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< Back Merridith Allen merridith.allen26@gmail.com http://www.merridithallen.com Coverfly The Black List Merridith Allen proudly comes from a big, loud, Jewish family in New York City with deep roots in the theater and performing arts. A writer/director/producer, Merridith tells stories about women in the martial arts, drama and action spaces. She has won several writing scholarships and fellowships from such prestigious organizations as the Sewanee Writer's Conference, the San Miguel de Allende Writer's Conference, Stowe Story Labs, and VCCA. Notably, she was a finalist for the Austin Film Festival's writing competition, The Blacklist/WIF TV fellowship, and the Juilliard Fellowship. Merridith's plays have been produced and published nationally and abroad, and her first short film, BLACK ROSE, based on the award-winning feature screenplay, is set to come out in 2025. Further, Merridith enjoys creative non-fiction, and she has been published by The Sun Magazine, Burlesque Press, and The Edinburgh University Review. Merridith's day jobs have included screenwriting/creative writing instructor, martial arts instructor, audio description writer, true-crime podcast writer, and yoga instructor. When Merridith is not diving into a story on her lap top or throwing people across the room on the mats, she can be found searching for the perfect cup of coffee and a decent bagel in her adopted city, Los Angeles. All suggestions are welcome. Merridith is absolutely thrilled to join IWC and looks forward to creating and collaborating with the wonderful writers in the organization. Honors & Awards IWC Best Of Selection - MY KARATE BAT MITZVAH - 2026 Finalist, Austin Film Festival - SENSEI - 2023, Finalist, Stowe Story Labs FINALIST, Stowe Story Labs - THE LAST DAYS OF ROCK AND ROLL - 2024 FINALIST/LONG-LIST, The Blacklist/WIF TV Lab - STUNTWOMAN - 2024 non-WGA Female, Multi-Ethnic, 40+ SENSEI supernatural horror - BLACK SWAN meets KILL BILL In order to inherit her lover's dojo, a troubled martial artist travels to Japan for one final test, where she must face all of her demons...and may just become one herself. STUNTWOMAN half-hour dramedy, single cam TV Jordan Lee attempts to curb her alcohol dependency and take care of her ailing mother by pursuing her latent dream of becoming a stunt performer…at age 40. Character-driven, Female-centric, Psychological, Horror, Coming-of-Age, Dark, International, Magical Realism Female, Multi-Ethnic, 40+ unrepped

< Back Lisa Lutes lmluey@gmail.com Lisa Lutes is a screenwriter from Ottawa, Canada. Lisa graduated from university with a degree in marine and freshwater biology and worked as a fisheries biologist on ships and islands in the Alaskan fishing industry. Eventually, she went back to university in Australia to train as a primary school teacher to settle down and raise her two daughters. After writing a novel and memoir about Alaska, as well as several picture books, she decided to give screenwriting a turn and fell in love. Lisa uses her strange mix of world travel, teaching and parenting experience to write comedy and family, with a love of all things time travel, looping and bending. Lisa is currently developing a series of middle grade graphic novels with her illustrator husband, Jay Lutes. Honors & Awards Semifinalist, PAGE awards - PRESENT 2024 Second Round, Sundance development track - OSTARBEITER 2025 non-WGA Female, Disabled, 40+ PRESENT Family feature Trapped in the photos of her social media account, a girl must find a way out to return to her real life. OSTARBEITER Drama feature Three mothers in different times and places deal with the generational consequences of a Nazi work camp that imprisoned Eastern European women in WW2. SHOWROOM Comedy feature Trapped in an IKEA showroom of their past, a couple must navigate years of built up resentment to survive the adjustment of an empty nest. Female-centric, Sci-Fi, Children's, Magical Realism Female, Disabled, 40+ unrepped

