Megan Ganz was introduced to comedy by her father, who would show her Marx Brothers movies and let her stay up late to watch David Letterman. Then, as she started to write as a teen, she fell in love with The Onion and the idea of satire. In college then did an internship with Mad Magazine, but then landed a job at The Onion soon after. Today, Ganz’s credits include ‘Community,’ ‘Modern Family,’ ‘The Last Man on Earth,’ ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,’ and Apple’s new series, ‘Mythic Quest: ...
Jul 11, 2020•32 min
Kenya Barris jokes he only started writing screenplays because he was a “kid with asthma.” But in reality, storytelling found Barris because of his love for reading. One of Barris’ first jobs was writing for The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show, followed by writing gigs on Soul Food, Girlfriends, Are We There Yet?, and America’s Next Top Model. But, he’s most known for creating Black-ish, Grown-ish, Mixed-ish, and #BlackAF. On the road to selling Black-ish, Barris wrote and pitched about 19 different pi...
Jul 09, 2020•26 min
Veena Sud, screenwriter behind Seven Seconds, The Killing, and Cold Case returns to discuss her latest venture, Quibi’s short-form series, The Stranger. Quibi is a short-form mobile platform from founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, the producer of movies like Shrek, The Prince of Egypt, and The Road to El Dorado. In a previous interview, we spoke with Sud about “slow burn storytelling,” which applied to the rhythm and tone of our work. The Stranger, of course, is somewhat the opposite of her previous fo...
Jul 06, 2020•34 min
Ramy Youssef has always been a creative person. The New Jersey native didn’t see showbusiness as an achievable goal, but an underlying passion directed him to create more and more, eventually encouraging him to edit, to act, and to write. Eventually, Ramy moved to Los Angeles, where he landed roles on shows like See Dad Run and Mr. Robot, along with a small role in the James Franco-Bryan Cranston holiday comedy, Why Him? Fast forward to 2019 and Ramy Youssef landed a special with HBO called Feel...
Jul 05, 2020•28 min
Mark Bomback’s screenwriting education came from reading hundreds of screenplays. While working in the mailroom, he volunteered to read and provide coverage on submitted scripts, which taught him how to write, but also how not to write. These days, he’s known for Live Free or Die Hard, Unstoppable, Total Recall, The Wolverine, The Art of Racing in the Rain, the recent Planet of the Apes prequels, and Apple’s new series, Defending Jacob, starring Chris Evans. The 8-episode story behind Defending ...
Jun 25, 2020•33 min
Michael Tucker always wanted to be a filmmaker. After attending Film School, he joined some friends for what became Finite Films, a small production company focused on short films. “We spent a year making short films and web series,” he said, “then realized that short films and web series don’t pay the bills.” Tucker spent a few years doing editing work and helping with documentary films and small features. After working in this field for a few years, he decided he wanted to get back into creati...
Jun 20, 2020•33 min
Shannon Burke is the author of ‘Safelight,’ ‘Black Flies,’ and ‘Into the Savage Country.’ Recently, he decided to partner with his screenwriting friends - Brothers Jonas and Josh Pate - to write a coming-of-age action adventure story. The idea of Outer Banks came from an article about a power outage on the Outer Banks. Pate said, “There was a photograph taken at dusk of these darkened mansions. It was just this evocative image that stayed with me.” Pate mentioned his fascination with this idea t...
Jun 19, 2020•31 min
For nearly a decade, Benjamin Hardy felt a lack of purpose in his life. But, thanks to a church mission, he started journaling, found an interest in psychology, and then decided to become an author (while raising a family and acquiring his doctorate), despite the odds of achieving this goal in traditional publishing. In 2015, Hardy started blogging because he knew it was a potential route to becoming an author. Through Medium, he built a massive following (literally becoming the #1 writer on the...
Jun 18, 2020•28 min
While living in Mexico City, John Grillo saw an opportunity to work on a film set, so he came on as a translator for a Disney film. While meeting the crew, he was drawn to the lifestyle. These days, Grillo is a Cinematographer known for ‘Westworld,’ ‘The Leftovers,’ ‘Snowpiercer,’’ Preacher,’ and various Michael Mann projects such as ‘Luck,’ ‘Miami Vice,’ ‘Ali,’ and ‘Collateral.’ In this interview, Grillo discusses what he learned from Michael Mann, how to see subtext in images, how filmmaking i...
Jun 11, 2020•25 min
Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion met while working on animation projects. They created a short film in the horror-comedy genre (called ‘Boob’) that was accepted at SXSW. Thanks to this film, Elijah Wood’s company called to see if the duo wanted to pitch about a project called ‘Cooties.’ Thanks to their perseverance, they eventually landed the job (more on this in the interview). For their latest project, ‘Becky’ is about a teenager's (Lulu Wilson) weekend at a lake house with her father takes a ...
