Education
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
MFA Screenwriting with thesis honors, 2002.
University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY
B.A. English, Film and Creative Writing Concentrations with a Theater minor. Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa and departmental honors, 1994.
Produced Work: Screenwriting
Road Trip II: Montecito and Paramount Pictures, August, 2009. Reached top-ten status on iTunes for downloads of sales and rentals.
Slap Shot III: The Junior League: Universal, November, 2008.
American Pie: Band Camp: Universal, December, 2005. Syndicated on TBS, it remains the highest-grossing live-action direct-to-video movie ever released, selling over one million copies in its first week of release.
Crooked Arrows: Rewrote this independent family lacrosse film with Native American themes to be released in 2012. Received shared “Written By” credit.
Unproduced Work for Hire: Screenwriting
The Plebe: Flame Ventures and MTV Films. Wrote a PG-13 identity swap comedy set in a university, targeted toward teenage girls.
Josie and the Pussycats in: The Cootie Caper: Universal. Developed a PG reboot of this classic comic franchise.
Accidental Playboy, an adaptation of Leif Ueland’s memoir.
Works in Progress: Screenwriting/Producing
Pre-Schooled: Writing a broad comedy centered on the fight to gain admission to an exclusive Chicago preschool.
Travel Nanny: an adrenaline junky smuggler learns his next job is to deliver an infant, so he hires a Craig’s List travel nanny that turns out to be his worst nightmare.
Harmony: wrote and am co-producing this drama about race relations and set in a Florida nursing home. Director Stu Pollard is attached.
The Kindness of Strangers: Adapting and producing Katrina Kittle’s award-winning novel about a broken family’s adoption of a sex-abused child.
Living Desert: Co-writing a cable television drama pilot centered in a desert resort town which happens to hide the fountain of youth.
BiT: Producing this coming-of-age horror movie set in the hills of Kentucky.
H.O.A.: a web comedy pilot set in a Home Owner’s Association.
Previous Work: Screenwriting
Nashville Goodbye, 24-hour feature drama set in Nashville’s Printer’s Alley.
Friendly Competition, feature comedy about a North Carolina mayoral race.
Parental Discretion Required, NYPD Blue TV spec about school shootings.
High on Rose, sitcom pilot set in a small town hair salon.
Band Geek, MFA thesis script. Became Universal’s American Pie: Band Camp.
‘Squatch, feature family comedy. Zide/Perry Productions and Anonymous Content were attached to produce. “What if Bigfoot played football?”
Keg Stand, supernatural comedy about a fraternity’s haunted beer keg. David Greathouse Productions was attached to produce.
Production and Related Film Work
Second Unit Director, American Pie Presents: Band Camp. Directed the core cast in the production of scripted and improvised scenes for the film itself, as well as the DVD extras package, 2005.
Associate Producer, Sam Peckinpah’s West: Legacy of a Hollywood Renegade. Coordinated Los Angeles location production for this feature length documentary which aired on the Starz Westerns Channel, 2004.
Videographer, John Ford Goes to War. Shot interview video and mixed sound for parts of this feature length documentary, 2002.
Director/Editor/Writer, Validation. Short comedy about an actress’ struggles in an audition, 2000.
Script Analyst for Jerry Bruckheimer, East of Doheny, & Echo Lake Productions. Read and analyzed screenplays and books for potential purchase and development, 1999-2004.
Producer, Editor, Videographer for Video Editing Services, Lexington, KY.
Executed physical production of documentary films, commercials and corporate videos. Responsibilities included scripting, budget, videography, lighting, audio production and digital video editing, 1996-1999.
Producer, Editor for J.A. Walkir & Associates in Wilson, NC.
Involved in all aspects of corporate video production: sales, scripting, pre-production, supervising shoots and digital video editing, 1994-1996.
Teaching Experience
SUNY Oswego, Oswego NY
Assistant Professor of Creative Writing teaching courses in screenwriting and Cinema & Screen Studies, 2011-present.
