Panelists

Dan Angel, an Emmy, Peabody and WGA award-winning writer and producer has been creating and supervising quality film and television production for over twenty years. His broad range of experience includes an extensive background in many genres from Horror and Science Fiction to branded family entertainment in all formats. He has been responsible for some of the biggest successes in both family series and long form movies over the past two decades. Mr. Angel joined The Hatchery, a family entertainment production company, as a partner in June 2003, where he has produced and developed a number of television programs in both live action and animation. Newly appointed as the company’s Chief Creative Officer, Mr. Angel is responsible for managing all project development, sales and production. Mr. Angel has been Executive Producing two new hit shows for the new family network, The Hub. The first show is another scary series from the master of kid’s thrillers, R.L. Stine. Mr. Angel is producing and writing 40 episodes of this new anthology, R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour Series with partner Billy Brown. The Haunting Hour launched in January 2011 and has been a ratings leader for The Hub for its entire run. The Hub has picked up the series for a third season. The Haunting Hour has received a number of awards including the coveted Parent’s Choice Award in Television and honors from the Television Critics Association and CableFAX for Best Family Series. The second series Mr. Angel is Executive Producing for the Hub is an animated comedy, Dan VS. The Hatchery has partnered with Film Roman, the studio behind The Simpsons and King of the Hill to deliver a high quality animated comedy series to The Hub’s primetime lineup. Dan VS. is a 44 episode commitment which launched in January 2011 and began airing its second season November 2011. Dan VS. has also been a ratings leader on The Hub. In 2012, both have been renewed for a third season. In 2009 Mr. Angel Executive Produced Christmas in Canaan starring Billy Ray Cyrus. Christmas in Canaan was Hallmark Channel’s event Christmas movie for 2009 and it premiered with record breaking ratings, leading The Hallmark Channel to their highest rated week in network history. It also received a number of awards and honors. The sequel, Christmas Comes Home to Canaan, has just been completed and will air December 17th on the Hallmark Channel. In 2009 Mr. Angel was also responsible for the inspirational film Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story. He served as the Executive Producer on this event movie for TNT. It stars Cuba Gooding Jr. and Kimberly Elise and was directed by Thomas Carter. Gifted Hands had its worldwide premiere on TNT on February 7th 2009 and won the night, beating out all network and cable programming. Gifted Hands was nominated for a number of honors including a Humanitas Prize, A Critics Choice for Best Picture and has won a number of awards including Best Picture Made for Television at the Image Awards. It continues to sell well on DVD. Currently Mr. Angel is developing a number of family projects including a scripted family show based on the popular Great Brain book series and Spooksville, based on the best selling Chris Pike books. The Great Brain and Spooksville are slated for launch in fall 2012. In 2007 Mr. Angel wrote and produced the first in The Hatchery’s series of Direct to DVD movies based on R.L. Stine’s Haunting Hour and Nightmare Hour books, in partnership with Universal Home Video. R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour: Don’t Think About It premiered on The Cartoon Network to record ratings in September of 2007 and earned him a WGA writing award nomination for Best Writing in Children’s Long form. The Halloween DVD continues to sell well around the world. In 2004 Mr. Angel did double duty producing 130 episodes of the game show Balderdash and 13 episodes of the swashbuckling adventure Young Blades, both for the PAX network under a deal with NBC. He also served as writer and creator of both shows. Over the last four years Mr. Angel has also been responsible for the development of a number of properties including Scrooge the Musical, a remake of the Albert Finney classic for CBS and a Mini Series for Lifetime, Ruby, based on the popular teen girl book series V.C. Andrews. Other projects in development include: R. L. Stine’s Rotten School, American Chillers, and a 12 part limited mini series based on The Disciples. Mr. Angel has also worked closely with American Greetings to help develop a number of their brands into television series. Those properties include Twisted Whiskers, Sushi Pack, Mariyoku Yummy, and The Care Bears Movie 2007. Twisted Whiskers and Maiyoku Yummy launched on The Hub and are a major part of their family block. Among his other noteworthy accomplishments, Mr. Angel secured the movie rights to the inspiring story of Bill Porter after seeing an interview on ABC’s “20/20”. The culmination of a four-year effort by Mr. Angel, during which he gathered a top-notch creative team of talent including actor William H. Macy, Kyra Sedgewick and Helen Mirren, was the production of a two-hour movie event based on Porter’s life entitled Door to Door. Mr. Angel served as Executive Producer of the movie, which he had sold to TNT and Johnson and Johnson. In 2003 Door to Door was not only one of the most watched, but also one of the most honored movies of all time including AFI, Peabody, Emmy and Critics Choice honors. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences nominated Door to Door with more nominations than any other program that year, twelve, and it won six prime time Emmy Awards, the most of any program for that year, including Outstanding Made for Television Movie, Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie; Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries Movie or Dramatic Special; and Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special. The six Emmy wins for Door to Door made it the most-ever garnered for a single program for TNT. Previously, from 1995 through 1998, Mr. Angel won recognition when he produced, co-wrote and co-story edited the number one hit show, Goosebumps for FOX Kids Network, winning the WGA Award for Best Children’s Writing, and a Gemini nomination for Best Children’s Series. TV Guide picked Goosebumps two years in a row as one of the best kid’s shows on television. Goosebumps continues to be successful being one of the highest rated series on The Hub network. From 1997 to1998, Mr. Angel and his partner, Billy Brown, served as Story Editor/Writers on the FOX TV hit, The X-Files. 1998 was the only year the writing staff of this popular series took home a Golden Globe for Best Dramatic Writing. Mr. Angel also served as Supervising Producer, in 1998, on Animorphs, a television series adaptation of the hit book series for Scholastic Productions and Nickelodeon. From 1999 through 2001, Mr. Angel had an overall writing/producing deal with The Jim Henson Company where, with his writing partner, he developed and supervised a variety of projects including Brats of the Lost Nebula, which aired on the WB Network and was selected as one of the ten best new children’s programs by TV Guide for 1999. In 2001, Mr. Angel created two primetime series, The Fearing Mind for the Jim Henson Company and the FOX Family cable channel and Night Visions for Warner Brothers and FOX TV Network. Night Visions was reprised in 2003 on the Sci-Fi Channel for a number of years and in 2008 was reprised again by Chiller TV. In 2002, Mr. Angel served as Executive Producer and co-writer with Billy Brown for a two-hour original script for the revival of the Battlestar Galactica series as part of a development deal with Studio USA. Also in 2002, Mr. Angel created, wrote and Executive Produced a drama pilot for the WB television network called Shadow Walkers. Among Mr. Angel’s other credits are: Creator, Writer, Executive Producer of the Ace-Award Nominated John Carpenter Presents: Body Bags for Showtime, and Supervising Writer of Foxboro Entertainment’s National Lampoon’s Ahead of Its Time. Previously Mr. Angel helmed production for several companies including the cable network FIT TV, Body by Jake, Tamilee Webb and Palmer/Cablevision of Southern California. Mr. Angel is a graduate of the UCLA Film School; he lives with his wife and three children in the Los Angeles suburb of Toluca Lake.

