Expo. Jessica also has an interactive exhibition currently on view until July 2024 at The Wing Luke Museum in Seattle, titled “Be Water My Friend, The Teachings of Bruce Lee.”
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Christina Campagnola, SpectreVision
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
romantic comedy, grounded sci-fi, female forward
SARAH WALLER
HANNAH KASULKA
Bio:
I am an actor/writer/director originally from Macon, Georgia. I left my small town to make it in Hollywood. I began studying intensively at UCB and various dramatic acting studios around town. I got my first big break as an actor playing the possessed lead in FOX's "The Exorcist" (Much to my pastor Nana and Christian family's dismay) opposite Geena Davis and Alan Ruck. After the show ended I was dismayed at the material that was available for young women to play. I had so much fun playing the devil I didn't want to go back to playing dumb blondes. So, I started writing my own scripts. I co-wrote a comedy feature called Down-N-Derby that stars Andre 3000 and is set to shoot summer 2021 which I am PUMPED about. I also have a subversive feminist thriller, Hysteria, that I will also star in being produced by Debbie Liebling(PEN15, so much cool shit) and Sara Seligman will direct. I am developing a series based on IP for a UK based production company and continuing to write and develop features. I don't just write for me to act in. I like telling stories that are heartfelt and either mostly make you laugh or cry but ideally both.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
grounded, comedy, heartfelt, character driven, female leads
SARAH WALLER
JAIME KAWAMOTO
Bio:
Jaime Kawamoto is a proud Japanese-Canadian currently developing an erotic thriller with Mar Vista, producing a Christmas movie and adapting a sci-fi novel into a TV series. Roadmap Writers Career Program and Second City Toronto helped her put her BFA in screenwriting to good use, spinning trauma and anger into feminist genre (with a dark comedy underbelly!) gold. In 2023, she wrote a whimsical horror feature FEET in Jumpcut Media's incubator, adapted sci-fi novel THE PROSPECT OF MY ARRIVAL (currently with director and producer attached), developed her passion project bitchin' thriller feature BETH+MAC with a producer and was invited to Stowe Story Labs to work on her offbeat 1 hr. horror series EAT ME. Jaime writes to free the little voice inside her head: a sarcastic cheerleader with a dagger strapped to her thigh who will cut you if you touch her.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
Nicholas Bogner, Affirmative Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Self
Keywords:
feminist genre, body horror, whimsical sci-fi, genre mashups, dark comedy
SARAH WALLER
RACHEL KEMPF
Bio:
Rachel Kempf is a Los-Angeles based screenwriter who specializes in low-budget horror scripts with strong female leads. She also has a background in comedy and a shameful history of writing smutty romance novels (don’t judge). Rachel received an MFA in Screenwriting from the University of Texas at Austin, where she co-wrote and produced the webseries Texting with Gosling. Since then, her scripts have gained accolades from Slamdance, Cinestory, Austin Film Festival, Script Pipeline, Hollyshorts, Final Draft Big Break, and the PAGE Awards. In 2020, she was named one of the International Screenwriters’ Association’s Top 25 Screenwriters to Watch and attended Stowe Story Lab’s Sidewalk Narrative Lab with her horror feature Scary New Year.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Agent:
Melisa Baglou, Paradigm
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Self
Keywords:
horror, comedy, low-budget, female-centric
SARAH WALLER
JEN KIM
Bio:
Hi! My name is Jen and I'm a writer based in LA. I write comedy, but very seriously so it's a serious comedy sort of overlap where I'm very serious as I write things that are comedic. Anyways, this is my bio. Thanks for having me!
Writes:
Half-hour TV
Representation:
Agents:
Abby Glusker & Matt Baldovsky, UTA
Managers:
Lindsay Perraud & Ben Neumann, Kaplan Perrone
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager, Self
Keywords:
comedy, absurd, strange, fun, silly
SARAH WALLER
KIRSTEN KING
Bio:
Kirsten King is an LA-based screenwriter who previously lived in Atlanta and Boston, though she has not retained a cool accent from either place. Kirsten was most recently a Story Editor on a half-hour animated comedy for Amazon Studios. In addition, Kirsten has a feature film, CRUSH, available on Hulu, as well as several other projects in various stages of development. You can find Kirsten petting stranger's dogs, drinking dirty martinis, or cringing because she just wrote this whole bio in the third person.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agents:
Anna Flickinger, Faith Brown (UTA)
Managers:
Katie Newman (3Arts)
Preferred Contact:
Self, Manager, Agent
Keywords:
female-forward, comedy, queer, lgbtq+, psychological, edgy, dark humor, irreverent, revisionist histories, dramedy, socially conscious
SARAH WALLER
JULIA KENNELLY
Bio:
Julia Kennelly is a filmmaker and producer working in New York City and Los Angeles. She recently wrote and directed an award-winning short film, MARCY LEARNS SOMETHING NEW, which stars Rachel Dratch as a widow who takes a dominatrix class. MARCY won a Special Jury Mention in Comedy at Aspen Shortsfest in 2020, and premiered online on Short of the Week, garnering a Best of the Month recognition and Vimeo Staff Pick’s Best of the Year Award. Julia loves writing about outsider perspectives, especially using comedy to explore uncomfortable topics in a human way.
Recent producing credits include the HBO documentary series THE VOW (Line Producer) and Marshall Curry's THE NEIGHBORS' WINDOW (Producer) which won the 2020 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
Dream City
Manager:
Jon Huddle & Sydney Blanke, Fourth Wall Management
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager
Keywords:
grounded, character-driven, comedy, dramedy
SARAH WALLER
AUDREY KNOX
Bio:
Audrey Knox worked in reality TV before becoming a manager at Cartel, where she launched the careers of three different writers before ultimately pivoting to focus on her own. Her half-hour comedy pilot SHAM OF A MARRIAGE was a finalist for the 2020 Scriptapalooza Fellowship and made the Top 25 Tracking Board Launch Pad Pilots in 2019. She interned in the CSI writers’ room and for THE MILLIONAIRE MATCHMAKER. Audrey has studied under Jen Grisanti and has a BFA in Screenwriting from Chapman University. She’s a California native and activist who spends her free time organizing with mutual aid groups in South Central Los Angeles.
Writes:
TV
Representation:
Manager:
Evan Corday & Stan Spry
Cartel Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
comedy, family, edgy, character-driven, grounded, LGBTQ, socially-conscious
SARAH WALLER
KATHARINE KONIETZKO
Bio:
Katharine Konietzko is a writer from Northern California who can’t seem to stop writing about mothers and daughters. OUR MOMS NEED FRIENDS, a feature script co-written with playwright and TV writer Venetia Ginakakis, is a feel-good throwback comedy about three women in their 60s who find themselves stranded in the same Airbnb over New Year’s Eve weekend, forced together by their daughters in the hope they friends. Her latest project is an audio series for the sleep device Hatch called BEACH TOWN MYSTERY GIRLS—a playful and cozy mystery about an amateur mother-daughter crime solving duo (it’s Gilmore Girls meets Agatha Christie.)
Katharine received her first writing credit on the Hulu show MAGGIE and was most recently the writers’ assistant on the Disney+ show DOOGIE KAMEALOHA, MD. Previously she worked at Heyday Films, the production company behind HARRY POTTER and PADDINGTON, among other movies.
Katharine is also a painter with plans to direct a short film about the magical and mysterious things that can happen when you lose yourself in a piece of art. She looks forward to connecting with other members of the Untitled Ladies Script Club and thanks everyone who has organized this phenomenal platform.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
comedy, female, family, cozy mystery, mother daughter
SARAH WALLER
MELISSA KONG
Bio:
Melissa Kong is a comedy/dramedy writer and director from Chicago. Currently, she’s an office PA and assistant to visiting showrunner, Derek Haas, on NBC’s Chicago Fire. She focuses on character-driven content filled with humor and hope that is insightful and entertaining. Like her writing, she can be silly yet profound. She wears her heart on the page and probably a food stain on her shirt. Writing highlights include Wonderful World (CAPE List, WIF x Black List finalist, Nicholl quarter-finalist), Tina Fey is My Friend (Nicholl Fellowship top 10%, Austin Film Festival semi-finalist), Don’t Worry About It (Nicholl Fellowship top 15%). Her proof of concept for Don’t Worry About It premiered at the Midwest Film Festival and was nominated for Best Screenplay. She earned her MFA in Writing for the Screen & Stage from Northwestern University and BA in Theater from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She studied abroad in London at LAMDA and is a graduate of iO and Second City. She’s 5 feet tall, has a second-degree black belt, and can do clapping push-ups. She loves writing about what makes people special, especially herself.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Ina Petersen, Inner Voice Artists
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
heart, levity, silly, profound, female, diverse
SARAH WALLER
CAROLYN KRAS
Bio:
Carolyn Kras is a writer named to ISA's List of "Top 25 Screenwriters to Watch in 2020." She was one of four writers (including Shia LaBeouf) chosen for Variety’s Screenwriters Lab at Sun Valley Film Festival. She is developing a medical procedural pitch for 20th TV & Escape Artists. Carolyn grew up in a Mafia-controlled neighborhood of Chicagoland, which is why she enjoys stories about crime, law, and politics. She is a former paralegal, and her legal procedural pilot script IN CHAMBERS was honored as a New York Television Festival Official Selection. As one of two Americans selected to pitch at C21’s Content London, she presented her drama THE SECOND CITY, which takes place after the Great Chicago Fire destroys the city. Carolyn also earned a Fulbright to the U.K., where she served as Playwright in Residence at Sell a Door Theatre. Her play THE SUBJECT, featuring Alfred Enoch, served as a fundraiser for United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women. Carolyn’s historical drama MAGNETIC received a First Place Alfred P. Sloan Award and was chosen for the Hamptons International Film Festival’s Screenwriters Lab, where Melissa Leo headlined its public reading. MAGNETIC was also included in Plume & Pellicule, a screenwriting workshop featuring Christopher Hampton and Stephen Frears. Carolyn is an alum of Carnegie Mellon’s M.F.A. Dramatic Writing Program, NBC Page Program, and Women in Film Mentorship Program.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Agent:
Jordan Bayer
Elevate Talent Agency
Manager:
Rick Berg
Code Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager, Self
Keywords:
drama, procedural, legal, medical, historical drama, horror, grounded
SARAH WALLER
ERICA LAND
Bio:
Erica Land is a drama writer with a background in journalism, music and sketch comedy. Erica specializes in horror and sci-fi stories featuring underdogs facing intense adversity, a brand born from survival skills honed working in broadcast news and growing up as one of eight in a family where everyone’s the boss, or at least thinks so. Currently based in Los Angeles, she has won Roadmap Writer’s Diversity Initiative, written for two NBC’s Sketch Showcase productions, and has been a Finalist for NBC’s WOTV, Final Draft’s Big Break Competition, and a Semi-Finalist for ABC’s and WB’s writing programs. Erica is a graduate of Vanderbilt University where she studied cello and earned a master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She has also studied with Jen Grisanti, Script Anatomy, Roadmap Writers and Second City Hollywood.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
Adrian Garcia, Recon Literary
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Supernatural, Horror, Sci-Fi, Edgy
SARAH WALLER
SABRINA LASSEGUE
Bio:
Sabrina Lassegue is a 22 year old writer, director, actress & content creator. She loves telling narrative stories focused on strong women leads and that raise awareness on sexual assault and human trafficking. She owns Yellow Rain Productions, a multimedia production company in LA & NYC that focuses on diversity and inclusion. She loves combining her love of sports like surfing, boxing, skating, basketball to tell underdog stories about athletics as well.
Writes:
Half-Hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
Tiauna Jackson, The Jackson Agency
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Self
Keywords:
Psychological horror, female forward, highly diverse, awareness based, dramedy
SARAH WALLER
ERIN LAU
Bio:
Native Hawaiian filmmaker Erin Lau has dedicated her life to creating stories exploring empathy, redemption, and legacy. Since graduating from Chapman University's MFA program, Erin has continued her growth through opportunities with the Sundance Institute, Tribeca Studios, MTV Entertainment Studios’ First Time Directors Initiative, Points North Institute, Powderkeg’s Break The Room, Film Independent’s Project Involve program and Episodic Directors Intensive. Through her past work with Jubilee Media, she has also directed branded content for Google, Netflix, SK-II, and Always.
Erin's short films have screened in over 50 festivals across the world. Her Chapman thesis THE MOON AND THE NIGHT received support from the 2017 Sundance Native Lab and was shortlisted for the Student BAFTA awards. The film was later licensed by the Criterion Channel.
With the support of Film Independent’s Project Involve program, Erin was able to direct her next movie, ALL I EVER WANTED, which won Best Comedy at the 2022 Hollyshorts Film Festival. Her latest film INHERITANCE was also supported by Tribeca Studios, Netflix, and Gold House through the Future Gold Film Fellowship. It recently premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival and won the Oscar-Qualifying Hawaiʻi Best Short Award at the 42nd Hawaiʻi International Film Festival.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
Rob Carlson
UTA
Manager:
David Katsman
Sugar23
Preferred Contact:
Self, Agent, Manager
Keywords:
Family dynamics, coming-of-age, female-forward, intimate drama, Asian Pacific Islander
SARAH WALLER
TRICIA LEE
Bio:
Tricia Lee is an accomplished AAPI female filmmaker whose ability to blend heart-warming and heart-breaking stories with uplifting humor has earned her recognition on the 2020 (GOOD CHANCE), 2021 (IDOL), 2023 (AMERICAN DREAMS) Black List. As a fellow of the SONY Diverse TV Writers Program, Tricia creates from a Canadian perspective, exploring themes of belonging, voicelessness, and shared humanity through the lens of the American Dream. Her feature script, GOOD CHANCE has received numerous accolades, including being a top 50 finalist in The Academy Nicholl Fellowship, winning the grand prize in Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope Screenplay Competition, a top 14 finalist Universal Studios Writers Program, on the CAPE List and being selected for the prestigious Producers Guild of America Power of Diversity Master Workshop and The Writers Lab (supported by Meryl Streep & Nicole Kidman). A CDDP Commerical Director finalist, Tricia's impressive directing credits include working with top talent such as Eva Longoria (DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES), Simu Liu (Marvel's SHANG-CHI), Ingrid Rogers (BOSCH), and James Kyson (HEROES). She has written a pilot for and will be a showrunner of the animated anthology A BANQUET FOR HUNGRY GHOSTS produced by 108 Media. Lee has directed 3 award-winning features including BLOOD HUNTERS, which sold to Hulu and was presented in Cannes by Frontieres and SILENT RETREAT, which was theatrically released across Canada and sold to NBC Universal’s Chiller Network.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Jay Glazer, Neon Kite
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Self
Keywords:
Dramedy, female-forward, Asian, Asian-American, AAPI, Female, Drama, Humanistic, Heart
SARAH WALLER
SARAH RACHEL LAZARUS
Bio:
Sarah Rachel Lazarus is an actress, comedian, writer, producer, and self described ‘bagel on a plate full of onion rolls.’ She is a graduate of the Fordham University theatre performance program.
She has contributed content to Funny or Die, Whohaha, and the Broadway Beat.
Sarah hosts a comedy/pop culture podcast called Wish U Were Weird where she has interviewed a number iconic celebrity guests including Bob The Drag Queen, Carole Baskin, Laura Bell Bundy, Daniel Franzese, Brittany Broski, and many more fabulous people.
She has been seen in literally every single cabaret and comedy club around NYC. Even in the basement of some lovely butcher shops and churches.
She produced, wrote, and starred in a digital series pilot called A Sip With Vodka: A Russian Guide To Becoming A Real Housewife & Making It In America. The cast featured Thorgy Thor & Phi Phi Ohara (Ru Paul’s Drag Race). It is now streaming on Revry.
She’s written and produced satirical political PSA’s featuring several queens from Ru Paul's Drag Race for organizations like ‘The Florida Democratic Party,’ ‘March On,’ and ‘The Future Coalition.’
When she’s not performing or writing...she's being an overly protective plant and dog mom and cooking recipes that she saw on Tik Tok.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
Luedtke Agency
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Self
Keywords:
Comedy, camp, absurdist, satire, dark comedy, character driven pieces, sitcom
SARAH WALLER
ROCHAN LIU
Bio:
Hi there, my name’s Rochan. I grew up in Paarl, South Africa, on a table grape farm (that’s the less snooty of the grapes, the ones you eat). As a child, I spent most of my vacations working in the farm’s packing shed, only escaping the tedium by playing make-believe and relishing in the one hour a day I was allowed to watch TV. Today, to my innerchild's delight, make-believe and TV consume my life. I recently wrote on the first season of Disney’s "Pretty Freekin Scary,” and previously supported the writers’ rooms of "Single Drunk Female,” "The Conners,” "Splitting Up Together,” and “Qualityland” (RIP). As a writer, I view life through rose-tinted, heart-shaped glasses. I find humor in the mundane, hilarity in the dramatic and a sense of magic in normal, everyday life.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Grounded, Female-driven, Dramedy, Satire, YA, Immigrant Stories, Coming of Age, Comedy, Rom Coms
SARAH WALLER
ALANA LIU MOSKOWITZ
Bio:
Alana Liu Moskowitz is currently a coordinator at Michel Gondry’s Partizan. An Upstate New York native, Alana moved to LA to attend USC. When she’s not organizing her WOC writer’s group, A Scribe Called Quest, or getting scolded by her Chinese mother for not pursuing biology like she said she would, she’s writing pilots, plays, and really, really bad raps.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
comedy, dramedy, drama, millennial, queer, LGBTQ, rom-com, grounded, dark comedy, music
SARAH WALLER
KERRI BRADY LONG
Bio:
Kerri Brady Long grew up in Buffalo, New York, and is a product of the Buffalo Bills’ back-to-back (to-back-to-back) Super Bowl losses, which taught her an early appreciation for the value of the underdog story. She was a staff writer on the Amazon drama Goliath, has worked as a post supervisor on projects like Sprung and Schmigadoon!, she was Spike Jonze’s assistant on the movie Her, and was once employee of the month at Dodger Stadium. In her spare time she bakes bread and writes short stories.