< Back Mage Lanz lanz.mage@gmail.com Mage Lanz is screenwriter and story editor currently working in feature development as a story editor at Inzide Media in Los Angeles. She’s written twenty screenplays and has one produced feature, with producing credits on upcoming projects. She was on last year’s Grey List and has placed highly in programs including the WeScreenplay Diverse Voices Lab, Nicholl, the Disney/ABC Writing Program, and the Austin Film Festival, where she also worked as a paid reader. She’s also the author of an unpublished nonfiction book, “The Monist Mindset,” which explores the concept of oneness across philosophy, science, and religion, and an upmarket fiction novel “Inferno”, based on a screenplay of the same name. Honors & Awards The Grey List 2025 - Horror/Fantasy Feature - Oona in Halloweenland Second Round - Austin Film Festival 2024 - Drama Features Coventry; Oona in Halloweenland; One-Hour Pilot - Anne Bonny Second Round - Austin Film Festival 2023 - Comedy Features - Worst Date Ever; Valium Times Day; Half-Hour Teleplay Pilot - Bye Bye Body Non-WGA/Caucus-only Member Non-binary, LGBTQ+, Disabled, 40+ INFERNO Feature - Psychological Drama/Romance - Phantom Thread, Marriage Story, Blue Valentine, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, In the Mood for Love A newly divorced woman takes a job in a high-end restaurant where she ignites an affair with a brilliant but emotionally repressed chef whose need for control masks a lifetime of buried trauma. BYE BYE BODY Half-hour Pilot - Dramedy - Dead Like Me, My Name is Earl, The Good Place, Broad City, Barry A young, naive ex-con decides to open her own sea burial business as a way to make quick cash, but soon finds out it’s much more complicated than she thought. WORST DATE EVER Feature - Romcom - Date Night, Before Sunrise, Walk of Shame, Before We Go After being robbed of their phones and money on their first date, two middle-aged strangers must work together to get home on one crazy, awful night in Los Angeles. Character-driven, Female-centric, Science, Romantic, Sci-Fi, Psychological, Horror, Dark Non-binary, LGBTQ+, Disabled, 40+ unrepped

< Back Tracy Charlton tkcharlton@gmail.com Tracy attended the University of California, Berkeley where she studied English literature. After graduating, she moved to Los Angeles where she worked in the film industry for several years before relocating to New York City, where she got her master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. Her screenplay RAISED UP was one of the winners of The Writers Lab, which is funded by Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman, and was based on a story she did in journalism school. Her original screenplay THE BUILDING was made into a movie that aired in Canada. She also did an uncredited rewrite on LEONIE, which starred Emily Mortimer and aired in the U.S. and Japan. She is currently in pre-production for her short script EARTH ANSWERS, which was one of the winners of the WeScreenplay Short Script Lab in 2024. Shooting is scheduled for March, 2026 in San Francisco. Tracy currently lives in Marin County with her son and an emotionally needy Golden Retriever named Pickles. Honors & Awards Stowe Story Lab Connemara – CHASING SHAKESPEARE – 2025 IWC Best of List – CHASING SHAKESPEARE and BIG LIFE -- 2025 Austin Film Festival - Second Rounder - CHASING SHAKESPEARE and NANO – 2024 Non-WGA Female, Over 50 CHASING SHAKESPEARE Feature - YA Action-Adventure When a teenage girl's father disappears amid accusations that he stole one of the Shakespeare's First Folios, she must find him and retrieve the Folio by solving a series of Shakespeare-themed clues he left behind. NANO Feature - horror-thriller When a scientist specializing in nano technology pushes her research too far, too fast in order to save her dying husband, she inadvertently creates a monster. A monster one thousand times smaller than a raindrop who learns faster than any A.I. on the planet and quickly has the power to destroy millions. SUKIE & JESSIE’S PUBLIC PARKS TENNIS TEAM Pilot - sports comedy - BAD NEWS BEARS meets GLOW A parks and rec women's' tennis team, misfits all, will be disbanded to make room for pickleball courts if they don’t have a winning season. Female-centric, Crime, Thriller, YA Female, Over 50 unrepped