John August’s feature directing debut, The Nines, premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. As a screenwriter, John’s credits include Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Big Fish, and both Charlie’s Angels movies. He wrote and co-produced Go, which debuted at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. For television, he created the short-lived series “D.C.” for The WB, along with pilots for Fox and ABC. His upcoming projects include Dark Shadows, Preacher and the animated Frankenweenie. John is a frequent advisor to the Sundance Screenwriters Lab. He also runs a website aimed at budding screenwriters, johnaugust.com. His upcoming projects include Dark Shadows, Preacher and the animated Frankenweenie. John is a frequent advisor to the Sundance Screenwriters Lab. He also runs a website aimed at budding screenwriters, johnaugust.com.

Most recently Story Editor on the highly-anticipated animated series Pink Panther and Pals for Cartoon Network, Adam began his professional career as a staff-writer for the Aaron Spelling-produced prime-time drama Savannah, and has written for some of the most popular and acclaimed animated and live-action children’s series of the past decade, including cartoons such as Cartoon Network’s Edgar and Ellen, Hi Hi Puffy Amiyumi (both of which he served as Story Editor), Ben Ten, Ben Ten: Alien Force, Teen Titans, Secret Saturdays, The Batman: The Brave and the Bold, The Batman (for which he received an Emmy nomination) Rugrats, The Wild Thornberrys, X-Men: Evolution, Little Bill, Jackie Chan Adventures, Static Shock and Mucha Lucha, as well as the live-action kids’ series Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide, Out There, and The Famous Jett Jackson. Adam is the author of Hench, a graphic novel which, following rave reviews from Entertainment Weekly, Publisher’s Weekly and Variety, was optioned by Warner Brothers in the spring of 2009 as a live-action feature in which Danny (Eastbound and Down, Tropic Thunder) McBride will star and Neal (I Am Legend, The Fast and the Furious) Moritz will produce. Adam also scripted the recent comic book miniseries Batgirl for DC Comics, for whom he has also written Teen Titans, Robin, Countdown to Adventure , and Justice League Unlimited. Adam’s second graphic novel, Dugout, hit bookshelves in summer, 2008. Currently, he scripts Killapalooza, a miniseries he co-created, and the long-running WildC.A.T.S. both for Wildstorm Entertainment. Adam has written more than twenty children’s books for Simon and Schuster, as well as an original young adult novel, What I Did On My Hypergalactic Interstellar Summer Vacation. Adam has branched into the field of video-game writing, developing the story for and scripting Monster Labs, a Wii-Platform game released by Eidos in 2008, and Hi Hi Puffy Amiyumi: Kaz-Napped for the Nintendo DS. In addition to his Emmy nomination, Adam has been honored with selection to the prestigious Warner Brothers Comedy Writers Workshop, and a Postgraduate Fellowship from the James A. Michener Texas Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin. Adam is also an accomplished playwright, with stagings of his one-act and short plays in both New York and Los Angeles.

Alec Berg’s television credits include Seinfeld where he was a writer and executive producer, and Curb Your Enthusiasm where he currently serves as a writer, executive producer and director. His feature film work includes writing the screenplays for THE CAT IN THE HAT (which was made into a terrible film) and EUROTRIP (which he produced and co-directed and is excellent.) He is currently writing and producing THE DICTATOR for Sacha Baron Cohen. He has also done extensive rewriting, having worked on films for Jim Carrey, Will Ferrell, Will Smith, Ivan Reitman and Robert Zemeckis. Alec has been nominated for numerous Emmy awards, a WGA Award, a DGA award and a Razzie (yes, for THE CAT IN THE HAT, it’s that bad.)

Christine Boylan is a television writer/producer who has worked on Leverage (TNT), Off the Map (ABC) and is currently a co-producer on Castle. She also writes short stories (such as Hoss at Popcorn Fiction) and plays, and has written comic books for DC, Marvel, Boom, Tokyopop and NBC, including two of the Heroes comics. Christine won the TV drama spec award at the Austin Film Festival in 2004 with a Six Feet Under spec called “The Strike.” She lives in Los Angles with her husband. Twitter: @kitmoxie.

David Boxerbaum started his career at Jerry Bruckheimer Films as an Assistant/Intern for a 7-month span, moving from there to work for a producer Rob Fried. After a year, he went to William Morris Agency where he worked for SR.VP Lee Rosenberg for two years. His next step was at Endeavor for partners Ari Greenburg & Rick Rosen for about 2 years. He moved on to be a Creative Executive at RKO Pictures where he set up and produced the only movie they’ve had in the last 5 years Shade (he writer/director is now his client). Boxerbaum left there after 1 year for Metropolitan Talent Agency where for 4 years he ran the literary department. He was made head of the literary department which consist of 5 agents (both feature and TV). David was also named in 2003 as one of HOLLYWOOD REPORTER’S NEXT GENERATION TOP 35 under 35 people in the business. He recently made the move from Metropolitan to APA to be the only agent that represents showrunners down to staff writers in TV as well as numerous feature clients, all working around town writing and directing for all the studios. Last year.

Bio coming soon.