Writes:
Hour TV
Representation:
Managers:
Dave Brown, Matt Horwtiz, Chelsea Benson
Echo Lake Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
female-forward, absurdist, family drama, relationship drama, dramedy, dark humor
SARAH WALLER
VIA LUBECK
Bio:
Via Lubeck is a writer/director based in Los Angeles. She's been in the entertainment industry for over seven years, and has worked for companies such as Lionsgate, Paramount, and Disney. She was one of the first hires and talent leads at MasterClass where she worked with industry veterans such as Shonda Rhimes, Aaron Sorkin, and Ron Howard. In 2018, she was tapped by Spinnin Records to direct international pop artist Alex Hosking’s music video for ‘Skin Deep and since then has directed interview segments and worked on sets deepening her craft. She is making her narrative directorial debut with The Last Bell. Her work emphasizes multi-generational female heroism and debunks the stereotypes around women in the workplace.
Writes:
Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Grounded, reflective, humorous
SARAH WALLER
CHELSEA LUTZ
Bio:
Chelsea Lutz is a queer, gender nonconforming, polyamorous female director and writer based out of Los Angeles, California. She is an exciting, young, female filmmaker with a penchant for dark, profound, idiosyncratic character-driven stories and a love for stylized cinematography. Ethea Entertainment is attached to produced a horror feature she wrote based off her short film, The Last Night I Saw You. Her psychological horror feature screenplay, The Burgeoning Death, was an official selection winner at FilmQuest Film Festival and Les Femmes Underground Film Festival. It is also an award winner at The International Horror Hotel Film Festival and was a semi-finalist in the Women in Horror Film Festival and the SF Indie Fest Screenplay Competition. Chelsea directed episodes two and three of the digital series, Managed, which has been featured in a few festivals including ITV Fest. Her other short films she directed have been featured in a handful of festivals.
Her music video she directed, Origami, has over 200k views. The music video, Stay, premiered on Under The Radar Magazine.
You can contact Chelsea’s agent at tdang@apa-agency.com
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
Thuan Dang, APA
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Self
Keywords:
psychological horror, magical realism, sci-fi, female, idiosyncratic, offbeat
SARAH WALLER
HEIDI LUX
Bio:
Heidi is a Los Angeles-based satirist and screenwriter, focusing on female-driven comedies. She wrote the coming-of-age comedy Crushed, can be seen on Tubi, and has written for Nickelodeon Animation (The Casagrandes, Dora the Explorer).
As a satirist, Heidi has written for Reductress, McSweeney’s, Macaulay Culkin’s Bunny Ears, Cracked, CollegeHumor, and more. She’s a managing editor of The Belladonna Comedy (a top 100 Medium publication), and allegedly one of her Reductress articles is on display in the National Comedy Center.
Heidi has a background in sketch comedy. She studied and performed at the UCB Theatre and the Pack Theatre. She has written for the CBS Sketch Comedy Diversity Showcase, where she proudly got a fart sketch up on the stage.
She holds a BFA in drama from New York University’s Tisch School of Arts, where she learned how to say that in the most pretentious way possible. Go Violets!
Born in New York City, but raised in Florida, Heidi is now aware of how weird that state is and is grateful to have grown up in a land with such fodder for comedy. Heidi is the daughter of a Polish immigrant, and enjoys dual citizenship with the homeland, but ona nie mowi po polsku. Heidi has also worked as a hair model, which is a real thing.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Audrey Knox, The Cartel
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Satire, Comedy, Female-Driven
SARAH WALLER
ALLISON LYNCH
Bio:
Despite her debilitating shyness, Alison spent much of her childhood in San Francisco writing plays with friends and casting herself in the lead role. She studied theater at Northwestern with the aim to become a Serious Actress, but dropped that aspiration like a hot rock when she moved to Chicago and discovered sketch and improv. There she found her voice as a writer, especially connecting with joke-dense, female-centered stories about chosen families of misfits.
After moving to LA, Alison was hired as the writers' assistant on the high school sex comedy FOURSOME (AwesomenessTV/YouTube Premium). She wrote the teen-orgy-in-a-treehouse episode, which was decidedly different from her own high school experience.
She's been a finalist for the WB Writers' Workshop and BlueCat Screenplay Competition. Her half-hour pilot DEAD-END JOB is based on her time in the Chicago Tribune's obituary department. She's also worked as an assistant, nanny, server, true crime writer, and dispatcher for cannabis delivery. She spends her free time dissecting the psychopathology of the Real Housewives and going too deep with people on first dates.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Sean Dubravac, Entertainment Lab
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
comedy, pop culture, genre comedy, grounded, animation
SARAH WALLER
NITZAN MAGER
Bio:
Nitzan is a Brooklyn-based multi-national filmmaker who makes whip-smart, socially conscious comedy. Her web anthology series, QUARANTINE, I LOVE YOU screened in the 2020 Sundance Film Festival’s Beyond Film program. Her feature script STRANGE LOVE was a second-round finalist for the Sundance, Middlebury, and Outfest screenwriting labs, the Austin Film Festival screenwriting competition, and placed in the top 20% for the Academy Nicholl Fellowship. She’s written, directed, and produced films that played at festivals across the country including Palm Springs, Tallgrass, Flickers Rhode Island, Starz Denver, Woodshole, and River Run.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
broad comedy, biting humor, female-forward, social satire, whip-smart, high concept, bold style
SARAH WALLER
ANNA MAGUIRE
Bio:
Anna is British/Canadian writer, director and actress. Her directorial work has screened at festivals including TIFF, Palm Springs, PÖFF Black Nights and the BFI London Film Festival where she was nominated for Best Short Film with Your Mother and I in 2016. She has won awards at Rhode Island International Film Festival, The London Short Film Festival, Thessaloniki International Film Festival and Underwire Film Festival among others, was long listed for a BAFTA, and nominated for Best Short Film at the London Critics’ Circle Awards in 2018. Her penultimate short Constellations has screened internationally and It’s Nothing, her latest short film premiered at TIFF in 2019. She is currently writing her first feature An Empty Space supported by BFI NETWORK.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Agent:
Ruth Young (Acting)
United Agents
Manager:
Raj Raghavan & Christina Campagnola
Echo Lake Entertainment & GRLBND Media
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
internal, dark humour, meaningful
SARAH WALLER
CHACONNE MARTIN-BERKOWICZ
Bio:
Chaconne is from Portland, OR, the only child of a single mom. At Johns Hopkins, she studied Writing & Film and joined a female secret society. She was most recently Staff Writer on Amazon's 'I Know What You Did Last Summer.' She was previously Showrunner's Assistant on Apple’s 'Foundation', Writers’ Assistant on FX's 'The Old Man'. Chaconne writes about dysfunctional women; flawed and lovable.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
dark, grounded, female-driven drama
SARAH WALLER
KAITLIN MAMIE
Bio:
Kaitlin Mamie is an award winning writer, director, producer, comedian, actress, and professional female Wrestler (true story). Originally from a small town in Canada, she now resides in Los Angeles where she is very grateful that it's not snowing right now. She recently worked on an original project that she co-created with Bruce McCulloch from Kids in the Hall about her time living in a tent for a year in Northern Canada. She is a co-creator and writer for three seasons of a sketch comedy series for The Trailer Park Boys' online channel Swearnet.
She's written, produced, and starred in several short films including her most recent, First & Last, that was selected by Bendfilm Festival, New York World Film Festival, and won "Best Comedy" at the Tokyo International Film Festival. Kaitlin writes and produces online sketch comedy videos that have been featured on Funny or Die, Youtube, and Tiktok's #FYP page. She's trained with UCB, Second City, iO West, Lesly Kahn, and Groundlings. Last but not least, Mamie has been producing and performing in live sketch comedy shows for over a decade and is looking forward to a time when humans can all be gathered in a dark basement again to watch live comedy!
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
comedy, sophomoric comedy, dark comedy
SARAH WALLER
SARAH ANN MASSE
Bio:
Sarah Ann Masse is a hilarious woman on a mission; not only is she continuing the trend of breaking stereotypes and proving that females are funny, but she does so while drawing attention to the unhealthy social norms and boxes that our society places women in. She also feels really weird when she writes about herself in the third person but… here we are.
Sarah is an LA based invisibly disabled actor, writer, singer, producer, filmmaker, and comedian who was one of the first people to come forward about Weinstein. Since facing career retaliation due to speaking up about abuse, she launched 'Hire Survivors Hollywood' an initiative that aims to raise support for survivors of sexual violence within the entertainment industry by encouraging those in positions of power to pledge to Hire Survivors and Silence Breakers.
Sarah wrote three features in 2020, one of which, 'R Culture', has already been announced and has attached the amazing Lisa Ray from Amazon Prime's 'Four More Shots Please' to the cast, and another feature is currently being optioned but she can’t say more than that right now. Her indie pilot called 'The Real Founding Fathers of America' combines fact with farce and reveals the Founders for the petty, privileged, middle aged white men that they actually were. She was also part of an entirely remote indie Writers Room which created a fantastical dramedy pilot of epic proportions and she recently secured the rights to an amazing YA fantasy book series with an awesome female protagonist that hopefully will be a household name in the next few years. Then, at the tail end of 2020 her British-American married sketch duo, ’We Are Thomasse' (frequently featured of Funny or Die) released an 'Advent Comedy Calendar' which required them to write, perform, and produce 25 sketches in 25 days, adding to We Are Thomasse’s existing catalog of over 100 sketches and 15 million views.
As a seasoned and versatile stage and screen actress, Sarah was recently cast in a Broadway-bound musical called 'The Right Girl' (songs by Diane Warren and directed by Broadway legend Susan Stroman) which was successfully filmed over Zoom during the lockdown and will be going into a pre-Broadway run this fall. She will also be acting in the indie feature 'A More Perfect Union’ in which she gets to portray a character who shares some of her actual chronic illnesses.
Previously, Sarah worked with her frequent collaborator, Jason Mraz, to co-write, star in, and produce the only scripted segment of his documentary, 'Have It All: The Movie' which is now streaming on Amazon Prime. She also wrote, produced, co-directed, and stars in the award-winning short film 'Tristan & Kelly' (winner: Best Short Romantic Comedy: Marina del Rey Film Festival ’19 and Best Writer: Female Filmmaker’s Fuse Film Festival ’19) co-starring ‘Games of Thrones’ Toby Sebastian which she has since developed into a feature script. Her British-American love triangle rom-com web series 'S’N’M' (which stars ‘Downton Abbey’’s Matt Barber) has released their first few episodes. And, until 2020 shut everything down, her live sketch show ran at The Second City Hollywood for three years.
Sarah believes we can use storytelling to change the culture we live in to be more inclusive, representative, respectful, and dynamic for people of all ages, genders, races, nationalities, abilities, sexualities, and creeds. A recent Forbes profile details Sarah’s work as an artist using positive comedy to advocate for fellow survivors of sexual violence and also focuses on the realities of being an artist with several invisible disabilities. Her writing on such topics has been featured in The Independent and The WRAP. She also works with many organizations and individuals such as Equal Rights Advocates (as a Hollywood Ambassador she helped pass AB9 into law in CA in 2019), ECHO Training, Time’s Up (member of the Time’s Up Entertainment Safety Working group), The Wrap Women, Women in Film, SAG-AFTRA (member of the LA Government Affairs and Public Policy Committee), Senator Brad Hoylman and Safe Horizon (to pass The Adult Survivors Act), Lucy Lang (currently running for Manhattan DA) to codify consent and reform the criminal justice system to be trauma informed and survivor focused, and her own initiative ‘Hire Survivors Hollywood’.
Sarah is currently seeking agents across the board, a happy and lucrative home for her features and pilots, a starring role in an epic costume drama or sci-fi saga, and more friends to talk to about how perfect “New Girl” is.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Representation:
Management -
Tom Harrison, Vanguard Management Group
Keywords:
romcom, comedy, sitcom, female driven, historical comedy, sketch, sketch comedy, dramedy, grounded, character driven, feminist, inclusive, progressive, intersectional, patriarchy smashing, rape culture destroying, fantasy
SARAH WALLER
EMERY MATSON
Bio:
Emery Matson is a writer and director based in Miami and Los Angeles. Emery began her career in New York at the Screenwriter’s Colony. She transitioned into assisting director Craig Zobel on his 2014 film Z FRO ZACHARIAH. In 2015 she became the executive assistant to Eddy Moretti, the Chief Creative Officer of Vice Media. While at Vice she worked closely with filmmakers such as Spike Jonze, Harmony Korine, Bennett Miller, Analilly Amipour, and Steven Soderburg. By 2017 she was promoted to a development position for scripted TV at Vice. After a year and a half she moved home to Miami to explore her love of screenwriting. While in Miami she wrote three features and received two grants to support her writing endeavors. Most recently she wrote and directed two short films, one of which was commissioned by the Sun Valley Writer’s Conference. Emery founded a non-profit screenwriter’s lab (Writers Out Of Office) that focuses on the personal growth of writers throughout the development process. She is a graduate of Skidmore College with a degree in Art History and Ceramics.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
My work is focused on subversion and reexamination of different subject matter, often areas related to the female experience but not exclusively. The genre depends on what the story requires, though I usually lean towards dramedy.
SARAH WALLER
SANDRENE MATHEWS
Bio:
A prolific character-driven dramedy and genre writer. I use humor to address social and gender issues and create emotionally nuanced characters to focus on emotionally charged themes of personal growth, being your best self, and rising to do extraordinary things.
Writes:
TV
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
dramedy, dark comedy, supernatural, sci-fi, fantasy, grounded, emotional, character-driven, encouraging, psychological
SARAH WALLER
ANNA MATZ
Bio:
Anna loves writing stories about complex, emotional relationship— whatever the genre, but has a sweet spot for Rom-Coms. In 2020, she directed her first feature, LOVE YOU ANYWAY, with Wayfarer Studios as a part of their Six Feet Apart Experiment. Every day she strives to enjoy the sunset while stuck in traffic, listen faithfully to whoever shares their story with her, and laugh generously. In her free time, she fosters kittens and debates getting a PhD in Classical Literature before remembering that it makes no sense for her to do that right now.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager
Jared Ceizler & Barney Slobodin, Cavalary Media
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
romance, comedy, emotion, emotional, coming-of-age, new adult, genre-agnostic, commercial, procedural, female, heartfelt, aspirational, healing, recovery, light-hearted, dramatic, teen, mental-health, fun, drama, dramatic, rom-com
SARAH WALLER
AIMEE MCGUIRE
Bio:
Aimee McGuire is an LA-based actress and screenwriter with a passion for storytelling, dogs, Harry Potter and nothing else. (jk...) Her recent acting credits include ABC’s The Goldbergs, the upcoming Warner Brothers film Coyote v. Acme and the upcoming A24 film, Opus. As a screenwriter, Aimee started writing short films. Her short films Paige Pounces and Back to You were hits at numerous film festivals, and is in pre-production for another, Piper and the Brain. Her feature length scripts have been Quarter and Semi finalists in competitions and currently has two scripts being shopped to production companies. Aimee writes stories that focus on female experiences, and loves to find lightness even in dark moments of life...like cancer! Her current WIP is about her personal experience making friends while undergoing treatment for breast cancer.
Writes:
Film
Representation:
Manager:
Kate Flook, Menace Management
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Female-driven comedy, dramedy, witty, raunchy, dark.
SARAH WALLER
NATALIE MCKEARIN
Bio:
Natalie McKearin is a Lebanese comedy writer from the suburbs of Illinois who is proficient in deep dish pizza, Broadway soundtracks, and laser hair removal. Before finding her way as a writer, Natalie was one of 22 applicants admitted to the University of Cincinnati’s prestigious Musical Theater program. She auditioned and was called back for the out of town tryouts of Broadway’s Aladdin. After three days of rigorous auditioning, she was… not cast. Being passed over for one of the very few roles for Middle Eastern women unleashed in her a newfound purpose (accompanied by an understandable amount of stress baking). She decided to write into existence more well-rounded, compelling Middle Eastern characters in hopes of carving out a bigger place for them in mainstream media. Because…what’s not to love about arm hair and falafel?! But more importantly, because she believes in the power of art as a catalyst for change. Her original script, ARABIAN PLIGHTS, was optioned for development by 20th Century FOX. Natalie has served as a Staff Writer on the Emmy Award winning limited series, GENIUS: Aretha as well as an upcoming YA show for a streamer that regularly issues NDA's, so she's too scared to say more than that.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
Michael Kolody, Kaplan-Stahler
Manager:
Kate Sharp, Bellevue Productions
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager, Self
Keywords:
Family friendly dramadies
SARAH WALLER
CLAIRE MCFADDEN
Bio:
Claire McFadden is a staff writer at Jackbox Games and an actor with the Second City National Touring Company. At Jackbox, Claire has written for games like Quiplash, Drawful, and Trivia Murder Party, as well as pitching and designing the funky new word game Blather ‘Round. With Second City, she has travelled all around the country performing sketch and improv, which honed her comedic timing, her crowd work, and her tolerance of the little microphones they tape to your forehead like you’re Britney Spears or something.