< Back Kathryn Machi Brian Judy, Bohemia Group brian@bohemiaent.com - 1.323.462.5800 IMDB An enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation, a dual U.S.-French citizen, and San Francisco native, Kathryn (Kate) Machi, MFA, helms ViviLu Productions, writing and producing life-affirming, multicultural, history- and arts-driven stories and screenplays. Firebird, a Cherokee-French dance and family drama currently in development, and period TV drama, June Rose, inspired by Kathryn's ancestral Cherokee family, are both on the Indigenous List, representing ""the best and most promising Native creatives in the film and television industry. After undergrad studies in journalism and modern dance, Kate worked as a waitress in SF dive bars to 5-star restaurants; as a paralegal and librarian; a holistic healer in top Bay Area spas, and teaching nurturing touch to Stanford pediatric nurses. As a mom in her 40s, she returned to college for American Indigenous, cinema, and literature studies, earning both her Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts degrees in creative writing. A member of Women in Film, Film Collaborative SF, the Cherokee Writers Group, and the Writers Guild of America West, Kate is inspired by music and dance; offline romance and love; justice and healing; her Cherokee-Celtic and French-Kabyle relations; family life from pregnancy through last breath; deep belly laughter, and the food that nourishes. She and her Parisian husband have two beautiful adult children and live on the foggy western edge of San Francisco, occupied land of the Ohlone people. Honors & Awards Finalist, The Indigenous List, Sundance, IllumiNative, the Black List - JUNE ROSE - 2022 Finalist, The Indigenous List, Sundance, IllumiNative, the Black List - FIREBIRD - 2020 WGA Associate Female, Indigenous/Native American, 55+ FIREBIRD Dance and Family Drama Ruby, a gifted teenage Cherokee ballerina, wins a once-in-a-lifetime chance to dance her dream ballet in the South of France, but her rowdy cowboy father insists on chaperoning her, with his own agenda -- to find Ruby's mother and bring her home to Oklahoma. LA DANSE L'AMOUR LA VIE Romantic period drama After surviving a near-fatal accident, a young photographer trades the foggy streets of San Francisco for the rock'n'roll dance clubs of Paris, where she falls for a charismatic DJ and his reckless best friend. GOD-STRUCK Drama, spirituality Feature EAT, PRAY, LOVE meets THE THREE GLORIAS . Feature film inspired by the true story and New York Times bestseller, A Book of Angels, by Sophy Burnham, with permission by the author. An agnostic, feminist, NY Times bestselling writer loses her family, friends, and almost her mind after she's saved by an angel. Character-driven, Female-centric, BIPOC-centric, Romantic, Historical/Alternative History, Coming-of-Age, Naturalistic, International Female, Indigenous/Native American, 55+ repped

< Back Kimberley Ann Sparks kim@kimsparks.com http://www.kimsparks.com Kimberley Ann Sparks is an award-winning writer who works in film, television, video games, and podcasts. She’s written episodes of preschool series which have been broadcast on Treehouse, TVO, and BBC Kids. Kim’s scripts have placed in a number of screenwriting contests, including the The Writers’ Lab NYC, Page Awards, and she was selected to be a participant in the 2024 Stowe Story Labs Connemara Writers’ Retreat. Kim also writes scripts and dialogue for AAA video games, and she has worked on games such as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. Kim has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. She is also a graduate of the Canadian Film Centre’s Prime Time Television Program and UCLA’s Professional Screenwriting Program. She teaches screenwriting at Toronto Metropolitan University. Honors & Awards IWC Best Of Selection - THE BONUS DAY - 2026 Quarter-finalist, Creative Screenwriting Unique Voices - PILGRIMS: STORIES FROM THE MOUNTAIN - 2025 Quarter-finalist, Emerging Screenwriters Competition - PILGRIMS: STORIES FROM THE MOUNTAIN - 2025 Quarter-finalist, The Writers Lab NYC - PILGRIMS: STORIES FROM THE MOUNTAIN - 2024 non-WGA Female, 55+ PILGRIMS: STORIES FROM THE MOUNTAIN (Feature Drama) A 22-year-old physics major is called to join a pilgrimage that she doesn’t believe in and which no one has ever returned from. We follow her journey as she encounters others affected by the Pilgrims while this mysterious calling compels her up the mountain. THE BONUS DAY (Feature drama) An elderly man and woman meet at a euthanasia clinic. When their deaths are unexpectedly postponed, they spend the day together, fall in love, then must decide if they should go through with their procedures. Character-driven, Female-centric, Medical, YA, Children's, Animation, Bittersweet Female, 55+ I am not currently repped.

