Birgit Syran Myaard

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

Birgit, a first-generation American whose name is pronounced BEERgit saRAN MYerd, draws inspiration for her writing from her heritage, aspects of her former work as a CIA biographical analyst, experiences gained living over half her life on four continents, and her faith. Now available to stream on Amazon and Amazon.uk, ELLIDA, Birgit's adaptation, from her own translation of Norwegian playwrig...

Dana Speer

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

I ve worked as a full-time film and television writer for the last twenty-one years. On assignment, I ve produced work for such companies as Robert Kosberg Productions (Twelve Monkeys), CFP Productions (How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days), Crimson Forest (Pali Road), and Radiant Studios (Refugee) to name a few. Following completion of a Masters Degree in Media Arts from the University of Arizona, I w...

Coli Sylla

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

Coli Sylla is a screenwriter and 2024 RespectAbility Entertainment Lab Fellow with African roots and a unique perspective that fuels his boundless imagination. Recently named one of the Top 25 Screenwriters to Watch in 2024 by the ISA. Sylla s Grand Prize win in the 2022 Creative Screenwriting TV Pilot Competition opened the door to a series of back to back quarter-finalist and semi-finalist pl...

Kim Hornsby

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

ISA TOP 25 Screenwriters to Watch in 2024 KIM HORNSBY once had a stalker when she was a lounge singer on Maui. Years later, in Canada, her life was verbally threatened by a stranger and the RCMP were called in. That's probably why she writes women in suspenseful situations getting even with stalkers. She also loves to immerse her vivid imagination in Rom Coms and Christmas. As a produced and mu...

Danny Hogan

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

Danny Hogan (they/them) is a scientist turned screenwriter from San Diego, CA. After receiving their MFA from Loyola Marymount University, where they won the graduate showcase for their writing, Danny went on to put their penchant for exploration, science, and all things uncharted to use as a producer for National Geographic TV. Since then, Danny has worked as a Writers' Assistant and Script Co...

Jennifer Kim

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

Jennifer Kim is a Los Angeles-based writer, journalist, personal essayist, and producer. She is the daughter of disco-loving immigrants from North and South Korea who settled in Appalachia where she and her sister were the only Asians in a hillbilly school. After graduating from UCLA with an MFA in screenwriting, Jennifer worked at KCET-TV (PBS) on puppet shows and in live news, contributed to ...

Benjamin Font

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

BENJAMIN FONT is an award winning writer/director on The ISA Development Slate and was named one of The ISA's Top 25 Screenwriters to Watch in 2024. His films have premiered at Tribeca, Napa Valley, Boston, and Portland Film Festivals and been reviewed favorably in The New York and LA Times. His screenplays have won at The Filmmatic Screenplay Competition, placed in The Top 10 of Final Draft s ...

Todd Foley

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

Ever wondered what a Lifetime thriller would look like if it was remixed by A24? Say hello to Todd Foley. Todd writes cathartic thrillers that go down easy and linger after the credits roll. He believes true horror comes when we look at ourselves in the mirror, and he makes it a fun ride. Todd currently has two feature screenplays under option (one with his writing partner Dan Healey) and a thi...

Stacie Gancayco-Adlao

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

Stacie Gancayco-Adlao is a Filipino-American writer, director, producer, and actor. Her coming-of-age drama feature script, ‘Clementine, is the 2021 Final Draft Big Break Grand Prize Feature winner. 'Clementine' is also an Athena Film Festival Screenwriting Lab Finalist and Austin Film Festival Second Rounder. Her short dramedy film from her Bluecat Screenplay Semifinalist script, 'Cherry Picki...

Thuc Nguyen

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

Thuc Doan Nguyen is a writer and producer. She was born in Vietnam, is a former child refugee boat person and grew up in North Carolina and Southern Maryland. She is a double major from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Public Policy Analysis (Environmental Policy) and Communication Studies and also holds a master's degree (MPA) obtained in Southern California. For Nguyen's wor...

Andrea Berting

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

Andrea Berting is a live theatre professional, having spent most of her career backstage in the world of wardrobe. It took a global pandemic closing down theaters worldwide to get her to sit down and write her first screenplay, but now that she s started she can t stop. Her dramedy feature, BREAST IN SHOW, won Best Original Comedy Feature at the 2022 Richmond International Film Festival, as wel...

Dan Healey

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

Forged in the mountains of Colorado and polished on the crowded beaches of Long Island, Dan studied film at Hofstra University. His writing journey has taken him through a diverse jungle of features - from musical comedies to psychological horror to tech-based thrillers, he's drawn to ordinary people thrust into extraordinary situations so they can find the best of humanity within themselves. H...

