In Winter of 2017 I finished Pride & President, which toys with the idea of "what if a U.S. president were gay and came out of the closet?"  This, along with the current reality of LGBTQ teens trapped within the oppression of their religious families, is an important plight that I strongly feel needs to be exposed and addressed.  Too many LGBTQ evangelical youth are being bullied and shamed for having sexual feelings that are innate to the true nature.​​  "P&P" has won 9 awards and accolades, including 4th place in Writer's Digest's 86th Annual Competition, and Top 10 Finalist in both the 2017 National Screenwriters Day competition and the 2018 Cinequest Screenwriting Competition.

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Finished in the Fall of 2017, Last of the Burly Girls, is a pro-feminist, character-driven, musical dramedy taking place between the years of 1900 and 1936 that follows the life of a runaway circus orphan turned burlesque soubrette, her tragic romances, and the backstage rivalry with another showgirl that brings "family"back into her life. "Burly Girls" has won Best Screenplay for the 2019 Beaufort Int'l Film Festival, Best Feature Screenplay for the 2020 Garden State Film Festival and the 2019 Cordillera International Film Festival, landed in the Top 1% of Francis Ford Coppola's 2017 American Zoetrope Screenwriting Contest, and most recently, placed as a semi finalist in the 2019 Academy Nicholl Fellowship (Top 2%). In addition, I produced and recorded a demo of the seven songs from the film and they can be heard by clicking on the "Listen (Songs)" menu selection above.

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My latest project is an episodic conceived by producers David Schoner, Jr. of Great Mustachio Filmworks and AJ Swirz entitled Emmett Grey.  The short, Emmett Grey: (Don't Fight It) Feel It  has already received significant recognition from major film festivals (including Best Screenplay the Monza Film Festival in Italy) and the pilot: Emmett Grey: So Long has also been receiving recent accolades while being vetted by development executives.

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I have five other projects in development:

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All the Angry Children, a realistic reflection on the challenges of adopting an older child with a traumatic past and the unsavory inability to help them when there is limited assistance or support from non-profit and government agencies.  Many filmmakers prefer to focus on Hallmark, "happily ever after" adoption stories when, truth be told, most adoptions are rife with heartbreaking challenges that never reach a sound resolution and people (in general) need to rise above their heroic fantasies of saving and "curing" a broken child.

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The God We're Given, a pro-feminist / anti-fundamentalism story based on the life of my mother who dared to question her inherited Mormon dogma and to find her own truth.  More and more, organized religion has proved to be nonsensical and limiting in today's world and this story will show how my mother navigated the world (for her and our family) after being excommunicated from the Mormon Church and ostracized by family and friends for following her heart.

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Shades of Red, a passionate, unconventional story of two prominent and unlikely men in love and the parental sacrifice one makes on behalf of the other's orphaned child in 1920's Spain and Southern France.

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Lucia, a stage musical adapted from a classic novel and 20th Century Fox romance taking place in 1950's New England.

 

and

 

Open, a modern episodic.  Further details are confidential at this time due to it's originality.

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I am mentored by former Spielberg assistant, Michael Lucker (Home on the Range, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron), Robin M. Henry (East Los High), Don Woodard (Dream On!, Just Shoot Me!), and Dr. Lew Hunter (Emmy winner and former head of UCLA's Screenwriting Dept.) ; I am an Associate Member of the Dramatists Guild of America, and a member of SOCAN.

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