Inspired by her former day job as a picture framer, Claire created and starred in the web series “Framed,” which was an Official Selection of the New York Television Festival in 2018. She also wrote and directed a warm-hearted short film called “Kim’s Big Date,” which screened at 13 festivals nationwide and won Best Chicago Comedy at Windy City International Film Festival.
Claire grew up straddling Greece and America, spending every summer working at her family’s restaurant and campground on the north coast of Crete. After college, Claire moved to her grandfather’s remote Cretan village to improve her Greek and learn to slaughter a goat (check and check). Now, Claire is a vegetarian and lives in Chicago.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Management:
Trent Hubbard & Kegan Schell, Echo Lake Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Self, Manager
Keywords:
funny, sharp, unhinged, satirical, romantic comedies
SARAH WALLER
KATE MICKERE
Bio:
Kate Mickere is a playwright, essayist and screenwriter with a day job in Business & Legal Affairs at Nickelodeon/Awesomeness TV.
Her play, NURSE CADDEN, won First Place in the inaugural A is For Playwriting Contest. The script, chosen by a panel led by two-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Lynn Nottage, received a virtual reading that starred Ann Dowd, Lecy Goranson, Celeste Den, Garret Dillahunt and Jenn Lyon. The script was also a finalist for the 2019 Screencraft Stage Play Contest and a semi-finalist for the 2020 O'Neill Playwriting Conference.
Kate’s playwriting has also been developed/produced by The Vagrancy, The Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, Ugly Rhino and Meet Cute - LA.
Her screenplay, CAPTURING THE STARS, won a $20,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and received an Honorable Mention for the Sloan/Tribeca Grand Jury Prize.
As an essayist, Kate has been published by The Los Angeles Times, XO Jane and The Awl. She’s also written monologues for the collection “Teen Girl’s Comedic Monologues That Are Actually Funny,” published by Applause Books.
Kate holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University, where she was the recipient of the Steven Bochco Fellowship. She’s an alumna of The British American Drama Academy’s Midsummer in Oxford Program and has studied improv and sketch comedy at The Upright Citizens Brigade. She hails from Scranton, PA... and yes, she is more than happy to chat about Joe Biden, The Office and square pizza with you.
Writes:
Half-Hour TV and Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
female driven, historical comedy, supernatural comedy, playwright
SARAH WALLER
PUJA MOHINDRA
Bio:
Puja Mohindra is an actor, writer, producer, and director based out of Chicago. She recurs as Dr. Heather Singh on "Chicago Med."
She likes to write in the morning and loves binge-writing weekends (anyone wanna go on a writers' retreat?).
Her dramedy pilot, "Welcome to Shakti," was on the 2020 We For She List and featured in Deadline.com.
Her most recent web series, "Geeta's Guide To Moving On," was an official selection of the 2016 New York Television Festival (NYTVF) and screened at the 2017 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. The project is distributed on OTV.
She wrote, produced, and starred in the series. She directed 9 out of 12 episodes.
Her short film, "Nima's Beauty Shop," was an official selection of the 2021 South Asian Film Festival of America. She wrote and directed the project.
Puja also co-created, co-wrote, co-produced, and co-starred in the comedic web series, "Friendly Confines." Her work earned awards for Best Comedy Writing, Best Comedy Ensemble, and Best Theme Song at the 2013 LA Web Series Festival. The project can be found on Youtube.
Her screenplays, "Nima’s Beauty Shop," "Amanat: India’s Daughter," and "A Great Dive" were in final consideration for various Sundance Labs.
In August 2015, Silk Road Rising Theater in Chicago produced four sold-out workshops of her one-woman-play," A Great Dive."
She co-wrote and co-edited the book, "Dost Thou Keep Memory," about the living saint, Dada J. P. Vaswani and served as an associate producer on the documentary, "Two Weeks With Dada." This title can be found on Amazon.com.
She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, the A.C.T. MFA Acting program in San Francisco, and the UCLA Professional Program in Screenwriting.
When she's not writing, she teaches acting, writing, creating, and Indian dance. She loves to spend time with her nieces and nephew, be in nature, and read by the pool or beach.
Most days, she's vegan. But sometimes she eats real ice cream.
www.pujamohindraofficial.com
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Representation:
Agent:
Stewart Talent
Manager:
Peter Principato, Casey Neumeier, Brooke Shoemaker, Artists First
Keywords:
Dramedy, Comedy, Family Comedy, Romantic Comedy, Relationships, Character Portraits, Finding Love, Break Ups, Loss and Moving On, Joyful, Optimistic, Poignant, Spirituality, Female-driven, East Meets West, Comedy with Heart, Healing, Help Others
SARAH WALLER
APRIL MOREAU
Bio:
April Moreau is a writer and director with a passion for female-driven stories. She is an alum of the AFI Directing Workshop for Women and has been a finalist for Ryan Murphy's HALF Initiative, Sony Pictures Television Diverse Directors Program, and the Commercial Directors Diversity Program. April holds a BFA in Acting from the University of Michigan and serves as the co-President of the University of Michigan Entertainment Coalition.
April’s filmmaking career began in the world of digital shorts, with her work being featured on Funny or Die and Elizabeth Banks’ WhoHaha. In 2018, she directed the short film, BITCHES BY THE SEA, which screened in Paul Feig’s shorts contest at the Women in Comedy Festival, presented by HBO. Her subsequent film, RIDE IN PROGRESS, premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in 2020, and her most recent short, HYSTERICAL, screened at several Academy-qualifying festivals, winning "Best Global Short: the XX" at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival in 2022. In the early days of the COVID-19 lockdown, April co-wrote and directed the feature film, AMY & PETER ARE GETTING DIVORCED, which is now streaming on Paramount+.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Female-forward irreverent comedy and dramedy
SARAH WALLER
ANISSA MORGAN
Bio:
A Summa Cum Laude graduate from Chapman University’s Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) screenwriting program, Anissa Morgan is a writer with depth and cinematic vision. Anissa also holds two Bachelor of Arts degrees (in Media Studies and Communication Studies) from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Anissa is a passionate young woman dedicated to channeling her youthful exuberance, unbridled energy, creative optimism and diverse perspective through the myriad of professional funnels which she encounters. In addition, Anissa engages in continuous learning by taking every possible opportunity to sharpen her skillset to catapult herself to a higher goal and purpose. Throughout her academic and personal life, Anissa has gained a diverse array of work experiences; all designed to round her out as an individual and sharpen her insight, knowledge and appreciation for the industry.
Her own experiences as an African American woman tremendously impacts her writing while stopping short of overtaking it - thus allowing her to be extremely versatile. Her character development, insightful dialogue and powerful story arc have resulted in her being represented by both a professional manager and a seasoned literary agent at the Gersh Agency in Los Angeles, California.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
Katy McCaffrey, Gersh
Manager:
Melinda Jason, Conspiracy Media
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager, Self
Keywords:
High-concept black dramas, faith based, sports and romantic comedies
SARAH WALLER
LENA MURISIER
Bio:
Lena Murisier is an award-winning writer with a number of TV series’, feature films and documentaries at various stages of development and production. Her documentary "Take Us to Church" is in development with Zachary Quinto attached as an EP and she is currently in pre-production for the sequel to "A Girl Like Her" (2015, Netflix) Recently, Lena was in the Writers’ Room of the BBC, BAFTA-Winning, Emmy- Nominated series “Secret Life of Boys” to edit storylines and punch up jokes.
Lena was raised by a single parent in a multicultural home: her grandfather was born and raised in Africa; her grandmother was a renowned painter. Lena grew up in Switzerland, neighbor to Charlie Chaplin’s grandchildren. Lena wanted to become a Formula 1 race car driver, but the lack of representation in the sport pushed her to write about it instead. She is fascinated with true crime, always has a book in her hands, and religiously partakes in Taco Tuesday.
Lena speaks and writes in English, French, and German. She is originally from Switzerland, where she made a career in marketing and advertising. She moved to Los Angeles in 2018 to pursue a career in screenwriting and graduated from the New York Film Academy of Los Angeles.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Jason Newman (Untitled Entertainment)
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
psychological thriller, LGBTQ, dark humor, female-forward, buddy comedy
SARAH WALLER
ANSLEY NOEL GORDON
Bio:
Lover of rom-coms, Schitt's Creek, cats and red wine - Hailing from legendary comedy theatre UCB, actress and writer Ansley Gordon has written and sold multiple original screenplays through her short but impressive career. Her first feature “A Bridesmaid in Love” sold, filmed and wrapped entirely during the COVID-19 pandemic and is set to premiere later this year. Her Christmas film “Fixing Up Christmas” wrapped filming in Vancouver in March 2021. It stars The Flash’s Natalie Dryefuss and is directed by Jessica Harmon. “Fixing Up Christmas” is slated to premiere December 2021. Her new film “Love Improvement” wrapped production in May 2021 and stars Stephanie Bennett and Jonathan Cherry and was directed by Jason Bourgue. She just sold her fourth romantic comedy that is set to film this winter in her some state of Florida and sold her first thriller that she is currently developing with Lifetime. She lives in LA with her husband and two cats and is represented by David Lopez at A3 Artist Agency and managed by Powerline Entertainment.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
A3 Artist Agency, David Lopes
Manager:
Powerline Entertainment, Ronni Lynn Hart & Victoria Morris
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager, Self
Keywords:
romcom, romantic comedy, grounded, family, comedy, female friendships, multi-generational relationships
SARAH WALLER
ALEX NOLAN
Bio:
Hailing from the ambiguously-named Greater Seattle Area, Alex Nolan is a writer of hour drama with a particular interest in the genre space. While in high school, she had an unsettling run-in with her own mortality and realized what was really important in life: nerdy TV shows. After graduating from Pomona College and the late Stewart Stern’s intensive screenwriting program, she worked in Creative Artist Agency’s TV Alternative department, a job she shamelessly used to score backstage passes to her favorite robot combat show, before moving on to work as a producer's assistant on New Amsterdam and various development projects.
Writes:
Hour TV
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
drama, historical fiction, fantasy, urban fantasy, female-forward, murder mystery, character driven, post-apocalypse
SARAH WALLER
ROBYN LYNNE NORRIS
Bio:
Robyn Lynne Norris is an LA-based comedian who worries about others so much that whenever she has a chocolate martini in her hand, her friends use the phrase “Countdown to Tears”. She’s fascinated by people’s ability to cope with loneliness and loss through humor. And she writes comedies about unconventional underdogs searching for connection and their voice to be heard. Robyn is an Actor, Writer, Comedian, Host and Producer. She is the creator and star of the play #DATEME: AN OKCUPID EXPERIMENT, which ran to sold out audiences for 6 years in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Off-Broadway at NYC's Westside Theatre. Other writing credits include the Emmy and PGA-nominated EPIC RAP BATTLES OF HISTORY. Robyn has written, taught and performed sketch and improvisational comedy for theaters and Fortune 500 companies around the world including THE SECOND CITY (Chicago National Touring Company & Las Vegas Mainstage), iO, Comedysportz Chicago & Business Improv. She can currently be seen performing in Los Angeles at M.i.’s Westside Comedy Theatre in THE WESTSIDE COMEDY MUSICAL & EXPERT OF…
Writes:
Half Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
Rachel Ellicott, Paradigm Talent Agency
Manager:
Ray Jimenez, Zero Gravity Management
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Comedy, Heart, Female-forward, Sketch, Character Driven, Comedy Horror, Dramedy
SARAH WALLER
KATHERINE OOSTMAN
Bio:
Katherine Oostman was homeschooled, studied at Oxford and worked the Sochi Olympics.
Her short film, The Stranger, has screened at the TCL Chinese Theater, San Diego Comic-Con, the Atlanta Film Festival, and the Florida Film Festival. It won a bronze Telly for directing and received the Grand Jury Prize for Best College Short at Gasparilla Film Festival. Her experimental film July 6 Marquette MI was selected for the 2018 Visible Poetry Project Anthology, and The Sense of Feeling, her short doc, screened at a 2015 TEDx event. Her feature script, The Stranger, was a 2018 American Zoetrope Screenwriting Competition Quarterfinalist.
Her experience working in story development for companies like Kennedy Marshall, Protozoa, Partizan, and 1stAveMachine have only fueled her writing. She has also worked as a story consultant for PlayStation's Emerging Filmmakers program and Asbury University's feature film "Damaged Goods."
She is predominantly writes psychological thriller / horror / near future feature scripts that combine strong female characters and Twilight Zone-esq settings.
Writes:
Film
Representation:
Manager:
David Baggleaar, Good Fear
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
thriller, psychological, horror, near sci-fi, grounded (usually with a supernatural, fantastical, or sci-fi element)
SARAH WALLER
LIZZY PACE
Bio:
Lizzy Pace is a comedy television writer, whose credits include NBC's "Bad Judge" and most recently, the Emmy-nominated half-hour NBC series, "The Good Place," starring Ted Danson and Kristen Bell. Before her four seasons on "The Good Place," she worked on "Lopez" for TV Land and "History of the World... For Now" for Nat Geo. Pace also wrote and produced "The Good Place: The Podcast" for NBC, hosted by Marc Evan Jackson. She currently produces and hosts one of the biggest Bachelor podcasts, "Game of Roses," with Chad Kultgen. They sold a book based on the format called, "How To Win The Bachelor," to Simon & Schuster which will come out in January 2022.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Chelsea Connors, Mosaic
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
dirtbag, millenial, comedy, relatable, feminist, shenanigans, pop culture, grounded
SARAH WALLER
ALEXI PAPPAS
Bio:
Alexi Pappas is an Olympic runner and an award-winning actor and writer. Alexi's upcoming memoir-in-essays, "Bravey," with a foreword by Maya Rudolph, will be released on January 12, 2021. Alexi co-created and starred in the feature film "Olympic Dreams" alongside Nick Kroll, premiering at SXSW 2019. In 2016 Alexi co-wrote, co-directed, and starred in the feature film TRACKTOWN with a cast including Rachel Dratch ("Saturday Night Live") and Andy Buckley ("The Office").
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Agent:
Adam Perry & Kyle Loftus, APA
Manager:
Christina Campagnola, GRLBND Media
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
drama, comedy, sports
SARAH WALLER
DOROTHY PECORARO BERTRAM
Bio:
Dorothy studied film and business at NYU and UCLA and got her degree in fashion design from IED in Milan, Italy. She is a first-generation Sicilian-American, and she started her professional career as a costume designer for Disney. Her path to her real passion for screenwriting was a circuitous one, including working for the founder of Studio 54 and a brief stint at a gentlemen's club, as well as an HR Manager at a mental health facility. Her range and the worlds she has created illustrate her unique perspective and wide-ranging ability to tap into diverse cultures.
Her pilot ALICE'S was featured by the Blacklist, her feature SABIYA, about two Yazidi sisters that escaped enslavement from ISIS, was optioned by Route One Entertainment. She placed/won various competitions, and she is currently developing her pilots THE 9TH WARD and SPECIAL TREATMENT.
She wrote, directed, and co-produced her short A DIFFERENT GUY, which was filmed in Copperhill, TN, a small town on the Georgia/Tennessee border, where she and her husband spend much of their time in a cabin on the Ocoee River.
In a world where literary specialization seems de rigueur, Dorothy is an anomaly. Her writing skills run the genre gamut, from comedy to drama, fiction, thrillers, and a touch of noir. But they all have in common is authentic style and relatable themes.
Dorothy writes about people finding their sense of self, identity, and value in the world. Her characters reconcile who they are with who they want to be—finding psychological congruence —turning their previous sense of victimization into empowerment.
Dorothy is well-traveled. On her own for business or pleasure or with her husband, an international businessman Dorothy has visited over 50 countries acquiring unique cultural experiences along the way. This exposure gifted her with a distinctive prism through which she can see the world and story.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Manager
Asha Kumar
626.536.2865
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
dramedy, female-centric, grounded, self-discovery, versatile
SARAH WALLER
MORGAN PEPPER
Bio:
Morgan Pepper is currently stuck in the first act of her own love story. Until she gets her own happy ending, she is content with helping the characters she creates find love for themselves. Morgan is a huge musical theater junkie who can often be found spontaneously bursting into showtunes at the most inappropriate times. Hence, it's no surprise that her scripts often include musical elements. You know Morgan's been dumped when she turns to dramatic writing. But she likes to think it makes her more "well-rounded." Originally from Pennsylvania, Morgan is now living it up in Los Angeles, placing in screenwriting competitions and looking for representation.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Romantic Comedy, Musical Comedy, Female-Focused, Romantic Drama, Teen Soap Opera
SARAH WALLER
CHEYENNE PEREZ
Bio:
Cheyenne Perez is a writer, comedian, actress and an international drug trafficker - so let her know what drugz u want!!!! All out of meth - sorry!
