Production Starts on 109 Billion Followers

Read about this spectacular little film here.

Helmed by writer/director/producer Ela Thier and producer Nicholas Tabarrok, I am honored to be supervising physical production on this unique and special indie and serving as its co-producer.

Our incredible cast includes J.K. Simmons, Olivia Simmons, Nina Arianda, and Jake Ryan.

I guarantee you you won’t want to miss this one and I have loved helping bring it to life. Excited for it to find audiences next year.

Directing a New Feature

It’s been a dream to direct the inimitable Reed Birney and Elizabeth Masucci in a wrought and relevant little thriller CONTEMPT.

This film unites so many cast, crew, and creatives that I love dearly. One of the special aspects of being a freelance film worker is that we seem to “collect” incredible people over the years, from various projects and media, and getting to put them all together in a room to see what magic they create is one of the most rewarding parts of my job as a director and producer.

When I looked around the room on day one, I saw ten years of memories in this business in all the people that had come together to make this film. Producer Katie Maguire and I had worked together across at least five companies as freelancers and we were now friends. Co-producer Stavroula Toska and I had been on set during the height of COVID keeping people safe when the pandemic threatened livelihoods. Actor John Kroft and I had made a lovely short film together, directed by my dear friend Jack Marchetti. He had since generously volunteered on another film I directed and went on to act in wonderful projects like Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, and now here he was back on set with me, bringing his talents to this film. I had produced some commercial work that AD Rachel Wolak directed and now here she was supporting me as a director (she is fantastic at both these jobs). AC Steven Franchek and I had met in DC on a project with Morgan Freeman (though we are both from NYC). Magdalena Buczkowska and I have worked on SO many projects together— she glamped with me on Mohonk Mountain for a short I directed, was my choice for my own hair and makeup for the promos for the first TV series I created, and has done commercials, music, videos, and will join a J.K. Simmons feature with me. Reed was at once my acting teacher some ten years ago, and I have not missed anything he’s been in since— from his TONY-winning Broadways performances to his small indies. The list goes on but the point is—

Community is what makes New York filmmaking so special and I am grateful for everyone who worked on this film. And for the folks who are newer to me, I can’t wait to look back from three films from now and remember that we met on Contempt (Vee Pinot, Ryan Jackson-Healy, Lauren Helms, Weixin Zhuang… to name a few).

I am also thrilled to have welcomed Adam Kersh to our team as an EP. Adam has helped shaped some incredible films and careers and I can’t wait to bring this film into the world with his guidance.

Excited to head into post and find our audience in 2025!

Campbell's Spoonful of Joy awarded WARC Gold

Proud to have produced this very special six minute commercial for Campbell’s holiday.

The piece is based on a real experience of a mother with an autistic child and highlights a mother/son journey over the years through the bond of cooking. I was thrilled that The Light invited me to produce.

Starring Tatyana Ali, Aidan Cazzeau, Buddy Valastro, and some incredible child actors. Director: Kim Ferraro. EPs: Becky Morrison and Katie Maguire. Producer: me. DP: Fletcher Wolfe. PD: Wayne Neho. Gaffer: Alexa Hiramitsu. KG: Matt Tomko. Wardrobe: Bree Perry. Sound: Donny Tam. Hair: Brian Badie. MUA: Latisha Rankin. Casting: Rachel Reiss. PM: Merrily Holmes. AD: Chris Bicknell. Consulting Director: Siraj Jhaveri. Writer: Diana Davis. And an incredible crew that makes me wish commercials had credits because this set was a joy from start to finish and they were all phenomenal. Huge thanks to A+E and Spark Foundry for entrusting us to bring this vision to life.

Leylines Scripted Audio Drama

I’ve loved being a part of the writer’s room for a new scripted audio series Leylines.

Leylines is a sci-fi adventure series in the vein of Indiana Jones meets Stargate. It follows the Harbor brothers and their two friends as they investigate the mystery of their late father’s sudden demise.

Good Story Guild is an exciting new writer-run studio founded by Connor Pritchard (creator/showrunner of Workaholics) that I’m so stoked to be working with. They are producing a really cool slate of projects over the next two years, and I’m honored to be on the ground level of a new way of doing business in our industry.

Leylines is run by our fearless writer/creator Kerrod Williams and fellow writers Nick McMurdy and Christopher J.P. Smith complete the room. The show will start production in November under director, Rachel Music.