Nick Hagen

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

Nick Hagen been involved in screenwriting and film production for two decades. Taking a page from some of his filmmaking idols, in his twenties he self produced several short and feature length films. He considers this to be his film school. In 2007 he entered a nationwide contest put on by 21st Century FOX, The P.G.A. and Myspace called The Storyteller Challenge. The winner would receive a sig...

Kathryn Orwig

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

Kathryn Orwig is an action-adventure film and TV writer who loves to explore in her stories how far someone will go for the people they love. Drawing directly from her background growing up struggling financially in a tiny Northern Michigan town, Kathryn has survived state of the emergency snow storms, bathed in lakes when the electricity was out, and witnessed many a buffalo roaming around the...

Zoe Hodge

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

Zoë Hodge is an award winning writer and director born in the Boogie-Down-Bronx. Zoë s work often explores yearning and the deep solitude that comes from denying yourself your desires and all that s natural to you. As a writer, Zoë grew up on Everybody Hates Chris and Jane Austen adaptations, so when she s not reimagining trauma into rom-comedies or rom-dramas, she s diversifying and rewriting ...

Phoenix Black

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

Screenwriter, foster parent, former UN aidworker. Phoenix, the biracial child of immigrants, writes about struggling with identity, racism and loss. Favoured genres: social drama spliced with whatever the muse brings. Grand final winner Titan Awards 2023. Top 5 Final Draft Big Break 2022.

Adam Somang Karlson

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

Adam Karlson signed a shopping agreement with CS Productions and is now managed by Gravity Squared Entertainment due to introductions made by the ISA. Under the guidance of the Development Team, his script Choke has become a richer and more entertaining story, granting Adam writing skills he can implement in future projects.

Minda Wei

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

Minda Wei is a queer, Chinese-Texan screenwriter and ex-computer engineer based in LA. She used to say "my characters blow up their lives so I don't have to," but then she got a divorce, and moved cross-country after the Texas freeze almost killed her and everyone she s ever loved. They write chaotic yet reasonable characters surviving the frenetic surreality of late-capitalism.

Brian Schwab

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

Brian Schwab is a screenplay contest and film festival winning writer with awards in comedy, thriller and horror genres. After being named 'Runner-Up' at Slamdance and one of the 'Top 3' scripts reviewed by Shore Scripts, Brian sold his first spec, Purgatory, and was subsequently signed by Zero Gravity Management, selected for the ISA's 'Development Slate' and named one of their 'Top 25 Screenw...

Seth Michael Donsky

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

Seth Michael Donsky is a Los Angeles-based screenwriter named to the International Screenwriters Association s (ISA) list of the top 25 screenwriters to watch in 2024. He has been selected to the ISA s distinguished development slate and their 2023 Diversity Initiative. Oscar-winner Bruce Cohen (AMERICAN BEAUTY, MILK, RUSTIN, etc.) is producing Seth s Candy Darling biopic STARDUSK. Bretten Hann...

Chaseedaw Giles

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

Chaseedaw is a multi-hyphenate talent that grew up in Roxbury, MA where she attended Boston Latin School. She lived in D.C. for seven years working in journalism, modeling, and performing live music and theater before moving to Los Angeles. Her latest songs “Prvt Prty” and “Fresh 2” are available on streaming platforms under artist name Cha Cha. Chaseedaw looks for ways to find beauty in advers...

Miguel Angel Caballero

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

Miguel Angel Caballero is the son of Mexican immigrant farm workers and an award-winning Queer Mexican-American/Chicano writer, director, and producer. He received his bachelor's degree from the School of Theater, Film & Television at UCLA. His latest short film, THE BALLAD OF TITA AND THE MACHINES premiered at the Tribeca Festival in 2023. His short film, ACUITZERAMO, premiered at the Morelia ...

Kiefer Lloyd

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

Kiefer Lloyd (he/him) writes underdog stories that explore queerness and masculinity. His series pilot FEVER won the 2024 WeScreenplay TV Lab; he is a Lambda Literary fellow and an alumnus of the Tin House Fiction Workshop. He was homeschooled by conspiracy theorists and can drive stick.

Luis Antonio Aldana

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

Luis Antonio holds a BA in American Literature and Culture from UCLA and is a London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts graduate. He later joined the Latino Theater Company s Laboratory, where he co-wrote the play ‘Melancholia, which was nominated for Amnesty International s Freedom of Expression Award. Luis Antonio produced the feature film Cry Now (Urbanworld Official Selection). He had the s...

Mary Elder

• ISA Development Slate,
• ISA Top 25

Mary Elder writes high-concept fairy tales with an empowered twist. In her first year as a screenwriter, Mary won the Disney Fellowship with DEAD TO THE WORLD, a modern Sleeping Beauty story set during WWII, that Gabriel Byrne optioned. Mary subsequently made two major studio script sales via pitching. With her Great Pyrenees/golden retriever, Quigley, sprawled at her feet, Mary has created two...