With her B.A. in Screenwriting from CSUN, she swiftly started working as a freelance comedy writer for Defy Media’s “Gurl.com.” (636k subs on YouTube). She eventually jumped to writing sketch comedy, touring the US with her sketch team, Tantrum, headlining SF Sketch Fest and Austin Sketch Fest. Currently, she’s pitching an animated comedy in the hopes that she can stop selling drugs professionally.
You can see Cheyenne acting recurring roles in Mindy Kaling's "Sex Lives of College Girls" as Jo and "Heather" on Apple TV's "For All Mankind." She most recently booked a comedic role in a Will Ferrell movie and just worked with Colin Farrell alongside Colin Farrell, who said her name reminds him of a stripper… thanks daddy Colin!
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Marissa Upchurch, Triniti Management
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Buddy comedy, dark comedy, broad comedy, farcical comedy, character-driven comedy, raunchy comedy, clean comedy.
SARAH WALLER
LIZZIE PERRIN
Bio:
Lizzie Perrin is a transracial adoptee from Japan who grew up in a homogenous rural town in Georgia, so she had an understandable identity crisis. She tried to find herself in other places, especially in her Christian religion and academia. She was in a bunch of clubs, but just the cool ones – church choir, drama, Model UN. But ultimately, none of that satisfied. It wasn’t until she embraced her passion for writing that she found her place. Specifically, writing dramas and genres about characters who are like her: outsiders navigating who they are and want to be. In pursuit of this, she got her Screenwriting MFA from FSU, and she's spent the past two years as a showrunner’s assistant. She recently graduated from the Paramount Writers Mentoring Program.
Writes:
Hour TV
Representation:
Manager:
Marc Manus, World Builder Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Manager
Keywords:
Psychological thriller, coming of age, period pieces, female driven
SARAH WALLER
SARAH ELIZABETH PETERSON
Bio:
Sarah Peterson is a comedy writer and actress from Los Angeles. She has performed stand up and improv across NYC and LA at UCB, Groundlings and a million stand-up venues. Not just a performer, Sarah has worked in development on shows at HBO, FOX, and AMC. Most recently, Sarah put up her solo show, BASTARD at Lyric Hyperion to a sold out crowd.
Writes:
TV
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Comedy, grounded, Dramedy, Heartfelt, family
SARAH WALLER
APRIL PEVETEAUX
Bio:
April is an author, screenwriter, podcaster, gal-about-town. Her first book was a best seller in response to her devastation that she’d never be able to eat beignets and chicken fried steak again after being diagnosed with celiac disease. "Gluten Is My Bitch" was soon followed by "The Gluten-Free Cheat Sheet" and "Bake Sales Are My Bitch." She lives in Los Angeles and is completing her first novel about adult female friendships and vehicular manslaughter.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
Alison Fargis, Stonesong
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Self
Keywords:
dark comedy, female driven
SARAH WALLER
JEANE PHAN WONG
Bio:
A child of Vietnam War immigrants, Jeane is Vietnamese Chinese. She grew up on a steady diet of Sailor Moon and comic books in the San Gabriel Valley. After graduation from UCLA, she interned for her local congressman, focusing on public healthcare, and also was certified as a First Responder. But this work convinced her to live by her favorite Han Solo line "Never tell me the odds" and dive headfirst into her passion: Hollywood. She did NBC Writer’s on the Verge and the Women in Film Black List Episodic Lab. She has many published short stories and did a run on DC’s Vampire Diaries comics. She previously sold a one hour pilot to UCP. She has written freelances on The CW’s Arrow. Her current pilot, a half hour about suppressed trauma in the Asian American community is at Peacock with Homegrown Pictures (Stephanie Allain) producing. Her one hour male-led rom com and family drama about a Vietnamese family in the OC with a touch of magic realism is with Justin Lin’s Perfect Storm / Universal TV and was at NBC, but is now being shopped around. She will make her directorial debut on a Paris By Night documentary about the iconic Vietnamese show. She is also writing a biopic for East Films with director Bao Nguyen (Be Water) attached. Her modus operandi is traumedy with a social message due to her former life in politics. She also can’t resist a good love triangle and some sweeping epic romance, especially in a genre world. She is repped by Buchwald and attorney Matthew Walerstein. Jeane volunteers as a clinic escort (pre-pandemic of course) and is constantly searching for the perfect old-fashioned recipe.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agents:
Matt Nordsten & Rob Kim, Buchwald
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Self
Keywords:
Historical/period, Romance, Traumedy/Dry Comedy, Grounded sci-fi or fantasy (genre), World builder, Social message, Psychological Thriller/Crime/Action, YA/Coming of Age
SARAH WALLER
JOHANNA PIARD
Bio:
Johanna’s passion for writing stories derived from her love of being centerstage, in theater and in film. She centers marginalized female leads in her romance and period pieces, heavily inspired by her Miami and Haitian roots. Hot off her first producing credit “Mountains”, which will be premiering at the 2023 Tribeca film festival, Johanna is currently working on her first feature manuscript.
Writes:
Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Female forward, period, historical fiction, drama, fantasy, romantic comedy
SARAH WALLER
CHRISTINA PINA
Bio:
Christina (Chrissy) Piña was born in Miami, Florida, to a family of Cuban immigrants who raised her in a chaotic household of secrets and lies…and the occasional, mysterious suitcase delivery to her sketchy-ass tia (aunt). But in using TV as an escape, Christina dreamed of becoming a screenwriter. This led her to graduating from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts with a BFA in Writing for Screen and Television before she dove into the Hollywood assistant workforce. Christina then cut her teeth in various positions around town before landing under Courtney Kemp as her LA Showrunner’s Assistant for Seasons 5 and 6 of POWER (Starz). She later participated in the CBS Writers Mentoring Program and subsequently wrote for CHARMED (The CW), where she rose through the ranks, garnering extensive room, prep, and set experience. Most recently, Christina was a Co-Producer on LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME (NBC), having written and produced her first solo episode, and currently serves as the Chair for the WGAW's Latinx Writers Committee.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Mike Vanderhei (Rain)
Agent:
Lucy Tashman (IAG)
Preferred Contact:
Agent & Manager
Keywords:
Female-forward, crime, supernatural, Latin focused
SARAH WALLER
NICOLA PITTAM
Bio:
Nicola Pittam is a British screenwriter, award winning author and former Fleet Street journalist.
She currently runs her own press agency and when she’s not writing grisly crime features for a variety of UK and European publishing clients, she can usually be found hidden away in her dungeon/writing bunker, hunched over a laptop agonizing over her TV and feature scripts.
Nicola lived in Los Angeles for 23 years before recently moving to South Carolina in the middle of the pandemic to be closer to her crazy family.
In 2021, she fully intends to split her time between LA and the good ‘ol South (which she is quickly discovering is a goldmine for weird and wonderful stories and characters) if not for professional reasons, more for her own sanity!
Her TV pilot, HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN, made the Bitch List 2019 and also placed in the semifinals of both the Shore Scripts TV contest and the Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards 2019.
Actress Jennifer Finnigan and her manager John Carabino are attached to HOTRS as producers and it is currently repped by ICM's TV lit department.
Her other TV pilot, THE MAID, was a finalist in the NYC International Screenplay Awards and a quarterfinalist in the Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards, Scriptapalooza, The Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Awards and Cinestory.
Her latest feature script, ODE TO JOY, was the winner of the Write Like A Girl script contest, placed in the Top Ten of Roadmap Writer's Top Tier contest, and was a semi-finalist at the Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards 2019. Nicola also won Roadmap’s Elevator Pitch Contest with her pitch for OTJ.
Nicola was also a key member of ScreenwritingU’s development team and spent two years helping create SU’s popular Bingeworthy TV masterclass.
She is also the co-author of “Christian Bale: The Inside Story of the Darkest Batman,” a biography of the Oscar winning actor which won 4 awards in 2012-2013 including Best Biography at the Indie Book Awards and the National Indie Excellence Awards.
Nicola has also won several awards for her journalism in the British publication The Sun, as well the News of the World and Daily Mirror, along with several other UK women’s magazines.
Representation:
Manager:
Alexander Robb, Insignia Entertainment
Writes:
Film and TV
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
drama, female-led, real life/true story, supernatural, historical/period
SARAH WALLER
ANGIE POLKOVICH
Bio:
Angie Polkovich is an LA-based Polish writer/director. She has directed several short films both in Poland and America. She is currently developing a TV drama and is preparing to shoot her coming-of-age debut feature. She is the first writer/director of Polish nationality to be accepted into the BAFTA Los Angeles Newcomers Program. Her biggest influences are Andrea Arnold and Lars Von Trier. Polkovich has a passion to tell stories that highlight the complexity of their female characters.
Writes:
TV and Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
347.670.3120
Keywords:
coming of age, sexual, sexual awakening, drama
SARAH WALLER
LAURA POLLAK
Bio:
Laura is a comedy writer based in Los Angeles. Originally from Connecticut, she moved to Japan after college, where she started off as an English teacher and ended up with a job at an Americana-themed Japanese burger shop. In LA, she spent several years working for writer/producers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, assisting them with development and the runs of their critically acclaimed shows HELLO LADIES (HBO) and TROPHY WIFE (ABC). She is currently a Story Editor on the Amazon animated series FAIRFAX. She is still pretty fluent in Japanese, but writes in English.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Agent:
Melissa Darman, Jake Dillman & Jenna Block, Verve
Manager:
Chelsea Connors, Mosaic
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager
Keywords:
Character-driven, observational comedy with heart
SARAH WALLER
LIZZIE PRETSEL
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Aaron Kogan, Aaron Kogan Management
Keywords:
comedy, dramedy, live action, animation
SARAH WALLER
DEBORAH PUETTE
Bio:
A queer, femme creator who moves between film, television, and theater, writer-director Deborah Puette draws on over two decades as a working actor to tell deeply lived-in stories centering sharply observed female and LGBTQ+ characters claiming space in places that traditionally tell them to stay the eff out. Adopted by a well-meaning Irish-Catholic family of hunters who taught her to use a shotgun when she was eight, Deborah left a life of crow shoots and pig roasts to study photography in Paris, work at a women's shelter in Alaska, and -- through a series of unfortunate choices there's really no need to go into here -- briefly deal cocaine in Chicago until a surprise pregnancy straightened her shit out. Waiting for the L with a baby can be a real drag when the wind chill is -3 though, so she bought a one-way flight and spirited her daughter and their freaked-out cat to the kinder climes of Los Angeles where everything is easy. And everything has been perfect ever since! Deborah's first short played at the DGA as one of eight finalists from over 2200 entries in the NBCUniversal Shorts Festival. She expanded that script into her first feature, Cash for Gold. That script became a Finalist in The Black List x WIF Feature Residency, garnering the attention of Franklin Leonard who championed the project prior to production. In addition to writing the film, Deborah co-directed and played the lead role alongside Farshad Farahat (Argo), David Sullivan (Argo), and JoBeth Williams (Poltergeist). Cash for Gold will make its world premiere in competition at the 19th Annual Sunscreen Film Festival in April 2024. Deborah recently directed a semi-autobiographical short entitled Such A Pretty Girl. Inspired by characters from her series pilot, Play Like A Girl (Finalist, 2021 Writers Lab underwritten by Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and Oprah Winfrey). Loosely based on Deborah's experience as the mom of a trans kid in a family of social conservatives, the short stars Sarah Drew and is currently in post-production. Other scripts include the pilot Blaze which received placement on the prestigious GLAAD x Blacklist, a compilation of the best unproduced scripts by LGBTQ+ writers. Deborah was a finalist for the WB Writers Workshop (may it rest in peace) and is repped by Wonder Street.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Austin Aronson, Wonder Street
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
dramedy, female-forward, LGBTQ-forward
SARAH WALLER
AARTHI RAMANATHAN
Bio:
Aarthi Ramanathan is a screenwriter and visual artist with a passion for screenplays in the animation, family and fantasy genres. Having lived in three countries on the opposite ends of the world - India where she was born, Kuwait where she grew up and also was a refugee during the Gulf War, and Canada where she lives now, she finds joy in writing stories from diverse perspectives, particularly that of the underdog and individuals with unique challenges set in soaring visual landscapes that also deeply imbibe the connection between nature and the human spirit. She has also been a finalist in various screenwriting competitions including the Tracking Board Launchpad, Final Draft Big Break, the Screencraft Fellowship and recently achieved the #1 position on the 2020 Bitch List. A huge Disney fanatic and a lover of magical fables and comic books, if she could be a superhero's sidekick, she would be Ms. Marvel's; and if she could live on any dessert forever, it would be Nutella!
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Krista Sipp and Devon Byers, First Friday Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Epic, heartfelt, fantasy, family, adventure, comedy. Animation/live-action.
SARAH WALLER
MARISSA READ
Bio:
Selyna Warren and Marissa Read make up the multi-hyphenate team S&M. They share a love for comedy and want to create content they can act in and direct. They met at a musical theatre conservatory and have been creatively co-dependent ever since. S&M’s first sale was to AwesomenessTV in the form of a streaming teen show called Foursome. Their 4th and last season premiered on Youtube Premium in the fall of ‘18, making it the network’s longest running series. After writing all of Season I, they spent the next 3 seasons as show-runners, EP’s, and eventually added directing to the docket, directing three episodes, including the finale of this latest season. Their directing debut was for a pilot presentation they wrote called Delinquents. They starred alongside the likes of Lil Rel Howery, Jillian Bell, and Fortune Feimster. Their feature HAZED reached #1 on the Blklst website and they’ve since optioned this dark high school comedy to Jermey Garelick’s company, American High. Unbelievably, the girls won a Google grant to develop a script involving computer science. Neither have any experience in computer science. S&M are pumped to be working with Nickelodeon to reboot a favorite series from their childhood alongside Ace Entertainment. Currently S&M are working with with WindPower Entertainment for a dramedy 1/2 hour called Bad Apple (password: S&M) and have attached Todd Holland to direct the pilot. Their POC for Bad Apple just got into the Die Laughing 2020 film festival and won best horror comedy. You can find Selyna acting on the tube on Black-ish, Shameless, Teachers, and Idiot Sitter. Look for Marissa in the indie film What We Can’t Have. You can find these ladies in the heart of Burbank, wearing matching outfits, and acting like they’re dating. Both are happily married to other people.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Manager:
Dustin Doty, Velocity
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Comedy, YA, high concept, coming of age, single cam, female-driven, friendship
SARAH WALLER
ERIN RODMAN
Bio:
Erin Rodman was a development assistant at DreamWorks Studios and 20th Century Fox, before becoming a story analyst for companies such as Paramount, Netflix and Parkes MacDonald. She is currently writing feature adaptation THE BEAR for Amblin and Marc Platt Productions, and her original feature SAY SOMETHING NICE appeared on the 2019 Black List, 2019 Hit List and 2019 Young and Hungry List. Erin also has half hour TV series HELPLESS ROMANTIC in development at Stampede Ventures and comedy series CHANTAL Y2K, starring Suki Waterhouse and Teri Hatcher, in development at Quibi. Erin's feature biopic MADAME was selected for the 2019 WritersForWriters Female Screenwriting Fellowship, and was one of the six scripts selected for the The Black List & Women in Film’s annual feature lab program. Erin has an M.F.A. in Screenwriting from Loyola Marymount University and a Master’s Degree in Film and Television Theory from the University of Glasgow in Scotland.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Agent:
Pamela Goldstein, Verve
Manager:
Sydney Blanke, Fourth Wall Management
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager, Self
erod917@gmail.com
Keywords:
Female focused, high concept
SARAH WALLER
REBECCA ROBINSON
Bio:
I’m a therapist, writer, and mom of two young boys, based in Philadelphia. www.sensitiveandpractical.com. Sony is trying to make my spec musical biopic of Dolly Parton (fingers crossed). I have an elevated horror romance version of the classic ballet GISELLE with director Jennifer Reeder attached, a dramedy feature on the Black List, and have been recognized in many competitions including Disney ABC, Humanities New Voices, The Writers Lab NYC, and Stowe Story Labs. Also, for fun I am pitching a TV show about sex and love in the future, developed with my ex-husband (what can I say, we’re better this way).
I grew up in Central California, the daughter of a speaking-in-tongues evangelical Christian Avon lady and a factory worker who doesn’t believe in God. Precocious AF (I was a top scorer on the verbal section of the SATs at age 12) I went looking for answers about life in books, movies, theater, and therapy. A first generation college student, I earned my BFA in drama and politics from NYU and master’s in clinical psychology from Pepperdine. My hobbies are rehabbing plants and furniture and stepping on Legos. I have an on-again, off-again relationship with God. It’s been a great honor, pleasure, and challenge of my life to provide compassionate, evidence-based therapy to women and men in treatment settings ranging from inpatient hospitalization to solo private practice to community mental health.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Biopic, dramedy, psychological, high concept, topical, sneaky humor
SARAH WALLER
CHARIA ROSE
Bio:
Charia is a writer, director, and social justice educator. A taurus sun, gemini moon, and aquarius rising, she spent her formative years trying every possible activity and then abandoning them around nine months in. The only activities that made the cut were writing fanfiction, watching a stupid amount of TV, and theater. So she really only had one viable career choice. She loves Mariah Carey, Big Brother, and pasta.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Nadya Panfilov and Lauren Dineley, Writ Large
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Dramedy, mental health focused, LGBTQIA+, gender inclusive, dark comedy, women of color centered
SARAH WALLER
CARA RUSSELL
Bio:
Hello! I am a Miami University (Ohio) graduate turned Bruin (UCLA Writers Program). In addition to screenwriting (I'm very excited to share that Variety just announced my 10th movie starts production April 2022), I also work as a Creative Development Executive. Working with writers from the development side has made me a stronger writer, especially when it comes to production notes and shooting scripts. I am a long time Sundance Film Festival and Turner Classic Movie Film Festival volunteer, former Head Mentor for the Young StoryTellers Foundation, a snowboarder, and a proud Hufflepuff!