< Back J Florence Jones jflorencejones@gmail.com Jaye is a queer and non-binary writer living in Los Angeles. They grew up in Minnesota and attended NYU. In 2014 they hiked all 2185 miles of the Appalachian Trail because they were too stubborn to quit. Jaye writes romantic comedies and coming-of-age stories about characters exploring the slipperiness of queer identity. Their work has been recognized by the Academy Nicholl Fellowship, placing as a Semi-Finalist in both 2021 and 2023. Honors & Awards The Best Of The IWC - Kiss Me Like That - 2026 Semifinalist, Nicholl Fellowship - KISS ME LIKE THAT - 2021 Semifinalist, Nicholl Fellowship - KISS ME LIKE THAT - 2023 non-WGA/Caucus Only Non-binary, LGBTQ+ KISS ME LIKE THAT Feature, Romantic Comedy After finally working up the courage to come out of the closet, a gay teenager is determined to own his sexuality and slay his senior year, but he’s thrown off his axis when he falls in love with his best friend, who is – gasp! – a woman. SHAKE ME FREE FROM MY NAME Feature, Comedy-Drama Desperate to escape her crumbling life in Brooklyn, a struggling artist sets out to hike all 2185 miles of the Appalachian Trail, where the wilderness and her fellow hikers force her to confront her gender, identity, and fear of being truly seen. BOY’S LIFE Feature, Coming-of-Age A boy's plans to beat the merit badge record at summer camp are thrown for a loop when the unimaginable happens: he makes a friend. Queer, Romantic, Coming-of-Age Non-binary, LGBTQ+ unrepped

< Back Phoenix Black phoenixblackthewriter@gmail.com https://phoenixblackthewriter.com/ The Black List Phoenix is a Black List recommended screenwriter on Network ISA's 'Top 25 Screenwriters To Watch' list. She is a Sri Lankan Australian foster parent and former UN aid worker, based in Sydney. Phoenix is the daughter of Australia’s first immigrants of color. She grew up waitressing in her parents’ restaurant and globetrotting in the family Kombi van. Being the only child of color many people had ever seen, informs her stories of personal chaos and adventure, identity and loss. She writes stories intended to be repeatedly dissected by audiences with characters that linger. Phoenix’s style is influenced by her mother’s weaving stories, told over cups of tea, creating emotional postcards. Phoenix’s career spans being an HIV/AIDS physical therapist, designing health education programs and public policy to emergency operations with UNICEF and Oxfam in disasters and war zones. She is now embarking on her writer/director journey. Honors & Awards Final Draft Big Break - Top 5 Finalist, - KEANU REEVES IS MY MUSE, MY SON IS A DRAGON - 2022 Roadmap Writers Diversity Initiative - Runner-up - FATHER TRINITY - 2022 The Stunt List - Best Sports-Centered Scripts - FIRE KINGS 2025 " non-WGA Female, BIPOC, Asian, Disabled, 55+ FIRE KINGS - Action crime drama feature POINT BREAK meets THE BIKERIDERS When two police officers - one a war veteran, the other the son of war refugees - infiltrate rival motorcycle gangs, the secret to breaking their case lies hidden in their own war-torn pasts. FATHER TRINITY Drama psychological horror feature MAGNOLIA meets MULHOLLAND DRIVE On the set of a martial arts horror TV show, three lives spiral: A stuntman's tween son sabotages his father's affair, A sex addicted star falls in love and A grieving stagehand finally faces his demons. An exploration of masculinity, guilt, and obsession. KEANU REEVES IS MY MUSE, MY SON IS A DRAGON Family fantasy dramedy BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA meets HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON When a chaotic, grieving writer fosters a boy convinced he’s a dragon, the two must navigate loss, imagination, and identity to forge an unexpected family - with Keanu Reeves. Based on a true story. Character-driven, Female-centric, BIPOC-centric, Fantasy, Horror, Coming-of-Age, International, Magical Realism Female, BIPOC, Asian, Disabled, 55+ unrepped