Bryan Brucks is the owner of BRUCKS ENTERTAINMENT a diversified management and production company that he founded in 2005. Mr. Brucks brings nine years of experience as a development executive at a variety of production companies before forming his latest venture. As a producer, Mr. Brucks produced the indie comedy DEEP IN THE VALLEY starring Scott Caan, Chris Pratt and Tracy Morgan. He has several films in development, including, HOMECOMING at Screen Gems with Charles Stone directing; BOY SCOUTS VS. ZOMBIES at Paramount; ENGAGEMENT GAMES at GK Films with Steve Carr directing; MAN AT ARMS at Echo Lake; and MISSING LINK at Walt Disney Pictures. As a manager, Mr. Brucks represents several sought after writers in both film and tv including: John Raffo (DRAGON: THE BRUCE LEE STORY), Carrie Evans & Emi Mochizuki (COLLEGE ROAD TRIP) and writers who’ve written on such shows as ONE TREE HILL, GLORY DAZE, and HEAD CASE. He has had several writers in the “Black List” a polling of Hollywood executives for the year’s best scripts. Before forming his own management-production company, Mr. Brucks was an executive at KUSTOM ENTERTAINMENT where he set up three motion pictures in six months including finding TOWN CREEK which Joel Schumacher directed. Before Kustom, Mr. Brucks was an executive at Universal Studios based production company, Larger Than Life Entertainment (Gary Ross and Jane Sindell) where he worked on various films including SEABISCUIT. Mr. Brucks is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame.

Scott Z. Burns is writer, director and producer. His writing credits include CONTAGION, THE INFORMANT and THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM. His original screenplay BITTER PILL will begin production this spring, directed Steven Soderbergh. Scott also produced the Academy Award winning documentary AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, which premiered at Sundance.

Kell Cahoon works in television as a writer/producer.  His credits include The Larry Sanders Show, Newsradio, Just Shoot Me, King Of The Hill, Method and Red, and Psych.  He lives with his wife and two sons in Austin and commutes to LA every week.

Raised in four countries and fluent in two languages, Nkechi spent her formative years living in the Cote D’Ivoire and England, where she was a member of the Oxford Youth Theatre. Her short films have been featured in film festivals on multiple continents, including North America, Africa and Europe. Her short, APARTMENT A, aired nationally on ABC, NBC, FOX and CBS affiliates as part of Badami TV’s African American Short Films Showcase. With a Masters degree in International Economics from New York University, Nkechi worked as a Senior Trader/Analyst at the prestigious Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Driven by her passion for writing, Nkechi embarked on bringing her experiences at the Federal Reserve to the small screen. Her original drama pilot, THE FED, follows five young Federal Reserve Fellows whose first day in the program coincides with the collapse of one of the U.S. largest banks. THE FED was a 2011 Austin Film Festival teleplay finalist. Currently, Nkechi is a staff writer on THE FINDER for Fox, starring Geoff Stults and Michael Clarke Duncan.

Etan Cohen is one of the most sought after comedic minds in the business. Named “Comedy Writer of the Year” at the 2009 Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, Cohen has proven himself one of the most prolific writers in recent years. In 2008, Cohen joined Ben Stiller and Justin Theroux to co-write the film Tropic Thunder. Ben Stiller starred in and directed the film, which also featured Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise. The film went on to gross $185 million at the worldwide box office. In the same year, Cohen also wrote the hit animated feature, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa which grossed $594 million worldwide and reunited him with Ben Stiller. Cohen began his career at 19 while studying in a Jewish seminary on the West Bank in Israel, when he wrote a spec episode of “Beavis and Butthead” and made a cold submission to the show’s staff. Mike Judge, who created and was running the show, read it and asked Cohen to start writing for “Beavis and Butthead” immediately. His sophomore year at Harvard coincided with the beginning of what became a three-year stint writing for the popular series. Among the episodes he wrote was one that featured “Beavis” and “Butthead” counterfeiting money by simply photocopying it and, shortly thereafter, a group of Columbia University students were found to have adopted the counterfeiting process they saw in the episode. Cohen graduated from Harvard with a degree in Yiddish and moved to Los Angeles. Once there, he entered into a deal with Disney Television Animation. After that, he went on to be a staff writer on ABC’s “It’s Like, You Know”. Cohen was then recruited by Judge to work on FOX’s “King of the Hill” as a story editor and ended his stint there as co-executive producer. During that time, Cohen signed an overall deal with FOX TV and won an Annie Award for outstanding writing in animation for the episode “Ceci N’est Pas Une King of the Hill” (2004). During that period, Cohen began writing feature scripts. The first was the Mike Judge directed comedy Idiocracy which starred Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph. Cohen has since transitioned into exclusively writing features. Upcoming projects for Cohen include writing a humorous take on Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, set to star Sacha Baron Cohen as “Sherlock Holmes” and Will Ferrell as his sidekick, “Doctor Watson”. In addition, Cohen penned the highly anticipated third installment of the Men in Black franchise, which will be released on May 25th through Columbia Pictures. Cohen will make his directorial debut when he helms the horror comedy, Boy Scouts vs. Zombies, which is currently in development at Paramount Pictures. Cohen currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife and three children.

With his work at the center of a number of highly-anticipated projects, Evan Daugherty is quickly establishing himself as a screenwriter to watch. Daugherty’s Snow White and the Huntsman has wrapped production for Universal Studios and is set for a summer 2012 release. Daugherty wrote the film as a college student at NYU almost eight years ago, and in 2010, his screenplay created a bidding war and became one of the biggest studio spec sales in years.  A twist on the classic tale, Daugherty’s adaptation brings to light the mysterious Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) who is called upon by the Queen (Charlize Theron) to kill Snow White (Kristen Stewart). In Daugherty’s tale, the Huntsman teaches Snow White to become a warrior, and together they set off on a quest to vanquish the Evil Queen. Currently in post-production is Daugherty’s independent action thriller Killing Season, formerly Shrapnel, with director Mark Steven Johnson, starring John Travolta and Robert De Niro. The gritty character-driven thriller tells the story of two veterans of the Bosnian War — one American, one Serbian — who clash in the remote wilderness where they fight to settle an old score in a cat-and-mouse game with battles both physical and psychological. The film is slated to begin shooting before the end of the year. He is presently penning the adaptation of Veronica Roth’s best-selling young adult book, Divergent. Produced by Summit Entertainment, Divergent is set in a dystopian future in which society is divided into five factions based on personality traits: honesty, bravery, intelligence, selflessness, and kindness. The story focuses on a 16-year-old girl who leaves her family to join a rival faction which changes her life forever. Born in New York, Daugherty grew up in Dallas, Texas in constant creative pursuit. He attended film school at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts where he studied filmmaking before settling on screenwriting. Daugherty won the 2008 Script Pipeline Screenwriting Competition with Shrapnel, which garnered him recognition in the industry.  Shrapnel and Snow White and the Huntsman, both made the “Black List” in 2008 and 2010, respectively.