Can’t wait to hear it all come to life!

Cow Heavy and Floral - New Short Film in Production

What a joy it has been spending my late summer/early fall collaborating with writer/director (and friend!) Richa Rudola and my producing partner, Lela Meadow-Conner of mamafilm.

Poster design by Tavet Gillson

We have been overjoyed by the support the film has received from Panavision (New Filmmakers Grant), Jacki Zehner (Seed and Spark Patron’s Circle Grant), Elia Petridis of Filmatics, and the incredible cast and crew we assembled, who have poured their hearts into this film.

I have long been a fan of Richa’s and been looking for a project to share with her, so when she and Lela brought this short my way, I knew I wanted to join the fierce team of moms at the helm. Cow Heavy and Floral is a split-screen film about a postpartum writer struggling to make a deadline as she experiences an identity crisis between her various personas.

Starring Jessica Mendez Siqueiros, filmed by Kalilah Robinson, with the wonderful Simon TaufiQue attached to compose the score. We are excited to begin moving into post-production this winter.

Mina Finds Her Edge! Wins Runner-Up

Mina Finds Her Edge! took the runner-up spot in the Short Script Competition at Film Pipeline, behind Wendi Tang’s script Fishtank (which was also the winner of Tribeca/Chanel’s Through Her Lens this year!) The four finalists, chosen out of about 1700 scripts, can be found here. It was especially cool to see Stephen Nolly on the list—more and more lately, I’ve had the good fortune to share some of these shortlists with folks I know or recognize, and that always makes for good vibes of writer camaraderie. Looking forward to continuing to develop this short for production in London in 2023 with the wonderful team at Hawk Films!

Mina Finds Her Edge! Wins Hawk Films Screenplay Award

“Mina Finds Her Edge!” won the Hawk Films Screenplay award at HollyShorts.

Unfortunately, the production grant piece of this award did not materialize, so I’m returning to the drawing board to get the film made, but I am nevertheless honored that the script was chosen out of thousands of submissions.

Massive congrats to all the filmmakers at this wonderful festival (double congrats to those who became Oscar qualifiers). And triple congrats to Hallelujah for casting Bruce A. Lemon Jr. because I’m a little biased and I worked him back in our NY indie theater days :) - he’s a brilliant actor in a truly powerful film. Rooting for you guys all the way!!

Full list via Deadline here.

Thank you Peter Lee for accepting on my behalf and for capturing the moment :)

Haider, TX to screen at PGA Produced By Conference

After a very special experience filming in Houston, where “Haider, TX” is set, I am proud to screen the film as part of the PGA Produced By conference for a talented crowd of producers and creators.

Thank you to the PGA, Google, Powderkeg, and Panavision for supporting the film, and of course, huge thanks to Rabia Sultana, and our whole cast and crew for making the film possible.

Producer's Guild, Google, and Powderkeg to EP New Film HAIDER, TX

Rabia Sultana and I co-directed a short I wrote called “Haider, TX” for Google and Powderkeg (Paul Feig and Laura Fischer’s production company) as part of the Short Film Project presented by the Producer’s Guild and Google. The film is additionally supported by a generous grant from Panavision, which allowed us to shoot on film.

We traveled to Houston, Texas to make the film, which is a fun, cross-cultural comedy based in the Urdu-speaking Pakistani community there, and found absolutely wonderful people who were so kind and helpful— both the local film workers and the Pakistani community, who were so supportive.

Very excited to move the film into post and share it with an audience.

https://deadline.com/2022/02/producers-guild-google-the-short-film-project-paul-feig-laura-fischer-1234924904/

The Monster That Stayed at EFM

The Monster That Stayed team is pleased to have been invited to share our first ever public pitch for the film as part of the European Film Market at Berlinale. Anne Leigh Cooper, our director and my co-writer on the film, will pitch the project to an audience of financiers, distributors, and other industry colleagues as one of 30 projects in the cohort, presented by Largo AI.

Ward 6 - Chekhov Adaptation

Thrilled to be collaborating with producers Daniel Scot Kadin and Emik Davidov on a truly Russian feature adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s wild story, Ward 6. We have been cooking up an exciting take on this deeply existential and psychological story set in a 1895 mental ward, and I am so stoked to adapt this film for a modern audience (and a female lead!)