Writes:
Film
Representation:
Manager:
Cary Kozlov (Cary Kozlov Literary Management)
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Romantic Comedy, Christmas, Holiday, Drama, Indie Drama, Action Comedy, Broad comedy, YA Young Adult, Family
SARAH WALLER
KATHERINE RUPPE
Bio:
Katherine writes film and TV dramas, specializing in kickass characters who strive to achieve the impossible -- whether it’s rocketing to space as one of America’s first female astronauts or risking their lives to catch a murderer. Originally from Michigan’s rugged Upper Peninsula, Katherine fueled her adventurous spirit by racing in rodeos and scouting for wolves. When her father won a long-shot seat to the U.S. Congress, she moved to “civilized” D.C., where she played hide-and-seek in the halls of Congress, kicked back hot-chocolate at the Veeps, and broke all the rules at her Catholic girls school. Katherine’s thriller feature, TRUE NORTH, is an Athena List winner, Austin Film Festival Finalist, and under option with Resonate Entertainment. Her crime drama pilot, SILVER STAR, was previously optioned by Warner Bros. TV. She’s an alum of the PGA Power of Diversity Producing Workshop and the Film Independent Episodic Lab, Screenwriter’s Lab, and Fast Track Program. She’s been published in The New York Times, earned her MFA in screenwriting at UCLA, and is a former member of the International Cinematographers Guild where she advanced to camera operator on movies and TV in New York.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Manager:
Jeffrey Thal, Ensemble Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Character-driven drama, suspense thriller, mystery, crime, action, adventure, heist, psychological horror, biopic
SARAH WALLER
ALYSSA SABO
Bio:
Alyssa Sabo is a writer/comedian from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania based in Los Angeles. She performs stand-up as herself or as one of her many original characters, sketch comedy, and improv all over the country. Alyssa is a house team performer/writer on Maude Night and Characters Welcome at UCB and has passed advanced lab at The Groundlings. She has performed in several festivals across the country and is a regular performer on the critically acclaimed national live show, “Mortified”. A few years ago, Alyssa created a talk show/podcast called “Totally Rad” where she plays a 16-year-old evangelical Jesus freak talk show host. She is sadly playing a loose version of the Christian teen she once was. When she’s not performing live, you can find her online most notably tricking millions of strangers on Tik Tok to believe that she is Mike Pence’s estranged daughter named “Peggy Pence.” She has amassed over 90,000 followers on Tik Tok because of her willingness to post truly unhinged material including her other infamous series: “Christian Teen Journal” where she reads her actual teen journals. She has also hosted a dating show where she asked her real live Hinge matches to go on a first date on instagram live to be broadcast for her devoted followers to see. Alyssa’s comedy blurs the line between what is reality and what is fiction.
Alyssa has also written and performed a one woman show based on life events of her unique experience of being in a coma and receiving a life-saving liver transplant at the young age of twenty-one. Alyssa’s work serves several purposes: to make people laugh, to raise awareness about organ donation and the hardships transplant recipients face throughout their lives being immunocompromised, AND most importantly to gain the approval she has been desperately seeking from everyone she has ever come into contact with.
Alyssa’s boundless positive energy has also gotten her the unique opportunity to be a contestant on several game shows including Netflix’s The Floor Is Lave, NBC’s Small Fortune, Celebrity Name Game, FOX’s Bullseye, The Price Is Right, Shark Tank, and The Steve Harvey Show, to name a few.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Jason Lubin, First Story Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
comedy, surreal, zany
SARAH WALLER
STEPHANIE SANDITZ
Bio:
STEPHANIE SANDITZ is a writer/actor/filmmaker from BROKEN HEART, MISSOURI, the subject of her feature film, LEGENDS ONLY that won a Tribeca All Access Award for New Voices in Screenwriting and set to be her directorial debut. She recently wrote HEATHEN, a 60-million dollar Lesbian-Viking Epic based on the Vault Comic with Catherine Hardwicke (TWILIGHT) directing, Joey King (THE KISSING BOOTH) starring, and offers out to Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry and Channing Tatum for the other leads. Her sexy Female Boxing Feature, PERFECT ADDICTION for Constantin Films (RESIDENT EVIL) and WATTPAD is shooting this April with Kiana Madeira (FEAR STREET) and Ross Butler (SHAZAM). And she is currently developing a feature film in the scope of WONDER WOMAN about EVE escaping Eden with DiNovi Pictures, Lindy Bluestein, and Margaret French Isaac. In TV, she sold an original comedy pilot, PYRAMID, to FX with Rob McElhenney (It's Always Sunny, Mythic Quest) Executive Producing. Then wrote, starred and produced her autobiographical pilot, THE HIGH LIFE pilot, starring opposite Amy Landecker, (Transparent), winning multiple awards at the Austin Film Festival, Hollywood Reel Independent, Dances With Films and Bentonville Film Festivals and is now developing it with SONY TriStarTV. She's currently writing TALKING TOM, a live-action action-comedy in the vein of SONIC THE HEDGEHOG meets TED with Raja Gosnell (SMURFS) directing for Marla Studios (ASSASSINS CREED). She optioned her body-positive dance-comedy feature, DANCE PARTY to AGC Studios (MOONFALL) with Queen Latifah producing and starring. She has adapted over 9 books to features including GOD ON A HARLEY for Mimi Gitlin (THELMA AND LOUISE), erotic comedy BEAUTIFUL BASTARD for Lionsgate, and INFERNAL DEVICES, the prequel to the MORTAL INSTRUMENT Series, that was distributed by Sony and Screengems. Before that she sold an original edgy dramedy pitch to ABC Signature with Mila Kunis and Orchard Farms Producing, and also wrote, produced and showran short form series Chat. Like. Love. to Dreamworks' AwesomenessTV. Stephanie has performed in many series and films, and is the co-star of Amazon's, 37 PROBLEMS and the upcoming Netflix Feature, THE LIST starring opposite Halston Sage. She is the Co-creator of the Womxn's Hollywood Happy Hour, and an active organizer for Planned Parenthood, The ACLU, and The Ferguson/St. Louis Library Foundation that she started with Beau Willimon (House of Cards) and Jon Hamm (Mad Men). NYU MFA Tisch School of The Arts Dean's Honors Scholar.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Myman Greenspan Legal
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Great at adapitng IP, hard comedy, dramedy, Comic adaptation, world building, romance, thriller, action, sports, boxing and erotica
SARAH WALLER
MICHELLE SAHAYAN
Bio:
Michelle Sahayan was born at 5:02pm – cocktail hour – in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She was raised on a steady diet of spicy food and Hollywood films, and continues to be passionate about both.
With a focus on distinctive film and television projects with global appeal, she has several projects currently in development, including NIGHSTALKER, which will be her directorial debut, to be produced by Cassian Elwes (DALLAS BUYER’S CLUB, MUDBOUND). She is also currently writing a narrative feature for acclaimed production company, See Saw Films (LION, THE KING’S SPEECH), and is collaborating with actress Zoe Saldana (GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, AVATAR) on an original drama feature.
From 2010 to 2015 she worked as Associate Producer and Development Executive at Archer Street Films, the London-based production company responsible for films such as THE RAILWAY MAN, GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING, and HILARY & JACKIE. She was the Associate Producer of THE RAILWAY MAN, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and was released in 2014. The film featured Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman, and was sold internationally.
In 2014 she was selected to attend the International Film Festival Rotterdam Lab. In 2013 she received a Diploma with Honours in Script Development from the UK's National Film and Television School, and in 2011 was awarded an Emerging Producers Grant by Screen Australia.
Michelle has produced a number of short films, music videos, commercials and factual television programs. As a Producer and Executive Producer in the commercials industry, she produced high-end commercials with production companies such as 1st Avenue Machine (US/UK), Bootleg Films (UK), Fieldtrip (UK) and Collider (Australia). She has produced commercials and content with award-winning directors such as Daniel Askill, Karim Zariffa, Bob Partington, Clemens Habicht, and Benjamin Steiger Levine in locations such as Argentina, South Africa, Australia, the UK, Asia and across Europe.
Prior to moving into production she worked in the media industry, and was integral in the launch of two magazine titles - NYLON and FAMOUS Magazine - into the competitive Australia/NZ publishing market, and worked
She splits her time between Los Angeles and Australia, and lives with her husband, daughter, and a cute-but-cunning whippet who ensures her mostly-black wardrobe is constantly covered in mostly-white dog hair.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Sam Warren, LBI Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Drama, Thriller, Supernatural, Biopic, True Story, True Crime, Historical, Action, Adventure, Elevated Horror
SARAH WALLER
SHRUTI SARAN
Bio:
Shruti is an Indian-American screenwriter, filmmaker, and third-culture kid from Ann Arbor, Michigan. She grew up all over the place, collecting weird accents as her parents collected advanced medical degrees. Shruti attended college at the University of Michigan, where she studied biochemistry and biology. She loves science-fiction and comedy, and her scripts often feature women and immigrants who are struggling with expectations, identity, and their own ambitions. Shruti wrote her first original pilot while hand-building a cabin with her husband in the Colorado wilderness. It was there that she discovered a love for structured storytelling, unique worlds, and snappy dialogue (manual labor, not so much) and decided to reorganize her life around screenwriting upon returning to civilization. Shruti is currently staffed on a new unannounced live-action drama series at Netflix and writing freelance episodes for an unannounced animated series at Amazon.
Writes:
TV
Representation:
Agent:
Allie Cohen, CAA
Manager:
Nicholas Bogner, Affirmative Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager, Self
Keywords:
high-concept, elevated character comedy and drama.
SARAH WALLER
ARIEL SAYEGH
Bio:
In the first grade, Ariel Sayegh was kicked out of the girl scouts because her mom kept on getting in fights with the other mothers. Now, she is a writer-director who explores over-the-top characters, outrageous real-life stories, and control freaks who've lost all control. Ariel has developed project with New Line Cinema, Steve Bucks Productions, and Roth/Kirschenbaum Films In 2020, her screenplay FRENEMY landed on the annual Black List. The potential of the script (and its comedic take on Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton's feud) caught the attention of W, Vice, DAZED, and PAPER Magazine, which dubbed it "one of the buzziest entries on the list." Previously, Ariel won the Bluecat Screenplay Competition, was a finalist both in Final Draft's Big Break and Script Pipeline, and a way too personal TEDx talk. Ariel was house-broken by the University of Southern California, which attended she on a full-tuition merit scholarship. At USC, she was the first student in to graduate from both its Writing for Screen & Television and Film Production programs. She also won the Jeffrey Jones Scholarship for Excellence in Writing and Marguerite Roberts Screenwriting Award. Today, that kind of ambition drives Ariel to defy her lactose intolerance and eat large amounts of cheese.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
Sam Fischer, Paradigm
Manager:
Trevor Engelson, Underground
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager
Keywords:
over-the-top characters, pop culture, snarky humor, real stories, thematic, female-forward
SARAH WALLER
KEELY SCHAFER
Bio:
I’m Keely Schafer, a film, tv, and promo writer originally from Lexington, KY. Pre-pandemic, I was based in NYC, but after spending the “covid lost years” in my hometown, I’m looking to make the move to LA in the next year. I graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a BA in Film & Television and a minor in Child & Adolescent Psychology. From 2018 to 2022, I wrote copy and other promotional campaigns for shows/events across ViacomCBS networks (mainly MTV, VH1, CMT, Paramount+, and Logo). When I’m not penning my next cheeky horror comedy, catch me forever rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, designing characters on procreate, and blasting classic rock with my cat son, Romeow.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
keely.schafer@gmail.com
Keywords:
Horror comedy, supernatural, teen, coming of age, dark comedy, female-forward, psychological horror, 60s-00s pop culture period pieces
SARAH WALLER
ADRIENNE SCHAFFLER
Bio:
Adrienne is a New Yorker who has become an LA convert. It’s been all too easy to leave behind brutal winters and deadly humid summers. She started out as a playwright— studying Theater and English at Skidmore College. With THAT super practical degree under her belt she worked a slew of support jobs while putting on productions of her plays in NYC. After having an existential crisis over the fact that she would probably never be able to support herself financially as a playwright, she pivoted and started studying screenwriting. She worked as an unofficial writers assistant to Louis Venosta— who gifted her Final Draft... bless him. She moved out to LA with a few thousand dollars, no job, and with the blind naïveté only a 24 year old can have. She eventually was signed by Principato-Young when her best friend slipped her pilot into a manager’s weekend read. It’s truly one of those crazy LA stories. From there she got repped at APA and landed her first paid writing job at Brat, a digital media company making scripted content for a Gen Z audience. A former show runner at Brat, Jessie Rosen, offered her a job writing for a Christian soap opera... which was strange but so is life. As a New York Jew I had to do a lot of googling about the Bible. Adrienne was then selected to write the reboot of Disney’s As the Bell Rings, where she worked with Andrew Orenstein. She’s currently working on a scripted sci-fi podcast produced by Paragon Collective.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Agent:
Danny Alexander, APA
Manager:
Jeffrey Thal, Ensemble Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Self
Adrienne.m.schaffler@gmail.com
Keywords:
Dark (very dark) comedy, hyper realism, female driven
SARAH WALLER
YAEL SCHICK
Bio:
Yael Schick is a writer and educator from New York City. She's an alumnus of Yeshiva University (yeah, she’s super Jewish), as well as the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she was a Saul Zaentz fellow. As an Orthodox Jew and a devout believer in the power of stories, she started writing with the hope to better represent her wacky, messy, beloved Orthodox community, and to shine a light on underrepresented worlds. Her feature film BLESSING, placed in the top 50 of the Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting and she was a 2021 feature resident for the Blacklist/Women in Film Feature Residency. She writes both features and television, and is always up for a chat about Jewish representation in media, feminism within fundamentalism, the legacy of Stephen Sondheim, and the precarious future of figure skating.
Writes:
Half Hour TV, Hour TV and Film
Representation:
Manager:
Andy Cohen (Grade A Entertainment)
Manager:
Jeffrey Thal, Ensemble Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Coming of age, Female-driven, Indie, Musical elements, Jewish
SARAH WALLER
ERICA SCHREIBER
Bio:
Erica Schreiber is from Port Angeles, WA and attended NYU Tisch's Dramatic Writing Program. Erica was featured on the 2018 Young & Hungry and Hit Lists. On the TV side, she is currently developing a sci-fi series for Freeform and has previously written on Crackle's techno thriller IN THE CLOUD and Hasbro's animated MICRONAUTS. On the feature side, her spec feature SLAY is in development at Josephson Entertainment. She’s currently writing a pair of features for Blumhouse as well as a martial arts movie for XYZ (THE RAID) and Kindred Spirit (THE FAREWELL). The thriller she wrote for director Deon Taylor (BLACK & BLUE) is scheduled to shoot in 2020, Covid-willing.Bio:
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Manager:
Jennifer Au
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
schreiber.erica@gmail.com
Keywords:
Female driven, genre, action, horror, thriller, sci fi, fantasy, martial arts, adventure
SARAH WALLER
QUINN SCILLIAN
Bio:
Quinn is a comedy writer and performer from Detroit. You may have seen her work on NBC’s Undateable, The Hollywood Fringe Festival, on YouTube/Tiktok, and in a national commercial or two (or, if you’re her neighbor, when she sings loudly with the windows open!)
Writes:
Half-hour TV
Representation:
Agent:
Juliana Castro and David Ziff, CESD (Commercial Acting)
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Esoteric, cynical, comedic examination of the zeitgeist
SARAH WALLER
CHRISTIAN SCOTT
Bio:
Christian L. Scott is an actor and a screenwriter that loves working in the comedy space. Her greatest joys are traveling with no plans and eating pancakes. She holds an MFA in Screenwriting and recently served as a staff writer on Disney's "Bunk'd". She is a Screencraft and Write of Passage finalist and sold her film "A Tip of the Hat" to Dreamshot Films. Her short film "The Black Experience" has been the official selection of 10 film festivals with 3 nominations and 2 wins.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
Danny Simeone, Kaplan Stahler
Preferred Contact:
Agent
Keywords:
quirky, romantic comedy, physical comedy, witty banter, family friendly
SARAH WALLER
CHRISTENE SEDA
Bio:
After accumulating extensive experience in Production at Bad Robot and as the Writers Assistant on GLOW, Christene felt it was time to take the leap as a professional writer. Shaped by her upbringing in Hawaii, and as a queer Puerto Rican, she discovered she was a storyteller that aims to tell vibrant intersecting stories centering ensembles of women in many mediums of writing. While studying filmmaking at UNCSA, she was named one of the 110 Filmmakers to watch in 2015 Variety's Annual Education Impact Report. Her short film, Helpless, won Best Narrative Short at Big Bear Lake International Film Festival (2013) and Indie Grits Film Festival (2014), and Best Short Directed by a Woman at the Nashville Film Festival (2014).