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Adjunct Professor in the School of Cinematic Arts teaching core-curriculum MFA and BFA screenwriting courses, 2005-2011.
Spalding University, Louisville, KY
Screenwriting Instructor in the Brief Residency MFA in Writing Program, individually mentoring up to five students per semester, 2006-present.
Courses Taught – SUNY Oswego
Intro to Screenwriting
Intermediate Screenwriting
Advanced Screenwriting
Feature Rewrite
Special Topics 395: The Webisode
Courses Taught – USC
Breaking the Story (BFA)
Writing the Screenplay (BFA)
Senior Thesis (BFA)
Advanced Rewrite (MFA/BFA)
Writing the Short Script (MFA)
Basic Dramatic Screenwriting (MFA)
Advanced Scene Writing Seminar (MFA)
Screenwriting for Production (MFA)
Areas of Teaching & Training Competency
Screenwriting
Television Writing
Directing
Producing
Physical Production
Film Studies
Academic Service
Served on the SUNY Oswego Creative Writing Retention Committee, 2011.
Teamed with SUNY Oswego librarians to update and expand the film and television library, including the procurement of an extensive screenplay collection housed in a single location for easy browsing, 2011.
Mentored SUNY Oswego adjunct screenwriting faculty and established new outcomes for existing screenwriting courses.
Serve as faculty advisor for SUNY Oswego’s student-run Screenwriters’ Workshop Group, 2011-Present.
Served on USC Writing Division admission, curriculum and thesis committees, 2007-2011.
Created USC BFA class, Breaking the Story, now a required course, 2008.
Advisor to the USC First Pitch Festival, 2007-2011.
Acted as USC Writing Division faculty liaison for The Gold List, an alumni script publication, 2009-2011.
Member of Spalding University Brief Residency MFA in Writing Program Faculty Advisory Committee, 2011.
Other Service
Kentucky Film Commission: Appointed to serve by Governor Steve Beshear in 2009 and tasked with developing greater film education opportunities in the state, and improving industry relations.
Kentucky Film Lab: Co-created this not-for-profit education organization in 2003. The Lab has received consecutive grants from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to provide filmmaking workshops featuring top industry professionals, and has created a filmmaking certificate course at Bluegrass Community and Technical College. To date, we have held seven workshops training over 1,000 filmmakers.
Appearances and Presentations
Organized and chaired the Kentucky Film Educators Summit, a gathering of the state’s prominent film and new media faculty for a public discussion of the strengths and shortcomings in film education across Kentucky. Sponsored by the Kentucky Film Office and the Ideafestival. September, 2011. www.kyfilmedusummit.wordpress.com.
Visiting Writer, University of Pittsburgh at Bradford Spectrum Arts Series, October, 2011.
Awards and Honors
Best Comedy, Straight2DVD Awards (Road Trip II), 2010.
Judge, Humanitas Prize, 2010.
Juror, Derby City Film Festival, 2009.
Finalist, Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab (Harmony), 2002.
Semi-Finalist, Chesterfield Writer’s Project (Harmony), 2002.
USC Hitchcock Screenwriting Scholarship (Harmony), 2001.
USC Screenwriting Associate Scholarship, 1999.
Telly Award Winner, Lexington, KY (Writing), 1998.
Addy Award Winner, Lexington, KY (Directing), 1996.
Publication
Contributed to a volume of screenwriting exercises entitled, Now Write! Screenwriting, published by Tarcher/Penguin in January, 2011.
Featured in the Script Magazine story, “Perception Management” about taking Hollywood meetings. Written by Carole Kirschner for the March/April 2010 issue.
Interviewed by straight2dvdmovies.com about direct-to-video’s future: http://ow.ly/156jW.
Featured in the book The Making of Slap Shot: Behind the Scenes of the Greatest Hockey Movie Ever Made by Jonathon Jackson. Published by Wiley in November 2010.
Representation
Hello and Company, Los Angeles, CA
Abrams Artists Agency, New York, NY
Eclipse Law Corporation, Los Angeles CA
Member, Writer’s Guild of America West