Jun 11, 2020•15 min
Anna Winger has done a little bit of everything. She got her start in photography, where she did some commercial work and some documentary work, then wrote a novel, but if you have to summarize her career, she’s a storyteller. The writer-producer is known for Deutschland 83, Deutschland 86, Deutschland 89, and the new Netflix series, Unorthodox. Her latest project is the “story of a young ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman who flees her arranged marriage and religious community to start a new life abro...
Jun 08, 2020•24 min
Between 2018 and 2021, Matt Liberman will have 9 features in the works. We spoke with Matt about the “creepy” and “kooky” 'Addams Family' not long ago for Creative Screenwriting Magazine, but now we’re catching up some of his other films like 'The Christmas Chronicles' (and it’s sequel), 'Scoob!,' and the new Ryan Reynolds comedy, 'Free Guy.' In this interview, Liberman discusses how he’s so prolific, including why he’s a high-concept writer, the ironic hook of every idea, writing a script in 7 ...
Jun 05, 2020•27 min
Australian Director Justin Kurzel got his start in the theater. He started working on short films and made music videos with his brother. Eventually, he made the jump - thanks to his clips - and started making films. Kurzel was hesitant to take on the first project he was offered, ‘The Snowtown Murders.’ Essentially, the story uncovered true events, revolving around a local murder and a spree or torture. Regardless, he made the movie (in the area where the event happened), and continued to take ...
May 20, 2020•16 min
Trevor Forrest was a painter before he came a photographer. Even in his early days, he knew he wanted to tell stories with his photos. Eventually, this led him to a job in Cinematography. These days, the English DP is known for work on ‘Underground,’ ‘The Leisure Class,’ TNT’s ‘I Am the Night,’ and Hulu’s ‘Little Fires Everywhere.’ The mini-series is based on Celeste Ng's 2017 bestseller, Little Fires Everywhere, and it follows the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and t...
May 18, 2020•44 min
After serving in the Army in Israel, Gideon Raff went to acting school and quickly realized it wasn’t a fit. He then got into advertising and then landed in the world of filmmaking. In the early days of his career, he worked in the horror genre, but then moved to espionage and political thrillers, like 'Prisoners of War' and 'Homeland.' In Raff’s latest series, 'The Spy,' Sacha Baron Cohen stars as the Israeli spy, Eli Cohen. In the six episode series, audiences are invited to look at the intens...
May 16, 2020•24 min
Liz Feldman landed her first writing opportunity at the age of 16, on the Nickelodeon series, ‘All That.’ Years later, she got involved with the Groundlings and Second City, eventually meeting her manager, and stepping into a career as a screenwriter. Feldman has credits for writing on ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’, ‘The Oscars,’ ‘One Big Happy,’ and ‘2 Broke Girls,’ but she’s also the creator of the new hit series, ‘Dead to Me,’ for Netflix. The series stars Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellin...
May 14, 2020•31 min
Mike Reiss’ new book 'Springfield Confidential' isn’t exactly a tell-all, but this is because there’s nothing to tell. After writing the book, Reiss thought in hindsight that the confrontation-free Writer’s Room is perhaps “one reason for The Simpsons’ success.” He added, “There is no dirt. There is not friction. It’s very rare in TV that everyone is pulling in the same direction. Everyone is trying to make the best show they can.” In this interview, Reiss discusses the origin of his book, how A...
May 04, 2020•34 min
Jeff Cronenweth grew up in a family of filmmakers. His grandfather, Edward, worked on ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ with Lon Chaney. His father, Jordan, was the cinematographer on ‘Blade Runner.’ “My father recommended that I stop school and go work with a production company,” he said. After getting accepted into the Union, Cronenweth went to Film School at USC and then started working in the industry. These days, he’s best known for working with David Fincher, on projects such as ‘Fight Club,’ ...
Apr 25, 2020•26 min
“We wanted to create a human story with foam and rubber,” said Director Louis Lettier. The son of a director and a costume designer, Leterrier originally wanted to be a musician, but eventually followed his passion for movies and became a director. These days, he’s best known for directing ‘The Transporter,’ ‘Unleashed,’ ‘The Incredible Hulk,’ ‘Now You See Me’, and the Netflix series ‘The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.’ In this interview, the creative discusses how he became a director by acci...
Apr 20, 2020•29 min
Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews originally contacted the Jim Henson company to pitch a sequel idea for 'Labyrinth,' and while that idea wasn’t in the cards even for a pitch meeting, they were invited to come up with an idea for a 'Dark Crystal' prequel series. The official description for the 10-episode Netflix show reads, “Returns to the world of Thra, where three Gelfling discover the horrifying secret behind the Skeksis' power, and set out to ignite the fires of rebellion and save their worl...