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Maritza Cabrera, Zero Gravity Management
Preferred Contact:
Manager
Keywords:
Female-forward, latinx, dramedy, female ensemble
SARAH WALLER
CONNER SHIN
Bio:
Writer, Performer, Artist
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
APA
Manager:
Jayme Yarrow
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager
Keywords:
Comedy, horror, POC
SARAH WALLER
JENNA MICHELLE SIMMONS
Bio:
Jenna Simmons is a proudly plus size, queer writer who has been told she’s “tall for a girl” and has a “forceful presence” by her dating app matches. She just finished her second season of VELMA for HBO Max under Charlie Grandy whom she worked for as an assistant for three years. Prior to that she was an assistant at Mosaic. She is a proud mother of two cats that only kind of like her, and when she’s not punching up jokes she enjoys dark comedies and boxing, which is might explain the forceful presence thing.
Writes:
Half Hour TV
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Female-forward, black comedy
SARAH WALLER
SUSIE SINGER CARTER
Bio:
If you asked five-year-old Susie what she wanted to be when she grew up, she’d have placed her hands on either side of her pink tutu and proclaimed, “Everything. Duh!” And been 100% right. Besides ballet, I spent my childhood as a gymnast, an entrepreneur (selling my toys door-to-door), debate champion, party planner, flag twirler, and cheerleader, while surviving my parents’ divorce and my father’s untimely death in a plane crash. While studying journalism at UCLA, I hosted a radio show, modeled, married, and sang in a pop-group produced by Chuck Lorre. (That Chuck Lorre.) After college, I had a baby, back surgery, opened a handmade jewelry store, acted in TV and film, performed improv, worked in development, launched my production company, divorced, remarried, had another baby, wrote and produced two CBS tween shows. Following that chapter, I became my mother’s caregiver, a spokesperson for Alzheimer’s, wrote a Bratz for Lionsgate, and co-produced a Soul Surfer for Sony. Divorced again. Took up hip-hop, signed a deal with Fox, wrote, produced and directed a pilot with Bryan Cranston, two documentaries for Women’s History Month and an award-winning, Oscar qualified short film that took me around the world, and now I am attached to direct my first feature of a screenplay adaptation that I wrote. Still, there’s so much more to do! I’m grateful for the fearless five-year-old-inside who never ceases to fuel my passion to create… well, everything.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Manager:
Cary Kozlov, CK Literary Management
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
susie@gogirlmedia.com
Keywords:
Female driven, comedy, dramadey, drama, children's, tween
SARAH WALLER
AMY SINGH
Bio:
I like traveling and long walks on the beach. Oh, wait… wrong profile. You want to know about what kind of writer I am. Well, first, I’m a human—with all the scars to prove it. And it’s those scars and experiences that have inspired the stories I tell and the characters I create. Did you know I’m a superhero? Did you know that we all are? I want each and every person to know that. I write grounded sci-fi and dramas about characters who can (literally and figuratively) leap tall buildings and kick some serious butt. My most recent writing cred includes staff writer on REALM 2, an acclaimed psychological thriller TV limited series. The concept is pretty cool: fortune tellers, time travel, love. That’s my jam. Did I mention I’m Canadian? Currently hanging out in Burlington—a small city just west of Toronto. But I’m making my way down to LA. In fact, I’m packing as I write this.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
grounded sci-fi, thriller, action, romantic drama, female-forward
SARAH WALLER
JENAH SILVER
Bio:
Jenah Silver is a screenwriter hailing from the Philadelphia suburbs. She moved to New York to get closer to Spider-Man and pursue a BFA at Tisch's Dramatic Writing program. She has worked across genres at SundanceTV, AMC, USA, & Syfy Networks. She has a passion for action, horror, and strong female characters, and she gets weak in the knees when the three are combined. When Jenah isn't hoarding comic books or hanging out with her husband and their dog, Buffy, she's working at Brooklyn Community Services, Brooklyn's oldest non-profit. She is repped at The Arlook Group and Paradigm, and is randomly a notary!
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
Melisa Baloglu, Paradigm
Manager:
Jack Greenbaum, The Arlook Group
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager, Self
Keywords:
Female-forward, high-octane, action thriller, elevated horror.
SARAH WALLER
MAE SMITH
Bio:
Mae Smith is an LA-based writer who most recently worked as the Writers’ Assistant on season two of Starz’s HIGHTOWN (of which she also co-wrote Episode 208). Previously, she was the Script Coordinator on Apple’s UNTITLED SIMON KINBERG SCI-FI SERIES (aka RAY JAMES) and a Writers’ Assistant and Script Coordinator on Showtime’s BILLIONS. Mae was also a Fellow in the WGA’s inaugural Made in NY Writers Room program. She was selected as one of 11 writers from a pool of 500+ applicants for this paid fellowship to develop a pilot script under the mentorship of showrunner Norman Steinberg (Blazing Saddles, Cosby, Teech, etc.). Mae graduated from Columbia University and subsequently worked in distribution, artist representation, and had a stint as a crypto bro at a blockchain entertainment studio. She is also the producer, director, and co-writer of the comedic sex education web series, Educated Fleas. Mae’s writing focuses on the ways that traumas and the social stigmas attached to them inhibit growth at personal, societal, and systemic levels. She hopes to replace these stigmas with humor while giving voice to those on the fringes: those struggling with mental illness, poverty, and addiction, as well as women who don't look, feel, or behave in a way society deems acceptable. Ultimately, Mae endeavors to write the kind of television she desperately craved as a child growing up in a deeply volatile environment – comedic stories that offer enough perspective to laugh at the hardest moments and enough hope to imagine a better life.
Writes:
TV
Representation:
Agent:
Danny Alexander & Erin Morris, APA
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Self
mae.smith320@gmail.com
Keywords:
Dramedy, comedy, dark comedy, absurdist, grounded, mental illness, caretaking, poverty, satire, tech, technology, female protagonist
SARAH WALLER
SHARON S. SOBOIL
Bio:
An award-winning screenwriter, her start into feature writing took her around the globe: The sex-trafficking story Catching India, for Jennifer Siebel Newsom, which won the Goa International Screenplay Award; The Wine Revolt to Bordeaux; her period rom-com Of Corset’s Mine to England, an award-winning script being produced by String and a Can, with Jason Connery directing Spring 2021. Keeping her sane during the covid lockdown, she was tapped by Voltage Pictures and Offspring to adapt the third and fourth best-selling YA novels, After We Fell and After Ever Happy. Her true story ROO!, about a girl and her dog, is being produced by Resonate and Metro Int’l. Her TV movie Love On The Air was Hallmark's submission for the Emmy's, and a Leo Award winner. Her half hour comedy series Harmful If Swallowed, about the pharma world, was bought by Participant Media. Her female-led drama series, HOT, is set up with Bronwyn Cornelius and Element 8 and she is developing the series SAVED with Kerry David, about women fighting poachers based off the doc. Sharon is an active member of the Women’s Writer’s Guild Committee, and sits on the board of the Hollywood Women’s Film Festival.
Writes:
TV and Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Women-led material, romance, drama, comedy, YA, adaptations, true stories
SARAH WALLER
DANIELLE SOLOMON
Bio:
My name is Danielle Solomon, but when I used to get in trouble with my mom would call me, "Danielle Michelle!" Hence, why the website name is "Danielle Michelle Writes" because what is writing without causing a little trouble, good trouble that is. I'm originally from Newport News, VA, but currently reside in Los Angeles, California. I graduated from thee Howard University with a bachelor's degree in Media, Journalism and Film with a concentration in Broadcast Journalism. However, after graduation I ventured off into the not so glamorous world of entertainment and been working in Original Programming for a little over five years now. Time flies when you spend most of your days reading scripts and reviewing network cuts. When I'm not working, I'm writing and when I'm not writing, I'm working. Don't get it twisted, when I do have a little free time I thoroughly enjoy going out. No clubs though, unless it's a special occasion. I'm now seven years into my 20s and time is of the essence, so my main focus is to set my future 30, 40 and 50 year old self up for the ultimate success. I do this by telling myself everyday, "I am a storyteller," because that's who I am today and will still be 30 years from now. I leave you with a quote from my mentor/ rich auntie in my head, the Queen, Oprah Winfrey. P.S. My short film, Hey Boo, coming to your television screens real soon!
Writes:
Half Hour TV, Hour TV, and Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
danielle.michelle.solomon@gmail.com
Keywords:
Female-forward, drama, fantasy, adventure, comedy, dramedy
SARAH WALLER
MONIQUE SORGEN
Bio:
Raised in an international hippie house in San Francisco, Monique Sorgen is an award-winning writer-director, in the Sony Television Directors Program & The BlackMagic Collective Filmmaker Advancement Initiative. Her dark comedy, Sorry, Not Sorry amassed over 100,000 views in its first month on the prestigious Omeleto.com before winning Best of Omeleto. Her action-comedy Rock A Bye Baby won awards at Sedona, All The Laughs, and Just For Laughs. She previously directed branded reality series, more shorts, and music videos that were acquired by the Disney Channel. As a writer, she has developed with Imagine, DiNovi, USA/UCP, Morgan Freeman’s Revelations, and David Oyelowo’s Yoruba Saxon, among others. She began her career as a director’s assistant, shadowing on network television shows. Since then she has shadowed with Lesli Linka Glatter, Pamela Fryman, Mary Lou Belli, and Michael Spiller. Her recent work includes a sitcom based on her unconventional family, starring sock puppets.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Manager:
Rose Zhang & James Smith, Aaron Kogan Management
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
comedy, dramedy, true story, fun, honest, commercial, female gaze
SARAH WALLER
ABIGAIL ST. CLAIRE THOMAS
Bio:
Abigail St. Clair Thomas is a native New Yorker. She studied creative writing at Goucher College and graduated with an honor from the Kratz Creative Writing Center. She studied film abroad before settling back in the States after graduation and eventually rooted herself in Los Angeles. She‘s mentored by Alan Ball (American Beauty, Six Feet Under, True Blood) and Nancy Oliver (Angelyne, Six Feet Under, True Blood, Lars And The Real Girl) and currently splits her time between working for Shawn Ryan (The Night Agent, The Shield, SWAT), and staring at her dogs on her breaks from writing about difficult women.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Geoff Shaevitz, Management 360
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
comedy, female-forward, satire, biting humor, class dissection
SARAH WALLER
ELIZABETH STAMP
Bio:
Elizabeth Stamp was born and raised in West Virginia, where she went to a school with a graduating class of 54. Her father is a federal judge and because of that she did not get invited to any parties in high school. (That’s why, right?) Growing up with a stay-at-home mom, she became an anthropologist of the American housewife, inspiring her darkly comedic stories about imperfect female characters searching for identity.
She graduated from Brown University where she studied English and visual arts, attempting everything from glassblowing to welding a five-foot tall wrought iron gate (a searing critique of consumerism). She began her career as an editor at Architectural Digest, but started doing comedy when she got tired of writing about couches and “pops of color.” Elizabeth has studied television writing at Columbia University and sketch and improv at UCB. She has performed in basements across New York City and is a Senior Contributing Video Writer at The Onion.
Her pilot MATERNAL INSTINCT won best comedy script at the New York Television Festival and her workplace comedy CLASSIFIED was performed at the ATX Television Festival’s Black List Script Reading. She was a member of the Fox Writer’s Lab and was part of Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s content accelerator, Imagine Impact. During Impact, she was mentored by Saladin Patterson. Her pilot SILOED was set up at Stampede with showrunners Barry Safchik and Michael Platt and director Beth McCarthy Miller. She is currently developing two workplace comedies with McCarthy Miller and Casey Patterson Entertainment. She lives in Los Angeles with an 8-year-old shih tzu named Chowder.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Matt Dy, Lit Entertainment Group
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
comedy, crime, dark comedy, satire, female-driven, weird but with heart
SARAH WALLER
ALICE STANLEY JR.
Bio:
Alice writes dark bubblegum. Currently, her girly thriller feature BLUSH WITH DEATH is in pre-production with Invisible Narratives and she is developing a femme half-hour comedy with Adam McKay's Hyperobject. Previous credits include BUSY TONIGHT (writer, EP Tina Fey), MOXIE (onset writer, Dir. Amy Poehler), BARBIE TEAM FASHION (writer, Mattel), and THE 2020 GLAAD AWARDS (creative consultant, GLAAD). Her horror comedy short about the nightmare of wedding culture for single women (REGRETS ONLY) premiered at Elizabeth Banks' WhoHaHa Festival in 2021.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager
Kate Hart, Anonymous Content
Preferred Contact:
Self, Manager
Keywords:
dark comedy, bubblegum, femme, female-forward, queer, mystery, comedy, former teacher, niche Christianity, horror, thriller, girly, mystery comedy, LGBTQ, climate activism, social justice, theatre, musical, musical comedy, improv
SARAH WALLER
LISA STEADMAN
Bio:
Lisa Steadman is an LA-based bestselling author (SIMON & SCHUSTER), podcast creator/host, and screenwriter known as The Relationship Journalist™. Originally from Montana, Lisa spent her childhood overseas - first in Australia, then in Saudi Arabia with her expat teacher parents. From her bestselling book IT’S A BREAKUP, NOT A BREAKDOWN to her popular blog series CONFESSIONS OF AN IMPOSTER MOM, Lisa uses humor, heart and depth to explore the gray area of modern relationships in a multicultural world. Her TV projects have placed in the semifinals of today’s top screenwriting contests including Austin Film Festival and Script Pipeline. Her latest TV pilot LAUREN OF ARABIA, a 1-hour funny drama, recently won Stage 32’s 3rd Annual TV Drama Contest. She is represented by Mark Saffian at Content House.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Manager:
Mark Saffian (Content House)
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
wry, witty, funny drama, dramedy, ripped from real life
SARAH WALLER
CARLEY STEINER
Bio:
Carley Steiner hails from the murky swamps of New Orleans, LA and has been a WGA member since 2008. She has a BA in Film Studies from Columbia University, and an MFA in Screenwriting from USC. Carley has written for Lifetime NBC Universal, Oops Doughnuts, Disney Channel, Disney +, Walden Media, Nickelodeon, Original Films/Sony Pictures and Amazon. Her original film SPIN for Disney + starts shooting in Toronto in Sept. 2020. Additionally, she is a college professor, teaching graduate screenwriting and film theory at various colleges in the Los Angeles area. She's also a pastry school graduate, trapeze enthusiast and the world's biggest Dolly Parton fan. She's repped by Adam Levine and Kyle Jensen at Verve.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Agent:
Adam Levine & Kyle Jensen, Verve
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
YA book adaptations, coming-of-age, romcom, family comedy
SARAH WALLER
NERISSA STREET
Bio:
Nerissa Street is a multiple award-winning arts educator who produces and amplifies new, wiser stories to catalyze powerful, sustainable change. She trained with the Center for Mind-Body Medicine, delivered over 10,000 hours of public speaking including TEDx and South by Southwest (SXSW) appearances, and she produces the Juneteenth for Joy festival, which includes a multiple location, livestreamed broadcast and live performances. She weaves storytelling and transformation to create powerful experiences of joy, possibility and wonder... and she loves mangoes.
Writes:
Half-hour TV and Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Broad comedy, inspirational
SARAH WALLER
STEPHANIE STREISAND
Bio:
Stephanie is currently rebooting a TBA feature franchise for Universal Studios, and is just coming off of the upcoming HULU series THE MIGHTY ONES for DreamWorks Animation where she was also on the staff of the CROODS: FAMILY TREE series and the upcoming 5th season of DRAGONS: NINE REALMS. Stephanie created the original series MATTY PAZ IS A NOOB for Amazon and Dreamworks. She is also one of the go-to writers for FUNNY OR DIE, and has developed original works with THE HENSON COMPANY and through a blind deal with TBS. She was a writer on Season 4 of the Jason Jones/Samantha Bee comedy THE DETOUR for TBS.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
Jeff Greenberg, Gersh
Manager:
Joe Riley, Zero Gravity
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager, Self
Keywords:
Slapstick comedy
SARAH WALLER
CAMERAN SURLES
Bio:
Cameran Surles is a producer, writer, actor living in Los Angeles, CA. She got her start in Austin, TX, working on Terrence Mallick's Oscar nominated Tree of Life. Soon after, she met another director great James L. Brooks who wrote a part for her in his next film. These experiences instilled in her a deep and enduring love of flawed, complex characters and stories that find the comedy in spite of the tragedies of life.
Cameran got her start in writing at UCLA's Professional Program in screenwriting. Her writing accolades include projects advancing in Sundance, Imagine Impact, Napa Valley FF, Cinestory, NYTVF, among others. She is also a member of the Creative Network (from Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Impact).