< Back Sarah Granger Zachary Stein, Granderson Des Rochers https://www.sarahgranger.com Sarah Granger draws from past career experiences working in Silicon Valley, federal government, and national politics to write authentic, character-driven dramas, high concept thrillers, and grounded sci-fi — usually female led, and always including at least one disabled character. The daughter of a paralyzed lawyer, she learned to analyze, advocate, and adapt at an early age, leading her to become a dedicated researcher and prolific writer. In her early 30s, she became disabled herself, due to nerve damage acquired while giving birth. Her screenplays and pilots have been selected for The Women’s List and The Black List’s annual Disability List, co-curated by the WGA. She won the SFFILM Rainin Filmmakers with Disabilities Grant and was the inaugural Loreen Arbus Fellow through the Athena Writers Lab. She is also an alumna of the Stowe Story Lab and Disability Belongs Entertainment Professionals Lab. She has been an associate and executive producer of narrative features and short films (including a Slamdance grand jury award winner), logging many hours on set and in post. Sarah is a produced playwright, published author, and columnist. Her articles have been in Slate, Harvard Business Review, the San Francisco Chronicle, LA Weekly, and Huffpost. She has been a guest on Good Morning America, ABC News, CBS News, and NPR. She is a member of the Authors Guild, Dramatists Guild, and HRTS. A graduate of the University of Michigan, she lives in Los Angeles. Honors & Awards SFFILM Rainin Filmmakers with Disabilities Grant Winner - THE PAIN-FREE DAY - 2022 Loreen Arbus Fellowship - WHITE HAT - 2023 StoryPros Awards, Winner, Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror - M-CAP2 - 2025 non-WGA/Caucus only Female, Disabled, 40+ WHITE HAT One hour workplace drama SCANDAL meets HALT & CATCH FIRE On the brink of losing their funding, a female led startup of ethical hackers chase a long shot government deal in an attempt to show competitors and investors that they have what it takes. THE PAIN-FREE DAY Feature drama LADY BIRD, CODA After struggling for years housebound with severe pelvic pain, a dejected mother takes a risk and pulls her teenage daughter out of school for one day in an attempt to mend their strained relationship. M-CAP2 One hour Sci-fi THE MARTIAN + FOR ALL MANKIND A novice ice specialist arrives at a scientific outpost in the harsh environment of the Mars South Pole; instead of a warm welcome, she’s met with a crabby crew and a crisis of survival. Character-driven, Female-centric, Science, Thriller, Romantic, Sci-Fi, Coming-of-Age, Dark Female, Disabled, 40+ unrepped

< Back Brooke Muschott brookemuschott@gmail.com http://brookemuschott.com Brooke Muschott is a writer, artist and roller skater. She’s been losing sleep to good books since she discovered the Boxcar Children, and watching too much television since the premiere of Pretty Little Liars. She’s fairly certain there is no greater high than a story that gets so deep into your heart it keeps you up at night, dreaming about it. At sixteen, she walked into her favorite author’s book signing with a list of the inconsistencies in his books and walked out with a job as a continuity editor. She’s gained more tact since then, but is still the writer who will remember that Kara said she hated cats twenty-eight episodes ago. She pivoted from publishing to television during the pandemic, and most recently has worked as a production coordinator on an Apple show. Her favorite genre to write is older kids to older young adult contemporary fantasy, and her second favorite is anything anyone will pay her for. She has a bachelor’s in creative writing with double minors in studio art and multimedia design from Pepperdine University. She writes stories with enough detail to swim in, about characters in extraordinary situations dealing with ordinary problems. Her superpower is organization, her Achilles heel is cooking, and her vice is sweet tea. She can almost land an axel on roller skates, but don’t throw something at her and yell ‘catch’. It won’t be caught. Honors & Awards Quarterfinalist, The Script Lab - TSL Free Screenplay Contest - INK AND ASHES - 2024 non-WGA Female, LGBTQ+ INK AND ASHES (Hour TV - Contemporary Fantasy - Sharp Objects meets Spiderwick Chronicles ) Eight years ago, Ava fled her hometown after her best friend went missing and the town blamed her for the crime. When her old boss goes missing on the night she returns, she’s swiftly dragged back into a world of danger - and magic. CULTDOM (Hour TV - Contemporary - The Eras Tour meets Waco ) Marie, whose life revolves around being a superfan of international pop star Elli Augusta, starts a fan blog that accidentally turns into a cult. HOW TO ROLLERSKATE THROUGH THE APOCALYPSE (Half Hour TV - Kids Contemporary Fantasy - Kipo meets Gravity Falls ) When magic appeared overnight and turned Steph and Jess’s suburban middle-school lives upside down, they rolled with it. But with the world this unstable, even skating to the store can be more of a quest than they bargained for. Female-centric, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, YA, Children's, Animation, Magical Realism Female, LGBTQ+ unrepped