Jay Wade Edwards is a Television Producer and Editor, most notably for the Adult Swim animated series “Aqua Teen Hunger Force”, which recently celebrated its 100th episode.  He served as Supervising Editor and Producer on Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, as well as produced extra content for all eight ATHF DVD releases, along with other Adult Swim DVDs, including Squidbillies. Jay is the writer, director and editor of Stomp! Shout! Scream!, a 35 mm, rock n roll/monster/beach party film.  It premiered at the 2006 Austin Film Festival and went on to screen at over thirty film festivals, winning Best-of Awards at The Toofy Film Festival (Colorado), The Magnolia Independent Film Festival (Mississippi) and The Sweet Onion Film Festival (Washington).  A theatrical run by Monogram Releasing followed in 2009.  In the same year, the film was re-packaged for release on DVD as “Monster Beach Party A Go Go” by Indican Pictures.

Chet Garner is the creator, writer, and host of The Daytripper on PBS.  After practicing law for 3 years, Chet decided to follow his passions and share his genuine love for all things Texas with viewers who don’t often realize the beauty in their own backyards.  So, with a video camera in one hand and a plate of BBQ in the other, Chet and a small crew set out to travel Texas.  What followed was a crash course on travel, filmmaking, marketing, and doing whatever it takes to create a TV show and get the word out all across Texas.  But the hard work has paid off as “The Daytripper” is now a statewide Emmy-Award winning travel show that Chet plans to make until he is forced to travel to places only reachable by motorized scooter.  When not traveling Texas Chet is at home with his wife and 2 children – although he’s usually got them on the road too.

Pamela Gray is the screenwriter of CONVICTION, which won Best Picture at the Boston Film Festival and had gala premieres at the 2010 Toronto and London Film Festivals. CONVICTION star Hilary Swank earned a SAG nomination for Best Actress, and co-star Sam Rockwell earned a Critics Choice nomination.  The film received a National Board of Review “Freedom of Expression Award” and a nomination for an NAACP Image Award. Pamela’s other credits include MUSIC OF THE HEART, which earned Meryl Streep an Oscar nomination, and A WALK ON THE MOON, produced by Dustin Hoffman, starring Diane Lane and Viggo Mortensen, and rated #9 on Entertainment Weekly’s list of the “50 Sexiest Movies of All Time.”  Pamela has written screenplays for Warner Bros., New Line, Miramax, Disney, Paramount and Universal, and pilot scripts for CBS and ABC. Meryl Streep is attached to star in Pamela’s adaptation of the bestseller Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World.  Variety named Pamela one of “Ten Screenwriters to Watch.”

MATTHEW GROSS (Producer, Writer and Director) is president of his film and television production company, Gross Entertainment which has an overall deal with ABC Studios through 2014. He is the Executive Producer of the current ABC series Body of Proof, starring Dana Delany. Prior to Body of Proof, Gross served as Executive Producer for two seasons of the television series Dirty Sexy Money starring Peter Krause, Donald Sutherland and Lucy Liu as well as the critically acclaimed and award-winning action series Day Break for ABC, starring Taye Diggs. While at ABC Studios, Gross Entertainment also developed and produced the television pilots Twenty Questions, Neighbors, and See Kate Run. On the feature side, Gross produced the motion pictures Fired Up!, Joe Somebody and the Golden Globe nominated Beatles musical Across the Universe. He also received an Oscar nomination for his live-action short film Bronx Cheers. Gross is currently developing the live stage musical of the Oscar wining film, The Sting. Gross is the former President of production for Kopelson Entertainment and Kopelson Telemedia. During his tenure, the company produced Devil’s Advocate, A Perfect Murder, U.S. Marshals, Mad City, Murder at 1600, Don’t Say a Word and Twisted. On the TV side, Gross developed and produced the series The Fugitive and Thieves. Prior to working with Kopelson, Gross was the Executive Vice-President of Wilshire Court Productions, a division of Paramount Television where he developed and produced more than 75 films for USA Network and various other networks. Gross received his M.F. A. from the American Film Institute and graduated from UCLA with a major in Economics. Matthew Gross resides in Los Angeles with his wife and three children.

DAVID GUGGENHEIM is a New York City-based screenwriter.  He was working as an Editor for the magazine US Weekly when a bidding war for his spec screenplay “SAFE HOUSE” was won by Universal Pictures.  The film was fast tracked into production and to release in February 2012.  Needless to say, he was able to quit his job at US Weekly as he has become one of the most in demand screenwriters working in Hollywood. GUGGENHEIM next sold his pitch “PUZZLE PALACE” to Summit Entertainment with Temple Hill (‘Twilight’ series) producing and McG just signed on to direct.  He also just wrote “SANTIAGO” for Twentieth Century Fox based on his pitch that they bought last year with Simon Kinberg producing.   GUGGENHEIM currently has “MEDALLION” in post-production with Nicolas Cage starring and directed by Simon West due out next year from Millenuium Films.  Additionally, GUGGENHEIM just sold his action pitch “364” with Ron Howard to direct to Universal Pictures.  Most recently, GUGGENHEIM has just sold his spec screenplay “NARCO SUB” to Fox with Tony Scott directing and Simon Kinberg’s Genre Films producing along with Scott Free.

Eric Heisserer broke into the business in 2005 with a spec script based on his online epistolary story, “The Dionaea House.” Since then he’s written for three produced films and numerous others languishing in development. This year he took the leap as a first-time director for a script he wrote, based on the short story “Hours” (at popcornfiction.com). The movie is a marked departure from the horror fare of his recent credits, funded outside the studio system. By the time the Austin Film Festival begins, Eric will either be the proud father of a new movie, or a broken man.