She currently works as in-house writer/ creative producer for Adam Goodman’s digital studio Invisible Narratives. She is interested in exploring stories as part of a new trend: the 30 something heroine. Real, honest stories of womanhood, and all the ambition, mediocrity, self-awareness, identity, sex, friendship, mortality, tragicomedy that goes with it.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Manager:
Evan Anglin, Zero Gravity
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
grounded, character-driven dramedies
SARAH WALLER
BETTY SULLIVAN
Bio:
When I"m not fielding at call from one of my seven kids I write courageous female leads experiencing a turning point in their lives in drama, thriller, and comedy. The extra bonus is some scripts are sold, optioned, or made. I get to be on set to keep the director and crew hydrated and snacked out and end up being best friends with the script supervisor by the end of the shoot.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Chris Deckard and Krista Carpenter with Fictional Entity
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
true story adaptation, grounded, comedy, social justice, levity,, female driven, thriller, drama
SARAH WALLER
LINDA F. SWEIGART
Bio:
Raised in El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, Linda studied at an international all-girl Catholic school. She dated the teenage son of a notorious drug lord until her mother found out and shipped her off to study in Spain. After college, Linda worked as an archeological field tech, a financial planner, and as an instructor for Homeland Security, where she taught TSA employees how to find bombs. Until she discovered her passion for screenwriting while working as a Development Executive for Steve Oedekerk (Ace Ventura). At Disney, her mentor, Rob Edwards (Princess and the Frog), encouraged her to write full-time. Years later, Linda received an MFA in Screenwriting & TV from UCLA, wrote a film for Rabbit Bandini Productions, and optioned a TV Pilot with Crackle. After her mother died unexpectedly, her mom’s so-called best friend seduced her stepfather, dumped him at a retirement home, and pillaged the family estate. Heartbroken, Linda took a two-year pilgrimage around the world where she was courted by an Indian Prince, motorcycled across Vietnam, consulted Cambodian fortunetellers, and was hospitalized in Myanmar for a spider bite. Luckily, she lived to tell the tale.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Gritty. Edgy. Supernatural. Female driven. Stories about travel and escapism. Family secrets and betrayals. Stories about survival and rebirth. Grief. Death. Love.
SARAH WALLER
NIKKI TAGULIAS
Bio:
Nikki is an LA-based Latine writer. With diversity and female representation always first in mind, she is focused on creating light-hearted scripts that cover otherwise emotionally weighted topics. She has contributed sketch comedy to the CBS Diversity Showcase and the National Hispanic Media Coalition's Scene Showcase, as well as written freelance for The Casagrandes and Dora The Explorer on Nickelodeon. When she is not writing, you can find her performing improv and sketch comedy around the city, or posted up solo at Korean BBQ or a taco stand.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
comedy, dark comedy, mental health focused, diverse voices, underrepresented voices, female-led
SARAH WALLER
CHELSEA PEROTTY TALBOT
Bio:
Chelsea grew up in an idyllic town in New Jersey and always dreamed of living in New York City. But, of course she moved to Los Angeles shortly after college where she cut her teeth in the fast paced newsrooms of PerezHilton.com, Star and OK magazines, Moviefone, and other internet outlets. She has mastered the art of writing in other people's voices from her work in social media. Her favorite position so far has been moonlighting as a digital drag queen while running World of Wonder & RuPaul's DragCon's handles. Her scripts are frequently named finalists for various contests and fellowships, she was a Writer's Assistant on season two of the podcast Hero Hotel, and she published her first piece of writing when she was 12-years-old.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Rose Zhang, Aaron Kogan Management
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
comedic drama, genre twist, young adult, quirky but grounded characters, fun
SARAH WALLER
SAMANTHA TAN
Bio:
Born and raised in Malaysia, Samantha is an international actress, writer, director, chef-entrepreneur and former professional dancer now based in Los Angeles via London and NYC. She is the first Malaysian in history to become a Lifetime Member of The Actors Studio, and is the founder of Malaysian food brand Sam Tan's Kitchen. She loves straddling the worlds of food and narrative storytelling, and will 100% feed you until you're her friend.
Samantha is the writer, director, producer and star of the short film Ally Chia, a dramatic comedy loosely based on her real life experiences as a struggling chef. The film was shot in one day with an all-female crew and is now on Amazon Prime Video. Ally Chia marked Samantha’s first original script and directorial debut, and was a second-rounder for the MACRO Episodic Lab powered by The Black List. The short was made as a proof-of-concept for a TV series which she is currently developing.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
Vanessa Livingston, Rothman Brecher Ehrich Livingston
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Grounded, character-driven, drama, dramedy, dramatic-comedy, raw
SARAH WALLER
CARLY TATIANA PANDZA
Bio:
Carly has trekked to the depths of Mordor and back again, but not all who wander are lost. Some will talk wordy to you. Some have experienced oodles of odd jobs while discovering and reveling in the magical mystery of life with a mission to share the witty, authentic and irreverent way they see the world. From winning a hula hooping contest, to shaving her head multiple times just ‘cause and for charity, filming a documentary and living/teaching in rural villages in Africa, to changing diapers of Disney executives’ children, to starting a 100% female-run boutique theatre company to leading self-development programs to 1,000’s of people. She believes life paths are meant to be anything but predictable. As a child Carly filled up her diary with stories; number the pages, write a table of contents and create a copyright logo too, with the year and an imaginative publisher name. By the age of 10 she’d tell people she was a thrice published author! Some may have thought she was a compulsive liar, but she believed she was a master manifestor who understood from a young age: it's all made up and anything is possible.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Managers:
Anna Lewkowska
Lewk Management
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
carly.tatiana.pandza@gmail.com
Keywords:
Female-Focused, Comedy, Clever, Absurd, Heartfelt, Dry, Sarcastic, Witty, Irreverent, Raunchy, Authentic
SARAH WALLER
AMY TAYLOR
Bio:
Amy is a screenwriter, producer and entrepreneur with experience in a variety of genres. As a producer her expertise spans from development through distribution and includes working on international co-productions and with overseas vendors.
Through her company, StoryWarrior Media Capital LLC, Amy develops her own original ideas as well as collaborates with others on their ideas. Amy’s work has earned her a place on the prestigious “Hollywood Writers to Watch” list. Her films can be found on Hallmark, Lifetime, UPtv and others.
Amy holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Stanford University where she studied film and media at Oxford University and the Grande école ESCP in Paris. Amy also has an MFA in Production from the University of Southern California.
Writes:
Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Representation:
Manager -
Matt Leipzig, Modern Literary Arts
Keywords:
romantic comedy, thriller, horror, banter, noisy, mock insult
SARAH WALLER
KRISTINA THOMAS
Bio:
Writer/director Kristina Thomas is former attorney and professional dodgeball champion (seriously) from Oakland, CA. Most recently, she wrote on HBO's DEMIMONDE, and directed a pilot for MTV/Endemol. She almost signed to Def Jam Records as a recording artist but chose to go to Howard University, so be careful if you challenge her at Karaoke night.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV
Representation:
Agent:
Rukayat Giwa (CAA)
Manager:
Jason Lubin (First Story Entertainment)
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager, Self
Keywords:
genre drama, female focused leads
SARAH WALLER
HEATHER TURNEY SCHMIDT
Bio:
Heather Turney Schmidt comes to film and TV writing and directing from a career as a Juilliard-trained concert pianist and composer for concert music, film and TV.
Heather is signed with manager Jeff Portnoy/Bellevue Productions. Her first feature film as writer-director is currently in development with A71 in Canada, and she has written and directed four short films, including MAN OF FIRE, starring Lance Reddick (John Wick, Bosch, the Wire, Fringe) which is currently on the film festival circuit and has so far received 14 awards and is an official selection at 12 festivals.
Her recent film scores include Jurassic School/Netflix, Empire of the Sharks/Syfy, Break-Up Nightmare/Lifetime, Elvis Lives!/AXS TV, Archaeology of a Woman starring Sally Kirkland, How to Get Rid of A Body and Still Be Friends, Alchemy of the Spirit, and the video game Homesick.
Heather was also the creator and co-executive producer on Animal Planet’s 2016 TV
series Life at Vet U. A huge animal lover, she and her wife Kim have multiple rescue pets—5 dogs, many cats, 2 pigeons, 2 horses and some fish. Heather founded two non-profit dog rescues, Hollywood Huskies in Los Angeles in 2016 and Halo Husky Haven in Calgary, Alberta in 2018. So far, over 800 dogs have been saved and adopted, and she’s hoping to reach 1000 in 2022!
Heather’s hobbies include sword fighting (theatrical combat style!), oil painting, learning languages, taking her dogs to agility classes and trail riding on her horse. She is also a professional animal communicator, trained by the Gurney Institute of Animal Communication, and a Certified Practitioner in Healing Touch for Animals.
Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta/Canada, Heather currently lives in Los Angeles and has dual Canadian/American citizenship
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Jeff Portnoy, Bellevue Productions
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
heatherturneyschmidt@gmail.com
Keywords:
Drama. Thrillers. Mystery. Action. Fantasy. Sci-fi. Supernatural. And stories with music or animals.
SARAH WALLER
TARA TOMICEVIC
Bio:
Tara Tomicevic is a Staff Writer on ABC’s PROMISED LAND. Born in former Yugoslavia, Tara’s family was torn across political lines when a civil war declared her mom Croatian and her dad Bosnian. As war refugees, Tara and her parents escaped to Italy and then to the U.S. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, on scholarship, and produced the award-winning short MUTED, starring Chandra Wilson and Malcolm-Jamal Warner, which was acquired by HBO and selected for the Ryan Murphy Half Initiative Program. To date it has over 160k views on Issa Rae’s #ShortFilmSundays. Her short CUDDLE PARTY, with EP Joey Soloway, starring Michaela Watkins, Rob Huebel, and Yvette Nicole Brown, went to Tribeca and is currently on Amazon. Her feature THICKER THAN ICE made The 2021 Black List.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agent:
Mark Ross, Michael Romero-LoSasso, Kelsey Roberts (Paradigm Talent Agency)
Manager:
Kendrick Tan (Lit Entertainment)
Keywords:
Ambitious women, sports, family, coming of age, stories that unify, dramedy
SARAH WALLER
JESSICA TOLTZIS
Bio:
Jessica Toltzis is an LA-based actor and writer, who recently graduated from UCLA’s MFA Acting program. Her short film Georgeanne.MOV, which she wrote and starred in, won Best Micro Mockumentary at the 2020 Portland Comedy Film Festival. Some of her favorite theater performances include #21507 in Where the Lovelight Gleams in LA (winner of The Paula Vogel Prize and semi-finalist for The Relentless Award from The American Playwriting Foundation), Touchstone in As You Like It at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Penelope Pennywise in Urinetown the Musical (Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Award, Best Supporting Actress). Jessica trained at The British American Drama Academy (BADA, full scholarship), The Moscow Art Theatre, The National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, and at Upright Citizens Brigade. She is a sketch comedian and has created many characters—some of whom are now her best friends.
Writes:
Half-hour TV
Representation:
Agent:
Peter Kallinteris (Peter Kallinteris Agency)
Manager:
Lexy Alvarez (Framework Entertainment)
Preferred Contact:
Self
jtoltzis@gmail.com
Keywords:
Comedy, Character Based, Sketch, LGBT, Physical Comedy/Slapstick
SARAH WALLER
ALEXANDRA TRAN
Bio:
I'm one of those people who knows a little about a lot of things. I've worked for some of the wealthiest sociopaths in LA, married to a magician and grew up with a psychiatrist AND high-functioning autistic for parents. Arrested Development is the greatest comedy ever created. I love Disney's The Little Mermaid and it IS a feminist story. Ask me about the time found a bat in my toilet.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Agents:
Adam Perry, Halle Mariner, Danny Alexander, APA
Manager:
Kate Sharp, Bellevue Productions
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager, Self
Keywords:
Grounded dramas that are accessible to all, and happen to feature lots of POC and women!
SARAH WALLER
ANGELINA TREVINO
Bio:
Raised in a small town in Mexico then Houston, I’m a part-Lebanese Yale-educated Mexican immigrant who loves to tell fish-out-of-water stories often featuring morally ambiguous characters. Most recently, I was a staff writer in an HBOMax mini-room and co-wrote an episode of season 1 of Sacrifice for BET (starring Paula Patton). Before transitioning to working in a TV writers’ room, I was an in-house producer and development exec at New Form, and prior to that I wrote and directed branded films for the likes of IBM, Campbell’s, and Marriott. My short film for Cornetto, Travelers, was nominated for a Shots Young Directors Award at Cannes Lions, while my first short film, Mojado, premiered at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. I also love to travel and sample dark chocolate from every far-flung corner of the earth (favorite is Icelandic Noi Sirius chocolate, in case you’re wondering).
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV
Representation:
Manager:
Ken Freimann, Circle of Confusion
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Grounded Sci-Fi, Drama, Dramedy, Soap, Family Drama
SARAH WALLER
STEFANIA VASCONCELLOS
Bio:
Stefania Vasconcellos is a Brazilian-born writer, director, producer, tarot reader, and astrology enthusiast based in the land of sun and stars, Los Angeles. With a couple of award-winning short films under her belt, her debut feature film, "The French Teacher", premiered at the Edera Film Festival in Italy, where it won the "Artistic Direction Award". The movie was also selected for the prestigious FIPRESCI Prize at the Flying Broom Film Festival. With her second feature film currently in post-production, there's no telling where Stefania's star will take her next. But one thing's for sure – she'll always remain true to herself and her passion for storytelling.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
stefaniavasconcellos@gmail.com
Keywords:
Drama, dramedy, comedy, psychological horror, female-forward
SARAH WALLER
NATALIJA VEKIC
Bio:
Natalija Vekic is a screenwriter and director. She won a Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival for her short film Lost & Found. She was invited to participate in the Film Independent Screenwriting Lab, selected as an honoree in the WGAW Feature Access Diversity Project and was a top ten finalist in the Page International Screenwriting Awards. Natalija is a graduate of the UCLA MFA screenwriting program. Her recent directing work includes short doc portraits of contemporary artists Diedrick Bracken and Mimi O Chun. She received a "Special Project Grant" from the Princess Grace Foundation to write and direct the short, narrative Jane. The film stars Mishel Prada (Vida/ Riverdale), Mekenna Melvin (Chuck) and Tyra Colar (Twenties). Jane is based on Natalija's TV pilot about a real group of women who ran an underground abortion service in the era before Roe v. Wade. Natalija is currently out with the TV pilot, The Golden State, which is a bittersweet immigrant mother and daughter coming of age story.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Myra Model Management
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Women Centered, Immigrant, Coming of Age, Historical Drama, Political, Adult Family Drama, Mystery, Travel, Novel & Documentary Adaptation, International Focus.
SARAH WALLER
TERRI VIANI
Bio:
Terri Coduri Viani got her screenwriting start on Disney/ABC's hit show, Brand Spanking New Doug. After Disney, she freelanced in New York City before moving to New England to write for The Stonebridge Press rural newspaper group. Her scripts have been finalists in both the New England Film Fellowship and the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards, as well as placing on The Bitch List 2020, and at Stowe Story Labs and the Austin Film Festival. She is an associate member of the WGA, West, and a Script Magazine contributing writer. In her teens and twenties, she lived and traveled all over the world including Saudi Arabia, England, and the Soviet Union, and currently resides in the Connecticut countryside with one husband, three cats, fifty-thousand honeybees (give or take) and a passel of ornery hens.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Josh Zakaria, Zakaria Entertainment Group
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Dramedy, light drama, feel-good. Warm-hearted stories of good people making bad choices as they search for their missing piece of the American Dream. I live in that sweet spot where comedy and drama meet.
SARAH WALLER
SARAH VOLLMAN
Bio:
Sarah is a writer from Austin, TX currently assisting Alec Berg (Barry, Silicon Valley, Curb Your Enthusiasm) across all film & TV projects. Prior, she assisted James Corden at The Late Late Show and its production company Fulwell73 for five years, serving as writers' assistant for The Tony Awards, The Grammy Awards, The World's Best, and The Late Late Show in London. She's also had writing published in the New Yorker Shouts & Murmurs and created a show at UCB in LA.
Writes:
Half-hour TV
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
high concept comedy, female identity
SARAH WALLER
KELLY WALKER
Bio:
KELLY WALKER is an Australian multi-hyphenate award-winning filmmaker. She's had multiple short films in the festival circuit, most notably The Brownlist, directed and edited by Walker. The Brownlist had a successful festival run, including the Jury Award for Best Short Film at Bentonville Film Festival. Next up, Walker was selected for Australian's In Film's Writers Lab, which led to her directorial feature debut, My Fiona. My Fiona had it’s World Premiere at London's prestigious BFI Flare and has gone to have an award-winning festival run and, in turn, secured distribution with a limited theatrical run and releasing on all VOD platforms in November 2021. Walker was selected to talk on BFI Flare’s Lesbians In Cinema Panel, a juror in Queer Screen's Pitch Off, and has been a speaker on numerous talkbacks advocating for female filmmakers and diversity behind the lens. Coming up she’s adapting Greg Hoetker’s novel, A Leg In Oklahoma City and is attached to direct Cat Del Re’s feature Geraldine, executive produced by Oakhurst Entertainment’s Jai Khanna.