Apr 18, 2020•32 min
Scott Teems grew up and went to Film School in Georgia, and he is best known for early work with Hal Holbrook on ‘That Evening Sun’ (along with producing Holbrook in the Mark Twin story ‘An American Odyssey’), plus episodes of ‘Rectify’ and ‘Narcos: Mexico,’ and the new film ‘The Quarry.’ The co-writer and director of ‘The Quarry,’ Teems uncovers the story of a drifter, played by Shea Whigham, who kills a traveling preacher and takes his place in a small-town church. But, upon his arrival, the p...
Apr 16, 2020•22 min
Originally, Jessica Sharzer emerged herself in Russian studies. While in school, she transferred to Film and essentially went to Graduate School twice. Fascinated by the original tragedies, she now carries this mindset into her new works. Known for American Horror Story, Nerve, A Simple Favor, and Apple’s Amazing Stories, she loves to focus on genre. Essentially, she believes, when writing genre, it’s not like starting a blank page because there are guidelines to follow. In her latest work, she ...
Apr 01, 2020•29 min
“I loved writing about TV and speaking to people I admired to learn how the sausage was made, but I wanted to leave [entertainment journalism] and work on getting a spec made,” said screenwriter and former critic Andy Greenwald. In addition to writing for publications like Entertainment Weekly, Spin, ESPN: The Magazine, and The Washington Post, Andy Greenwald is the author of Miss Misery: A Novel and Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and Emo. Greenwald decided he no longer had the same p...
Mar 26, 2020•22 min
“I was really influenced by punk bands in the 80s and 90s. I liked they were screaming about things I had in my head,” said Philip Harder, who got his start as a music video director. Working with artists like The Cranberries, Foo Fighters, Incubus, and Prince, he learned how to tell stories and capture emotions in short formats. “I joined a band, bought a Super 8, and that led to a music video career.” In Harder’s latest film, ‘Tuscaloosa,’ college graduate Billy Mitchell (Devon Bostick) finds ...
Mar 13, 2020•29 min
In ‘Escape From Pretoria,’ writer-director Francis Annan uncovers the true story of how two real-life political captives escape from Pretoria during the tumultuous apartheid days of South Africa. The film stars Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and Daniel Webber (11.22.63). In this interview, Annan discusses creating empathy in these characters, why these real life subjects debated the issue of escaping or staying, how he made the jump from shorts and docs to a full feature, dealing with overtime,...
Mar 10, 2020•17 min
‘Seberg’ is inspired by true events about the French New Wave darling and Breathless star, Jean Seberg (Kristen Stewart), who in the late 1960s was targeted by the FBI because of her support of the civil rights movement and romantic involvement with Hakim Jamal (Anthony Mackie), among others. In Benedict Andrews’ noir-ish thriller, Seberg’s life and career are destroyed by Hoover’s overreaching surveillance and harassment in an effort to suppress and discredit Seberg’s activism. In this intervie...
Feb 21, 2020•18 min
Wes O’Donnell is a writer, a TED speaker, a multi-branch military veteran, a journalist, and a speaker for veterans. But, above all else, he’s a storyteller. As such, Wes writes on a little of everything, from military issues to personal productivity to intermittent fasting to content strategy to data journalism and unstructured data, along with how to become a public speaker. In his latest book, ‘Own the Crowd,’ the author discusses the moments in life that must be pursued. Wes believes, “Publi...
Feb 12, 2020•23 min
A product of the Spielberg era, Anthony Jerjen directed shorts like ‘The End,’ ‘Trained’ and ‘Immersion,’ before he stumbled upon a script called ‘Inherit the Viper.’ As a European, Jerjen wasn’t particularly familiar with the opioid crisis, but he saw a universal connection with the story. Andrew Crabtree’s script for ‘Inherit the Viper’ is a crime thriller about three siblings in the Appalachian Mountains who get by as local opioid dealers. Somewhat forced into the family business, the kids tr...
Jan 07, 2020•14 min
Charles Randolph is intrigued with things that frighten him. Complicated, yet unusual subjects with unique internal conflicts make up his films. Amongst these hard hitting character studies, Randolph has credits such as ‘The Life of David Gale,’ ‘The Interpreter,’ ‘Love & Other Drugs,’ ‘The Big Short,’ and now, ‘Bombshell.’ In the latest movie, the story focuses on a group of women who conspired to take down Fox News head Roger Ailes for the toxic atmosphere he created within the conservativ...
Dec 20, 2019•32 min
Jon Avnet has directed, written, and produced dozens of motion pictures, television movies and Broadway plays, winning Oscars, Emmys, Tonys, Peabody's, DGA Awards, the Humanitas, Golden Globes and the AFI's Franklin Shaffner Medal. Avnet is known for his work as a director on movies like ‘Fried Green Tomatoes,’ ‘The War,’ ‘Up Close & Personal,’ ’88 Minutes,’ and ‘Righteous Kill.’ Recently, he’s also directed shows like ‘Rake,’ ‘Justified,’ Sneaky Pete,’ and ‘Manhunt.’ The director’s latest f...
Dec 20, 2019•18 min