BRIAN HELGELAND has written and adapted many features during his career as a screenwriter, including the Academy Award winning film L.A. CONFIDENTIAL for which he received the Oscar for his work.  Among his credits are his original screenplays for CONSPIRACY THEORY, GREEN ZONE and A KNIGHT’S TALE,  along with his adaptations of PAYBACK, MAN ON FIRE, and MYSTIC RIVER.  Helgeland also wrote the upcoming 42.

Up and coming screenwriter Jason Keller’s feature work has attracted Hollywood’s most desired talent and has established him as a go-to screenwriter of muscular, big-screen character-driven projects. Keller’s first produced feature original screenplay, the result of extensive research and development, was the emotional action-thriller Machine Gun Preacher, starring Gerard Butler (300, Law Abiding Citizen) and directed by Marc Forster (Finding Neverland) and released in September 2011. The film is the uncompromising, true story of a former drug-dealing gang member who single-handedly rescued hundreds of destitute Sudanese children conscripted by warlords in that country’s vicious civil war. His upcoming second feature is Mirror Mirror, for Relativity and stars Julia Roberts and Lily Collins, and is directed by Tarsem Singh. The project is a wildly original re-imagining of the Grimms’ Snow White tale. (Marc Klein is also a screenwriter on the project.) Keller’s next is a page one rewrite for Summit Entertainment, the action-filled The Tomb, in which Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone will star for Danish director Mikael Hafstrom (1408), with Mark Canton and Robbie Brenner producing. Keller’s adaptation of the A.J. Baime book “Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and their Battle For Speed and Glory at Le Man” tentatively titled Go Like Hell, is in development at Fox for director Michael Mann. The story is about the exciting rivalry Ford instigated against Ferrari in 1966 to establish itself as the dominant player on the international race circuit, but with the goal to reinvigorate Ford’s failing reputation in the U.S. Keller recently also completed the adaptation of Justin Cronin’s epic 2009 novel “The Passage” for Fox. Matt Reeves (Let Me In) has been developing the project and chose Keller as his collaborator. “The Passage” is the first of Cronin’s planned trilogy that is set in the future after a government experiment to lengthen the human life span ends up turning people into vampires. Fox 2000 acquired the rights to the planned trilogy in 2007. All these projects have in common suspense, action and an intelligent perspective that drew in ideal talent and studio support. It was, in fact, Keller’s original screenplay of Preacher that enticed Butler to the project, and his re-imagining of an early Snow White draft that brought in Julia Roberts that resulted in the project getting the greenlight. His screenplay for Hell likewise attracted Mann and pushed the film into active development. Keller says he ‘begged’ to write the screenplay for Go Like Hell because as a boy growing up in Indianapolis he was transfixed with auto racing, and had attended more than a dozen Indy 500 races by the time he was 18. “You can’t really get car racing until you’ve felt that thump in your chest as man and machine battle it out on the raceway.”Prior to his current success, Keller had worked in almost every capacity of film production for many years, including as a grip, a gaffer, an assistant, and countless other jobs an aspiring writer was happy to take in order to soak in the filmmaking experience. Born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, Keller was attending Ball University when a professor recommended him for a yearlong theater and film studies program at Regents College in London. There he wrote plays he also directed, and also found himself studying old Western films, a genre with which he was unfamiliar. He instantly admired their forceful characters, and often deceptively complex narratives. After the program, he dropped out of college and moved to LA to pursue a writing career. To pay rent for his austere, Korea Town apartment and gas for his 12-year old beater car, he signed on for any production job he could find. Keller continued to teach himself the craft of screenwriting, and partnered with a friend and co-wrote a spec script that unaccountably found its way to Mel Gibson (“We had no idea how that happened, we didn’t have an agent”). Gibson gave them notes, told them to make the changes then possibly he’d buy the script. They did, and he did, enabling Keller to quit his production job, get an agent, and eat at a restaurant. Keller, for the first time, next wrote a spec script solo. His newfound agent sent it to potential buyers, and ultimately a bidding war developed between some of Hollywood’s top talent. In the end it amazingly sold for $1.4 million. (The project was, however, never made.) Thus ended his hand-to mouth existence. However, Keller achieved status as a produced screenwriter only last year. For Machine Gun Preacher he teamed with producers Robbie Brenner and Deborah Giarratana, and subsequently director Marc Forster, to develop a script about a real-life, hardened criminal turned avenger of conscripted Sudanese children. First, however, Keller had to convince the man, Sam Childers, to sell him his life rights and invite him into his atypical world for research. Not an easy task (“He was more intimidating, and tougher than anyone I’d ever met”), but Keller did so and moved in with Childers at his rural Pennsylvania home; and for eight months studied and interviewed him, and over the next three months wrote the original screenplay, which quickly found financing, and leading man Gerard Butler. Keller lives with his wife and two children in Los Angeles.

Simon Kinberg graduated from Brown University, Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude. He received an MFA from Columbia University Film School, where he won the school’s highest screenwriting award, the Zaki Gordon Fellowship. His final thesis project for film school was the original script “Mr and Mrs Smith.” The film was released in 2005, starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, directed by Doug Liman. The film went on to become one of the hundred most successful films of all-time. In 2006, he co-wrote “X-Men: The Last Stand,” which opened on Memorial Day to box office records, and became the most successful film in the franchise. In 2008, Simon wrote and produced Doug Liman’s film “Jumper” for Regency and 20^th Century Fox. In 2009, Simon wrote the film “Sherlock Holmes” starring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law, directed by Guy Ritchie. The film set the box office record for the biggest Christmas opening in history. It received a Golden Globe for Best Actor, and was nominated for two Academy Awards. In 2010, Simon established his production company Genre Films, with a first look deal at 20^th Century Fox. In a short amount of time, Simon has become one of the most prolific producers in Hollywood. He produced “X-Men: First Class” starring Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy; he co-wrote and produced “This Means War” starring Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine and Tom Hardy; he co-wrote and produced the upcoming “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” with Tim Burton, and Timur Bekmambetov directing. In addition, he is the producer of “Elysium,” directed by Neill Blomkamp, starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, slated for release in 2013. Simon will be producing Blomkamp’s next film “Chappie” as well. He is also the producer of the new live-action “Cinderella” at Disney to be directed by Mark Romanek, and “Narco Sub” to be directed by Tony Scott at Fox. He is currently writing the sequel to “X-Men: First Class.”