Writes:
Film
Representation:
David Clark, Mazo Partners
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
erotic thriller, romantic comedy, biopic, dark humor, relationship drama, LGBTQ
SARAH WALLER
SARAH WALLER
Bio:
I’m a Neo Soul, R & B and Jazz Singer / Songwriter based in Los Angeles, CA. I also Direct and Produce and have worked on award-winning Feature Films, Television programming, short Films and have written dark comedy. For Fun: I make trippy art, dance, snowboard, cook, and travel. I am a certified yoga teacher and once won a hula hooping championship.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Dark comedy, Tragicomedy, Horror Comedy and Biopic
SARAH WALLER
JULIANNE WARGEN
Bio:
Julianne is CEO of a business consultancy and holds a Master of Letters (MFA Summa Cum Laude equivalent) from Sydney University with a major in screenwriting and was the Managing Editor of the USYD writer’s journal Phoenix. She has an animated feature in development with Nancy Cartwright (The Simpsons), Callan McAuliffe (The Walking Dead), and Kath Soucie (Rugrats) attached. She is currently co-producing a web-series and has recently optioned her live-action family feature and a drama TV Series. Julianne currently works with Roadmap Writers helping other writers to build industry connections and elevate their portfolios. Julianne has a menagerie of animals including cats, rabbits, fish, wild birds (who all have names and come to visit daily) and two worm farms. Julianne likes to write stories that challenge people to question the limits of their own perspectives. Her desire is for her audience to come away changed – even if only for a moment.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Manager:
Brandon Drea, Paper Plane Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
fearless, powerful, fun, character-driven, drama, thriller, sci-fi, comedy, fantasy, Holiday, family, grounded, action
SARAH WALLER
SELYNA WARREN
Bio:
Selyna Warren and Marissa Read make up the multi-hyphenate team S&M. We share a love for comedy and want to create content we can act in and direct. We met at a musical theatre conservatory and have been creatively co-dependent ever since. Our brand is R-rated comedy nostalgia. S&M’s first sale was to AwesomenessTV in the form of a streaming teen show called Foursome. Our 4th and last season premiered on Youtube Premium, making it the network’s longest running series. After writing all of Season I, we spent the next 3 seasons as show-runners, EP’s, and eventually added directing to the docket, directing three episodes, including the finale of this latest season. Our feature HAZED reached #1 on the Blklst website and we’ve since optioned this dark high school comedy to Jeremy Garelick’s company, American High. Unbelievably, we won a Google grant to develop a script involving computer science. Neither of us have any experience in computer science. S&M are pumped to have sold a pilot to Nickelodeon, rebooting a favorite series from childhood alongside Ace Entertainment. S&M sold their 1/2 hour dramedy, Bad Apple, to Sony and CounterBalance. We used our proof of concept that we produced and acted in to help sell the show. Our latest feature Bat Mitzvah is being developed, again, with CounterBalance. We are so excited to have sold, alongside Rachel Bloom, a love letter to *NSYNC in the form of a big budget feature to Tristar. You can find Selyna acting on the tube on Black-ish, Shameless, Teachers, and Idiot Sitter. Look for Marissa in the indie film What We Can’t Have. You can find S&M in the heart of Burbank, wearing matching outfits, and acting like they’re dating. Both are happily married to other people.
Writes:
Half-Hour TV and Film
Representation:
Agents:
Olivia Falletti, Zac Simmons, Kelsey Roberts, Paradigm Agency
Manager:
Dustin Doty, Velocity Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
selynawarren@gmail.com
Keywords:
R rated comedy nostalgia
SARAH WALLER
LAUREN WELLS
Bio:
Lauren Wells is a writer who has worked on television shows such as What We Do in the Shadows, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Happy!, and Angelyne. In New York City, Lauren studied improv and sketch comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre while finishing her M.F.A in Writing and Producing for Television at LIU Brooklyn.
She has a B.A. in English from Hobart + William Smith Colleges, where she focused on creative writing and poetry. Lauren's magical realist poetry has been featured in New York Quarterly, Everyday Genius, Burner Magazine, and The Legendary. While she grew up on a horse farm in Upstate New York, Lauren currently resides in Los Angeles with her rescue dog, Mr. Feeny.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Kate Hart, Anonymous Content
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Comedy, dark comedy, magical realism, thriller
SARAH WALLER
CARRIE WEISBERG
Bio:
Carrie Weisberg is a Writer/Actor/Producer living in Los Angeles. She studied at Boston University and then made her way to Los Angeles after graduation to achieve all of her dreams and goals in the entertainment industry. Before she became too jaded she continued studying at The Second City Hollywood, where she found her comedic voice… and her people. Carrie has been lucky enough to work consistently (in one way or another) in the entertainment industry for the last several years producing shows such as Go-Big Show on TBS, SafeWord on MTV and VH1, Great Minds with Dan Harmon for History and E!’s Brunch at the Oscars, Oscar pre-show. She has even been billed as a writer for some non-airing pilots for E!, WE and Feeln’ and even a real life show "What they Got Right" for DreamWorksTV on YouTube and YouTube's New Year's Special "Hello 2021." Sometimes she can find jobs as an actor when Jennifer Lawrence isn't available or she’s unwilling to do the part. When Carrie’s not working in TV she’s either teaching at the Second City Hollywood, trying to sell her own pilots or crying into her dog’s fur (all of which add value to her life). Carrie is happy to be here and wants to thank you for reading her bio. If she submitted it in person she’d give you a homemade cookie to show her gratitude.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
comedy, dark comedy, animation
SARAH WALLER
RYANN WERNER
Bio:
Ryann Werner is a writer and producer with a penchant for female-driven stories and dark comedies. Growing up, Ryann’s only extracurricular was watching the tiny screen on her kitchen counter. Knowing she had to be a part of shows like the ones she immersed herself in, Ryann graduated from the University of Southern California and set out to work on projects that challenge societal norms and discuss underrepresented views through humor. In addition to working for writers and performers on and off of TV shows, Ryann produces her own projects and was a finalist in the 2019 Sundance Episodic Labs.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Hour TV, Film
Representation:
Manager:
Colleen Washington, Fourth Wall Management
Preferred Contact:
Manager, Self
Keywords:
Dark comedy, Female-forward, quippy dialogue, message driven
SARAH WALLER
ANDREA WHIPPLE
Bio:
I'm a delight, you'll love me. I'm midwestern as hell and I learned how to milk a goat at farm camp. I write with lots of heart and a lil bit of fart. My comedy pilots have wild things like lizard people, octogenarian murder mysteries, post apocalyptic robots, but also grounded characters, like a mom trying to balance career and work, and a woman with Down syndrome trying to make her mark. I chose this career because I think the things we put onscreen really can make a difference in the world and I care deeply about representation. Also I love working with people and making stupid jokes- just check my twitter @whipsical.
I perform sketch and improv at Second City. I wrote and performed in the year-long premium show LIVE RUDE GIRLS, and my latest show, Welcome to Boobtown, is about two little boys who find a magical bra who takes them on a mystical adventure through the world of women. My former boss Adam Conover says my work has “joy on every page” and that I work my ass off. He's right.
Writes:
TV
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
comedy, sci-fi, mystery, disabled protagonists, animated, robots, post apocalyptic
SARAH WALLER
LORIN WILLIAMS
Bio:
Lorin Williams is a Writer/producer from Saginaw, Michigan who loves writing stories about the conflict of individualism within community. After spending years producing unscripted televisions shows, she pivoted to animation working as a script coordinator for Nickelodeon and eventually freelance writer on the first season of Transformers: Earthspark and the second season of the Rugrats reboot. She was selected for the 2023 Black List X WIF’s Episodic lab and Sesame Street’s Writers Workshop, where she has a development deal.
Writes:
Half Hour TV, Hour TV
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Genre, procedural, multi cam comedy, animation,
SARAH WALLER
GEVENA WILLIS
Bio:
A writer with 8 seasons of experience "fixing it in Post," Geneva Willis currently works as the Post Coordinator on WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS. She was recently admitted to the PGA for her work on Season 11 of CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM. An LA transplant by way of rural Alabama, Geneva credits her parents for her love of classic sitcoms and genre fare. Although homeschooled, the oldest of six, and a nationally ranked Bible Quizzer, Geneva insists that she’s never been in a cult. Her prior television credits include WINNING TIME: RISE OF THE LAKERS DYNASTY, STAR TREK: PICARD, THE ALIENIST: ANGEL OF DARKNESS, George Clooney's Hulu limited series CATCH-22, FOR LIFE, and THE CROSSING. When not writing with her creative partner, Margaret Borchert, Geneva can be found running her writers group, trying not to die (again) while playing Dungeons and Dragons, and participating in too many book clubs.
Writes:
Half Hour TV
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
unrepentantly nerdy, female-driven, socially conscious comedy
SARAH WALLER
ELEANOR WILSON
Bio:
Eleanor Wilson is a writer/director/producer from Adelaide, Australia. Her debut feature Save Yourselves!, co-written and co-directed with Alex Huston Fischer, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, where it was picked up by Bleecker Street. Her award winning short films have played at festivals throughout the world, with her first, Possum, winning best short film at the inaugural NITEHAWK SHORTS FEST. Everything All At Once, starring J. Smith-Cameron, premiered on SUNDANCE.TV. Her latest short film, Low Road, which premiered at MoMA, was written as part of the WRITE BY THE SEA residency and is a recipient of the FUTURE OF FILM IS FEMALE grant. She resides in Los Angeles and enjoys making ceramics for friends and collaborators.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Agent:
Ruby Kaye & Dan Rabinow, CAA
Manager:
Christina Campagnola, GRLBND Media
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager
Keywords:
Grounded, comedy, sci-fi, drama, character-driven
SARAH WALLER
STEFANIE WOODBURN
Bio:
Stefanie Woodburn told the Internet she hated cats on her first Twitch stream, and it was all downhill from there. Well, not all downhill. Twitch was also the key to Stefanie’s success as a writer and performer. As the host on Twitch for Geek & Sundry at Legendary Digital Networks, she built up a following who helped her create the first film to be funded entirely through playing video games. Pole went on to become an official selection in 18 film festivals, winning 5 awards. Originally from Maryland, Stefanie is a half-Chinese half-Danish/English/Scottish writer/performer with a dance and theater background. But she played it safe at first, graduating from NYU in International Politics & Economics and then working on the business and tech side of entertainment before moving to the creative side. She was fortunate enough to graduate from three fellowships, including the CAPE New Writers Fellowship, Ron Howard & Brian Grazer’s Imagine Impact program, and CBS/Paramount TV Writing Fellowship. A huge nerd, she’s spoken on Comic-Con, WonderCon, and TwitchCon panels about gaming, hosting, and content creating. She produced a board game doc called Gamemaster, and was the subject of a game documentary The Kids Table, about competitive bridge (their average opponent was 73 years old). She has written on a Blue Sky Animated Feature, the feature ONE IN A BILLION, as well as in the mini-room for American Pie Presents: Girl’s Rule. Stef teaches at Script Anatomy, and mentors teen girls in writing at WriteGirl. She is repped at Verve. You can find her on Twitter & IG @StefWoodburn.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Agent:
Pamela Goldstein, Jenna Block, Jess Zou, Roberto Larios (Verve)
Keywords:
Female-forward, fun, from-the-mixed-perspective comedy & dramedy
SARAH WALLER
ELE WOODS
Bio:
Ele Woods is an actor, writer and producer who performs regularly at the Upright Citizens’ Brigade. She has appeared as a Guest Star on shows such as "The Good Place" for NBC, starred opposite KeKe Palmer in her Facebook watch show "Turnt Up with the Taylors". She was a staff writer on the first season of Birdgirl at Adult Swim and her writing has been featured at UCB, TBS and The New York TV Festival. Most recently she was a writer and producer for Youtube's Black History Month special, Black Renaissance. She identifies as a multiracial third culture kid and loves to pretend like she doesn’t understand American cultural references. This is not true. She does. More work and pictures of her rollerskating can be found at www.EleWoods.cool. One time she made out with a skull in an off Broadway play and Variety Magazine called her 'Wonderful'. She’s recently taken up archery.
Writes:
Half-hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
comedy
SARAH WALLER
JACQUELINE XERRI
Bio:
Jacqueline is a writer/director who enjoys exploring the dark corners of adolescence and the cringey comedy that lurks in the shadows. She is currently in development with Fazed Films for her first feature, The Year The World Ended, a realistic portrait of teenage girlhood that aims to empower girls and women to take their self-worth from the hands of others and rightfully claim it as their own.
Upon graduating from Florida State University’s College of Motion Picture Arts, Jacqueline wrote, directed, and co-edited the short film ‘Monkey Bars’ which was executive produced by Ethan Lazar (The Witch) and features Millie Shapiro (Hereditary). It was nominated for Best Narrative at NFFTY 2022, won an Honorable Mention for Best Short Film at Bushwick Film Festival 2021, and was Critics Choice at the Cinema Femme Short Film Festival 2021.
Jacqueline currently resides in Brooklyn, New York, writing, directing, and editing a wide range of projects -- from music videos and commercials to narratives and documentaries.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
dramedy, female-foward, coming-of-age, surreal, unconventional
SARAH WALLER
ORA YASHAR
Bio:
Writer/Director Ora Yashar fell in love with screen magic when her father made the horrible (yet awesome) decision to take her six-year-old self to see GOODFELLAS. Recognizing “gangster” wasn’t a viable career route, she decided on “storyteller.” Coming of age in the U.S. as an Iranian-American greatly influenced Ora’s POV and her work seeks to empower voices that too often go unheard. Recent credits include penning an Iranian-American legal drama for ESX Entertainment and co-writing episode 311 of the hit series THE EQUALIZER. Ora is a Film Independent Episodic Lab Fellow and STARZ #TakeTheLead program participant. She earned her MFA in Directing at Chapman University and is repped by Adesuwa McCalla at MetaMorphic Entertainment.
Writes:
Hour TV, Hour TV,Film
Representation:
Manager:
Adesuwa McCalla, MetaMorphic Entertainment
Preferred Contact:
Manager
Keywords:
female-forward, comedic drama
SARAH WALLER
DIANE YIFEI DAI
Bio:
Desperate to connect with the world as a lonely child, Diana consumed as much Western media as her family’s CRT TV would allow. In fact, she consumed so many American TV shows and movies, and were so impressed by them, that she got a crazy idea into her head: that one day she would leave the cold, dusty, industrial city in Northeast China to become a filmmaker in Hollywood, USA. At age 14, she was sponsored to go to America alone, and thus Diana began her journey as a transnational adventurer and storyteller. Now an adult, Diana still yearns to connect with others through stories of our common struggles for love, liberty and justice. She writes about Asian American experiences and histories, the intersections of race and gender, as well as Chinese and Manchurian folklore. Diana identifies as queer and non-binary.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Historical fiction, horror, fantasy, Asian American, AAPI, queer, LGBTQ
SARAH WALLER
KATIE YOUNG
Bio:
Katie Young is a TV and feature writer with a focus on hour-long sci-fi and fantasy. When she was a kid, she once checked out every book in the children's section of the library with the word "magic" in the title. As an adult, this love of genre media, combined with disappointment in the straight male landscape that often dominates sci-fi and fantasy, has led her to write genre scripts centered on female and LGBT characters. She finds the grounded center in fantastical settings, using genre as a way of illuminating and exploring truths about the real world - but her work still has the fun magical spells and space ship explosions that keep people coming back. Her made-for-TV feature thriller MALICIOUS MIND GAMES is in production with Mar Vista Entertainment and Dawn's Light Media, and will air in 2022. Her sci-fi pilot COLD DARK PLANET was a second rounder at the 2021 Austin Film Festival. Originally from Dallas, she now lives in Los Angeles.
Writes:
Hour TV, Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
sci-fi, fantasy, LGBT, supernatural, space, dark comedy, grounded, dramedy
SARAH WALLER
LILLIAN YU
Bio:
A former Harvard Lampoon-er, Googler, and development exec, Lillian Yu started her writing career as the staff writer on NBC's POWERLESS. She then worked for Warner Brothers under a blind feature deal and has developed various projects with various studios. On the TV side, she is currently working as a Producer on KUNG FU. Feature-wise, she most recently wrote SINGLES DAY for New Line Cinema. Her action spec, CICADA, ranked #4 on this year's Black List and was recently acquired by Black Bear Pictures to develop into a TV series. Lillian was also featured in the most recent Young and Hungry List.
Writes:
TV and Film
Representation:
Agent:
Marissa Devins, Milorad Dragicevic, Gregory McKnight & Max Michael, UTA
Manager:
Daniel Rappaport & Cliff Murray, Management 360
Preferred Contact:
Agent, Manager
Keywords:
Action, comedy, dramedy, rom-com
SARAH WALLER
RUTH ZAPICO MANCEBO
Bio:
Ruth Zapico Mancebo is a Spanish artist that focuses on film acting, directing, and writing. Zapico’s work is very much centered around the truth to every story; she is very dedicated to the naturalism that derives from real emotion. Her art is very inclusive and makes you think out of the box. The realism of her craft brings out traumas, intensity, fears and dramas as well as beautiful moments that every other human being can somehow relate to.
Writes:
Half Hour TV and Film
Preferred Contact:
Self
Keywords:
Naturalism, realism, inclusive, humanistic, emotional, truthful
"I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass."
― Maya Angelou