Thank you to my students and alma mater!

It was a special fall creating and teaching a new course for NYU SPS’s new Film Producing certificate program. Budgeting, Casting, and Financing for Film and TV was a brand new offering this year and I was thrilled to join my longtime colleague Simon TaufiQue (who is the keystone of the program) as an Adjunct.

I love working with emerging and developing producers, and it was a special treat to get a glimpse into some bright futures!

Mala Sangre at the Producer's Guild PGA Create Lab

Congratulations (and huge thanks!) to my longtime friend and often-producing partner, Rabia Sultana, for becoming one of the ten producers selected for a year-long development lab at the Producer’s Guild!

Rabia is one of the most talented producers I know and I have loved working with her over the years on several films and commercials. I am honored that she chose my multilingual feature thriller — Mala Sangre (Bad Blood) — as her submission for the lab.

The Monster That Stayed

I am humbled and honored to serve as a writer on Anne Leigh Cooper’s film, The Monster That Stayed. Produced by Rabia Sultana and Santosh Govindaraju, the film is a dramatic thriller based on a true story of sexual assault from a survivor’s point of view. I am proud to have collaborated on a piece that marries art and advocacy, and I am eternally gratefully for the trust that was bestowed upon me.

New Directing Work for Pringles

Had a blast collaborating with the creative team at Townhouse and production team at Hogarth/Gramercy Park Studios. Shot by DP Shannon Madden, styled by Joseph Shrope, produced by Katie Maguire, we took on the age old question— “If you love it so much, why don’t you marry it?” The original livestream version on Twitter netted over 1 million views.

Inaugural Cannes Screenplay List of Women Writers: Official Selection

It is such an honor to be listed alongside these 24 women screenwriters (including writer/director Tricia Lee, who’s also an NBC/Universal Film Fest alum and Beth Curry, who shared my 2020 Nicholl nerves virtually).

I LOVE discovering talented women and want to send a major note of gratitude to Wscripted and its founder Ellie Jamen for creating this initiative to amplify women in our industry at Cannes.

The full list is here.

Quarterfinalist - Script Pipeline TV Writing

My latest pilot, 100% Natural, was named a 2021 Quarterfinalist for the Script Pipeline TV Writing competition, placing in the top 1% of all submissions. The program announced a change in its approach this year, opting to make a hard first cut and selecting only the top 55 out of 5500+ pilot scripts for its quarterfinals.

Proud to be on a list with a lot of fantastic writers, especially with such a wild, genre-bending politically-charged satire. And double especially since it came out of 2020.

2020 Academy Nicholl Finalist

On Monday, September 14th, I received the unbelievable news that The Lions of Mesopotamia is one of ten scripts to advance to the Academy Nicholl final round.

Coincidentally, I got the news while I was in the lobby of one of my first jobs as a 16 year-old breakfast waitress. It was one of those major moments that makes you smile at life’s sense of humor. It’s been a hell of a journey since those 5:30AM shifts!

I am incredibly humbled to be in such talented company and so grateful for the readers, Academy members, and staff that invest their time and care into making this fellowship possible. THANK YOU for recognizing this script that means so much to me, and I hope will ultimately mean a lot to others as a film.

And major congrats to the nine other finalists! Check them all out here.

Lions Wins Screencraft True Story Competition

Huge thanks to the Screencraft judges and team for recognizing The Lions of Mesopotamia as the winner of the True Story competition. Writing this script has been quite a journey, and I’m always thrilled to have the input and support of talented people.

Also very proud of my buddy Rob Alicea for winning the pitch portion of this contest! Thrilled to be in such talented company.

2020 Greenpoint Film Festival Bringing NYC Together

Proud to join the revamped 2020 Greenpoint Film Festival as a jury member and programmer, under its new directors, Anthony Argento and Ricardo Vilar.

Thanks to all of our filmmakers and sponsors for the continued support as our team negotiates these unprecedented times. We are SO excited to be able to offer the festival selections in a COVID-safe DRIVE-IN format this year, bringing our community together safely through the magic of cinema!

Tickets are available here and they are selling out quickly!

Additional FREE community programming (panels and a pitch workshop!) will be announced soon. The festival is For Filmmakers, By Filmmakers, With Filmmakers. Our team is all actively working in the industry, and we are thrilled to be able to bring NYC together for a series of incredible films.

More info can be found here.