In 2005, Rebecca Kirsch won the Austin Film Festival Drama Teleplay competition for her spec episode of “Lost”.  That script and a “Deadwood” spec also placed in the Scriptapalooza, Creative Screenwriting Magazine, Fade In Magazine, American Accolades, Write Network, Talent Scout and American Gem writing competitions.  Rebecca worked as Writers’ Assistant for “Leverage” series Creators and Executive Producers John Rogers and Chris Downey from Seasons 1-3, writing two freelance episodes during that time, and was promoted to Staff Writer in Season 4.  She is represented by ICM.

ABBY KOHN & MARC SILVERSTEIN got their start at USC, where they both received MFAs in Film Production. Their thesis short entitled Fairfax Fandango won the Best Short Film Award at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Soon after their student film screened, they sold a romantic comedy pitch entitled Never Been Kissed. A few months later, their script was being produced for FOX 2000, starring Drew Barrymore.
The next few years saw them venture into television, where they created, wrote and produced several television projects, including the Fox series “Opposite Sex,” and the pilots “Close to Home” and “Splitsville, ” also for Fox.
Returning to film they wrote the hit He’s Just Not That Into You, which starred Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, Scarlett Johansson and Ben Affleck. They also c0-wrote the Warner Brother’s release Valentine’s Day which starred Julia Roberts, Bradley Cooper, Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba, and Shirley Maclaine, just to name a few. And their latest film, The Vow, starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum, was released by Sony/Screen Gems earlier this year and has earned over $120 million in domestic box office thus far.
They are currently working on a re-imagining of the Steve Martin film All of Me for Dreamworks, and are writing How to Be Single, inspired by a book by Liz Tuccillo, which re-teams them with Flower Films and New Line Cinema.

This year, Max Landis has sold numerous high-profile projects, including “Frankenstein,” which sold to Fox with John Davis producing and Shawn Levy attached to direct. Landis also sold his script “Amnesty” to Universal, with Ron Howard attached to direct and Imagine attached to produce.  Landis’ “Pied Piper,” a fantasy thriller, sold to Fox with John Davis producing. In addition, Universal hired Landis this year to re-invent their project “Villains” with Platinum Dunes producing, and Fox made Landis’ script “Chronicle,” which they received only last August. The film is a revisionist take on a youth-oriented superhero thriller that will be directed by Josh Trank.

Geoff LaTulippe is a writer/director who wrote the original screenplay GOING THE DISTANCE. The feature was released by New Line on August 27 2010, and starred Drew Barrymore and Justin Long. He has also written an adaptation of the novel BREATHERS for Fox Searchlight studios, a terrific dark comedy in the spirit of EDWARD SCISSORHANDS about a recently deceased Everyman and newly minted zombie who is having trouble adjusting to his new existence. Geoff is set to make his directorial debut for Paramount based off of an original pitch he is writing for the studio.

Alex is a former feature executive turned screenwriter. Upon graduating from the prestigious USC Film School, he worked at 20^th Century Fox, Outlaw and Intermedia, where he was involved with over two dozen movies, including “X Men”, “X Files”, “Fantastic Four”, “Daredevil”, “Behind Enemy Lines”, “Training Day”, “Alexander”, “K-19”, “Quiet American”, “Mindhunters”, “Basic”, “Dark Blue” and “The Hunting Party”. Since making the switch to screenwriting, he’s penned a number of projects in features and TV. His produced credits are “Predators” (2010) and “Three Musketeers” (2011). He’s currently writing “Masters Of The Universe” for Sony.

Writer and producer Craig Mazin has made a name for himself as a comedy writer with a knack for appealing to broad audiences. His most recent film, The Hangover Part II, co-written with Todd Phillips and Scot Armstrong, shattered numerous box office records and is the biggest-grossing live action comedy in motion picture history. Currently, Mazin is writing the upcoming Universal comedy Identity Theft, starring Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman. He’s also writing and producing the animated comedy Turkeys for ReelFX, featuring the voices of Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson and Steve Martin. Mazin co-wrote the hit comedies Scary Movie 3 and 4 and co-wrote the live action Disney film Rocketman. Together, his films have grossed over one billion dollars worldwide. Craig served on the Board of Directors of the Writers Guild of America West from 2004 to 2006. He lives with his wife and two children in a small town north of Los Angeles.

Emmy nominated producer Kris Meyer has worked for 15 years with the award- winning Farrelly Bros. under their production banner, Conundrum Entertainment, as an creative executive, production consultant and producer on such blockbuster hits as “There’s Something About Mary,” “Me, Myself & Irene,” “Shallow Hal,” “Stuck On You,” “Fever Pitch”,“The Heartbreak Kid” & “Hall Pass”. He recently finished shooting, THE THREE STOOGES, starring Will Sasso, Sean Hayes, Chris Diamtopolous, Larry David, Jane Lynch, Sophia Vergara, & others. April 2012 release. Kris produced the award winning & Emmy nominated documentary, THE LOST SON OF HAVANA, which premiered at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival & hit the film festival circuit. It chronicles the life of former Cuban baseball legend Luis Tiant and his journey back to his native Cuba after forty six years. It was purchased and is airing on ESPN & ESPN Los Deportes. Kris is currently producing a feature, PROM KING, adapted from Michael Bamberger’s 2002 critically acclaimed novel, WONDERLAND, & two documentary films, THE LAST GENTLEMAN, profiling the life of writer George Plimpton & GOING HOME chronicling a fallen soldiers final journey home.

A native of the Northern Virginia/DC metro area, Ashley Edward Miller was a graduate of the prestigious Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. He went on to study English and Government at the College of William & Mary, becoming first a middle school English and Creative Writing teacher in Fairfax County, VA and then an analyst working for the Chief of Naval Operations through Science Applications International Corporation. He met his writing partner Zack Stentz over the Internet, a consequence of their mutual love of all things Star Trek. Since then, Ashley and Zack have written and/or produced well over a hundred hours of television, from their start on GENE RODDENBERRY’S ANDROMEDA, THE TWILIGHT ZONE revival on UPN and most recently TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES and FRINGE. Their first feature credit was 2003′s “Agent Cody Banks,” and most recently “Thor” and “X-Men: First Class.” Ashley and Zack are currently working on several projects in active development, including feature adaptations of the novel “Starship Troopers” and the 80’s TV series “The Fall Guy”.  They have also written a Young Adult novel, “Colin Fischer” which will be published by Penguin Books in Fall 2012.  Ashley is currently a resident of Los Angeles, CA where he lives with his comic books and action figures, at the mercy of his wife and young son. He does not know Kung Fu.