< Back Hope Hickli ahopeh@outlook.com http://www.ahopehickli.com Hope Hickli has written and produced interactive edutainment for Disney Interactive, Pixar and Fisher Price. She cut her teeth writing international marketing materials for CBC, Canada's public broadcaster, and in small documentary film production. After more than 15 years as a political speechwriter, Hope turned her talents to screenwriting. As penance for her previous job, Hope now writes textured, character-driven stories with a social conscience. She’s particularly drawn to biography—stories of misfits and dissidents who must break out of the boxes people put them in, in order to change the world and in the process, change themselves. Hope is the single mom of a feisty, smart, young adult—a survivor whose desire to make change in our world fuels Hope’s work on the page. Honors & Awards IWC Best Of Selection - EMILIE - 2026 Drama Division Winner, CineStory - EMILIE - 2024 Second-rounder, Austin Film Festival - EMILIE - 2024 Winner, Short Screenplay, Woods Hole Film Festival - JOEY - 2025 non-WGA Female, 40+ EMILIE TV Pilot, Biographical Drama QUEEN'S GAMBIT meets THE EMPRESS A naïve but brilliant debutante casts aside the restrictive life expected of her to upend the world of physics and become one of the great scientific minds of her time. UNEXPECTED GUEST Drama Feature AFTERSUN & PAST LIVES When her mother dies, taking family secrets with her, an emotionally walled-off woman goes on an obsessive Rashomon journey to find out why her family fell apart so she can let go of the past and, just maybe, learn how to live. JOEY Drama short; part live action/part animation AWAKENINGS & THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY The true story of a former artist whose life-altering experience as a WWII Spitfire pilot is played out on the hospital walls as he fights for his sanity, family and life. Character-driven, Female-centric, Historical/Alternative History, Limited Series, Satire, International Female, 40+ unrepped

< Back Stephen Krespel stephenkrespel@gmail.com IMDB Stephen Krespel is a screenwriter and producer who fled the doldrums of suburbia to play in various rock bands in San Francisco. Ultimately, he ended up bartending in the city for way, way, way too long. But, as it turns out, hanging out with a bunch of real-life raconteurs is a pathway to writing about great characters for the screen. Stephen specializes in light-hearted comedies and heart-pumping action features. Typically, he writes his characters as if they're fireflies in a jar. They emit joyous, life-affirming light while simultaneously experiencing an existential crisis... because they are trapped in a f#cking jar. Stephen learned about filmmaking working on EAST BAY (2022) starring Constance Wu. Since then he’s been a Finalist for the Paramount Writers Mentorship Program, Cinequest, and the Roadmap Writers Top Tier contest. Honors & Awards Paramount Writers Mentorship Program Finalis t - 2023 Austin Film Festival - Semifinalist - 2023 non-WGA Male REKT - A CRYPTOCURRENCY TALE Hour long TV Mystery Drama. It's MR. ROBOT meets BLINDSPOT After a near fatal accident, a San Francisco Tech Bro loses his job, his fiancée, and the password to a cryptocurrency fortune, leaving him only 10 chances to recover the Bitcoins and reboot his life." THE SUBSTITUTES Half hour TV Pilot It's WE ARE LADY PARTS meets SCHOOL OF ROCK When former rock and roll bandmates wind up substitute teaching at the same school, the singer (who everyone hates) tries to get the band back together in an attempt to win NPR's Tiny Desk Contest. " SKATE, SPY, OR DIE Comedy Action Feature BLADES OF GLORY meets THE NAKED GUN When Olympic Gold Medalist Brian Boitano retires from the CIA he sets out to find a soul mate but discovers it might be too late. Luckily, the world faces an evil threat only he can battle, so, he salchows back to the spy game and triple axels his way to true love." Thriller, Western, Historical/Alternative History, Satire, Silly Male unrepped