A versatile writer/producer who works fluidly through genres and mediums, Marti Noxon has recently launched into the film arena with the upcoming of Dreamworks/Disney’s Fright Night. Noxon has established herself as an in-demand creative voice, excelling with character-driven genre films that appeal to a broad audience. Noxon is currently developing The Defenders with filmmaker Jon Hamburg for Kurtzman Orci Paper Products and Masi Oka, and is a consulting writer/producer on the third season of the hit Fox series Glee. She is also adapting Pride and Prejudice and Zombies for Lionsgate, Ouija for Platinum Dunes and Hasbro, and writing Tink for Disney and Elizabeth Banks. She most recently released her reimagining of the classic cult horror film Fright Night.  The Dreamworks film opened in August 2011, and starred Anton Yelchin and Colin Farrell.  Her feature debut, I Am Number Four, was released in February 2011.  The Dreamworks film, which she adapted from the popular novel, starred Alex Pettyfer, Dianna Agron, and Timothy Olyphant. Noxon has written and executive produced for many critically acclaimed shows including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Brothers & Sisters, Point Pleasant, and Still Life.  She has also acted as consulting producer for Mad Men, Prison Break, and Angel. Under her Grady Twins Productions banner that she co-runs with longtime collaborator and friend Dawn Olmstead, Noxon proves to be an all-around talent building a thriving production company.  She is currently producing projects for Lifetime, FX, the CW, and NBC.  A graduate of UC Santa Cruz, Noxon currently lives in Hollywood with her two children.

Richard Pearsey has been writing and working in narrative design for games since 2005.  His most recent AAA game is Spec Ops: The Line for 2k Games and Yager Development in Berlin, Germany for which he was the writer and narrative designer. On The Line, he created the game back story and characters, wrote the campaign story as well as the campaign script, collaborated on cut scene production and content, over saw music composition and implementation, developed and implemented the game narrative structure and content,as well as directing mocap sessions and voice recording sessions. Spec Ops will be his sixth shipped title and the fourth on which he served as the writer/narrative designer, having worked on FEAR: Extraction Point (Expansion Pack of the Year 2006 – PC GAMER) and FEAR: Perseus Mandate developed by TimeGate Studios. Past clients include Ubisoft, 2k Games, Yager Development, Strange Games, TimeGate Studios, Vivendi Games, Sierra Games, Warner Games, and Konami. Richard is a member of the WGA Video Game Writers’ Caucus and the Horror Writers’ Association.

Zak Penn’s career began as a screenwriter when he sold his first script, LAST ACTION HERO, at the age of twenty-three. Since then, Penn has become known for his work on numerous films based on Marvel comics, including X-MEN 2 and X-MEN: THE LAST STAND, ELEKTRA, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, and most recently, THE AVENGERS.  He has also dabbled in other genres, writing scripts for disparate films such as P.C.U., BEHIND ENEMY LINES and SUSPECT ZERO. Penn’s shift into independent cinema began when he collaborated with his idol, Werner Herzog, on the script for RESCUE DAWN.  Penn directed and co-starred with Herzog in INCIDENT AT LOCH NESS, his award-winning “hoax” documentary about the legendary director’s attempts to make a film about the equally legendary monster.  THE GRAND, Penn’s second completely improvised film, was his third film with Herzog, and featured an eclectic cast including Woody Harrelson, David Cross, Ray Romano, Cheryl Hines, Dennis Farina and Gabe Kaplan. In addition, Penn co-wrote the original story for ANTZ and produced the animated film OSMOSIS JONES.  He has also acted in a number of independent films, including STAR MAPS and CHUCK & BUCK.  His first foray into television, the critically acclaimed original series ALPHAS starring David Strathairn, is entering its second season on the SyFy Channel. Penn, now entering his third decade in the film industry, attributes the longevity of his career to off-season conditioning, lots of Halo, and a diet of pure corn starch.

Sean Robins has been a partner at Broken Road Productions for the past four years and its senior executive before that beginning with the company’s inception seven years ago.   Robins is responsible for Broken Road’s slate of over one hundred active television and film projects. Broken Road has seen the release of PAUL BLART: MALL COP, KNIGHT AND DAY, SORCERER’S APPRENTICE, ZOOKEEPER and JACK & JILL amongst others during Robins’ tenure and has HERE COMES THE BOOM coming out in October starring Kevin James, Salma Hayek and Henry Winkler.  Additionally, three more movies will go into production during the 2012 calendar year. Robins was formerly Vice President of Production at Robert Lawrence Productions, a position he held for five years.   Robins started in the film industry as a script reader and later segued into television working at the Kaplan, Stahler, Gumer Agency. Robins graduated with honors from Northwestern University where he received degrees in English and Arts Criticism.  Additionally, he worked for the Jamaican Human Rights Council and Amnesty International while studying in Kingston, Jamaica.

ALVARO RODRIGUEZ began his writing career in the sixth grade with a short story that likely would have gotten him referred for counseling and intervention in a post-Columbine America. Luckily, it was written in 1982. He is the co-writer of Robert Rodriguez’s SHORTS (Warner Brothers, 2009) and MACHETE (Fox, 2010), and the writer of the vampire western FROM DUSK TILL DAWN: THE HANGMAN’S DAUGHTER (Dimension, 2000) for executive producer Quentin Tarantino. He is a University of Texas graduate, a past contributor to The Austin Chronicle, and a featured author in an upcoming anthology of Austin writers. He is repped by Mark Holder of Zero Gravity Management.

Born in Whittier, California, Dana grew up mostly in Arizona. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from UCLA.  After toiling some years as an actress in theatre and television, she became a screenwriter, penning “Blink” directed by Michael Apted, “City of Angels” starring Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan, “For Love of the Game,” directed by Sam Raimi,  and “Life or Something Like It” starring Angelina Jolie.  She was the creator and executive producer of “What About Brian,” an ABC television series that aired for two seasons.  Dana is currently adapting the latest Nicholas Sparks novel,  “Safe Haven,” as well as “The Au Pair,”  a horror thriller based on a novel by R.L. Stine.

Amy is a writer and director living in Los Angeles. Most recently, she wrote the remake of “VALLEY GIRL” for MGM, “KICKED, BITTEN AND SCRATCHED” for Summit Entertainment and the remake of “PRIVATE BENJAMIN” for New Line Cinema with Anna Faris set to star.  She is currently writing “HOT FUSS” based on a pitch she sold to Disney. Amy wrote and directed “THE NIGHT OF THE WHITE PANTS” which stars Oscar-nominee Tom Wilkinson, Nick Stahl and Selma Blair and was released by Image Entertainment in 2008. Previously, Amy wrote and directed five short films which were selected for numerous festivals including The Sundance Film Festival and received a number of accolades including AFF’s Best Student Short. In the television arena, Amy wrote the ABC Family movie “Brave New Girl” and co-wrote “Avalon High,” a children’s movie for which she won a 2011 WGA Award. Originally from Texas, Amy graduated magna cum laude from Barnard College with a degree in Art History and earned an MFA in Film from Columbia University’s Film Division.

Liz Tigelaar, who grew up in Dallas, Texas and Guilford, Connecticut, graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Scriptwriting and Politics.  She got her start as an assistant on Dawson’s Creek and Once & Again, where she worked under mentors like Greg Berlanti and Winnie Holzman.  Her first staff writing job came on the NBC series, American Dreams, and went on to write for such shows as What About Brian, Dirty Sexy Money, Brothers & Sisters, Once Upon A Time, and Revenge. Tigelaar created the critically acclaimed series Life Unexpected which aired on the CW for two seasons. She currently resides in Santa Monica, California but likes to tell people she lives in Venice.

Meta Valentic began her career in as the youngest member of the DGA Assistant Director’s Training Program. As a Trainee, Meta worked on the television series Diagnosis Murder, Lois & Clark, ER, Melrose Place, and Mad About You and the feature films Father of the Bride II, Nixon, Steal Big, Steal Little, and Kazaam. As a DGA assistant director, Meta has worked on films such as One Night Stand, Bride and Prejudice, Miss Congeniality II, and Avatar and television shows such as Sliders, Felicity, ER, Bones, and Dark Blue. Meta traveled to Hawaii and was the Key 2nd AD on Lost during Season 3. She received 2 Directors Guild Award Nominations for her work on the show. Meta currently works every other episode of ABC’s Castle. In addition to AD work, Meta has produced 4 independent feature films, including the critically acclaimed Urbania, which played the Sundance and Toronto film festivals and was released by Lionsgate in the fall of 2000. Meta was the UPM/Co-Producer of Lionsgate’s Ladron Que Roba a Ladron (To Rob a Thief), a Spanish-language feature film starring Mexico and Latin America’s top telenovela stars. Ladron made over $2 million on opening weekend, which was the biggest opening weekend for a Spanish language film in US history. Meta is active in the Producers Guild of America, specifically the Mentorship Committee and the Green Committee.

Ric Roman Waugh, a writer/director/producer, continues to generate his own unique style of filmmaking. He ban his career as a stuntman and became one of the youngest stunt coordinators in the world at the age of eighteen. He has over 100 film and TV credits to his name as a stuntman, stunt coordinator and 2nd Unit Director combined, working closely with many stars such as Mel Gibson, Patrick Swayze, Willem Dafoe, Christian Slater and also choreographing action sequences for pop star Michael Jackson. Rick, along with his father and brother, has also developed “action-oriented-” camera for motion picture including the PogoCam and FeatherCam; the lightest 35mm hand-held camera in the world, currently being used by NASA. After his earlier career in stunts, Ric went onto direct numerous TV Spots. Clients include: Nike Hockey, No Fear, Dow Chemical, GM, Ford, Cadillac, and Pontiac. As a writer, Ric has developed, written and rewritten over 20 studio-based feature film and screenplays for producers such as: Jerry Bruckheimer, Mark Gordon, Neil Moritz, Barry Josephson, Todd Garner, Mark Canton, Jim Sheridan and Nick Wechsler. This includes his latest original screenplay, THE BRAND; a dramatic thrilled about the rise of the Aryan Brotherhood with Leonardo DiCaprio attached to star and Marc Forster to direct. As a director, Ric recently directed the critically acclaimed film, FELON, form his own original screenplay for Sony. The prison-based drama starred Val Kilmer, Stephen Dorff, Sam Shepard, Harold Perrineau, Nate Parker and Anne Archer. He is in production on the documentary, RETURN OF THE SHADOW WARRIORS; following the first ever Delta Force operator post 911 to openly discuss issues of PTSD and what Special Operations soldiers are going through in the longest war in U.S. history. Ric is also currently attached to direct and actively developing several film projects around town, including SNITCH, set up at Exclusive Media and scheduled to go into pre-production this Spring.

Hilary Winston is currently working as a writer and producer on the hit television series Happy Endings as well as shooting a pilot for her own series Happy Valley for NBC with acclaimed feature director, Adam Shankman.  Hilary also wrote and produced for the critically acclaimed comedy Community and the Emmy®-award-winning show My Name Is Earl.  Her first book was published in 2011, My Boyfriend Wrote a Book About Me:  And Other Stories I Shouldn’t Share with Acquaintances, Coworkers, Taxi drivers, Assistants, Job Interviewers, Bikini Waxers, and Ex/Current/Future Boyfriends but Have by Sterling, which she also adapted into a feature for Paramount Studios with John Goldwyn and Lorne Michaels producing.  Hilary’s writing on topics such as first kisses and freezing her eggs has appeared in Glamour, Elle, The Irish Independent and The Times Magazine.  Winston lives in Los Angeles with her cats Lolly and Gordon and her new boyfriend, who has not written a book about her… yet.

ZZ Packer’s stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Story, Ploughshares, Zoetrope and The Best American Short Stories