​TEACHING POSITIONS

  

  2017

  Bond University, Queensland, Australia 
  Screenwriting
  "Screenwriting 1," "Screenwriting 2"

Screenwriting and episodic television writing for first- and second-year students.

 

  2009-2014

  New York University, Tisch School of the Arts  
  Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film & Television
  Screenwriting
  "Preparing the Screenplay,”  “Developing the Screenplay," "Screenplay Analysis," "Writing the Feature Film,"  

  "Fundamentals of Dramatic & Visual Writing," "Writing for Animation"

Feature-length screenwriting and longform episodic television writing for undergraduates.

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  2004-2008
  UCLA Extension Writers’ Program
  The Business of Screenwriting
  “Drafting a Career,”  “Spelling it Out”

Curriculum focused on decision-making for screenwriters – the creative and business issues professionals face.   Topics covered included speculative scripts, assignments for production companies, networks and studios, dealing  with agents, managers and attorneys, pitching and collaboration.

  Creative Writing
  “The Pen is Funnier Than the Swordfish”

Ten-week comic essay-writing class. Each session featured a distinct style and/or point of view – memoir, satire, parody, first-person, third-person, inanimate object, delusional narrator, etc. Students read examples of classic and contemporary humor and were assigned corresponding weekly essays.

SELECTED SEMINARS / CONFERENCES / FESTIVAL PANELS​

 

  ASPERA (Australian Screen Production Education and Research Association) Conference

    Keynote Speaker, Gold Coast, Australia, 2017

  KOFIC (Korean Film Council) 5th Global Forum

    Master Class Lecturer - The Animation Industry, Seoul, Korea, 2016

  St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum  

    Panelist & Master Class Lecturer - Screenwriting for Animation, University of St. Petersburg, Russia, 2014

  NYU Fusion Film Festival, Judge, 2012 & 2014

  Screenwriters World Conference East, Instructor & Panelist, 2012 & 2013

  Hamptons International Film Festival Screenwriters' Lab, Mentor, 2009 & 2010

  E-DA Cultural Creative Industries,Visiting Instructor, Taiwan, 2010

  The Buffalo Summer Institute in Writing & Media Production, Instructor, 2005​

  New England Association of Teachers of English (NEATE) Conference

    Keynote Speaker, Nashua, New Hampshire, 2005

  College of Santa Fe, Visiting Artist, 2005

  AFI International Film Festival, Panel Moderator, Los Angeles, 1997

    "Breaking & Entering"  - Participants included directors James Mangold and John Herzfeld

 ​

SCREENPLAYS 

 

  Paw Patrol: The Movie  

    Spin Master Animation feature, released 2021.
  Madagascar

    DreamWorks Animation feature, worldwide theatrical rentals:  $532 million.

  It Is What it Is (writer-director), Cooler Heads Productions, independent feature. 

    Winner, Best Picture (Audience Award), Best Screenplay, and Best Directorial Debut,

    2003 New York International Independent Film & Video Festival.

  Monster Island, Anima Estudios animated feature.   

  The Big Trip, Licensing Brands, animated feature.  

  The Creature Department, Twentieth Century-Fox, animated feature.  

  The Jungle Book, DQ Entertainment (India), animated feature.

  The Incredible Shrinking Man, co-writer with Mark Burton, Universal/Imagine Entertainment feature.    ​

  Holy Cow, co-writer with Karey Kirkpatrick. DreamWorks Animation feature.           

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INTERACTIVE SCRIPTS

  Over the Hedge, licensed game for DreamWorks feature,
    ActiVision, 2006.

  Madagascar, licensed game for DreamWorks feature,
    ActiVision, 2005.

TELEVISION SCRIPTS 

  Vacation: Impossible, MTV/Nickelodeon Movie for Television.

  The Orbit of Bob, MTV/Nickelodeon Movie for Television.

  Peons, half-hour pilot, Witt-Thomas Productions, sold to NBC.

BOOKS​

  Downtrodden Abbey (parody of Downton Abbey), Thomas Dunne Books (Macmillan/St. Martin's Press),

    July 2013 publication.  

  Madagascar: The Movie Storybook, Scholastic, 2005.

  The Five People You Meet in Hell, (parody of The Five People You Meet in Heaven),

    Atria Books (Simon &  Schuster), 2005.

  What I Really Want to do is Direct: Seven Film School Graduates Go to Hollywood, Dutton, 1996. 
  The Philistine Prophecy (parody of The Celestine Prophecy), Plume, 1995.

  Dumpisms:  The Witless Wisdom of Horace Dump (parody of Gumpisms), Plume, 1995.

  The Ditches of Edison County (parody of The Bridges of Madison County),

    Plume, 1994.  Sold over 100,000 in U.S.; translated into Japanese and Italian for foreign editions.

JOURNALISM​

  The New Yorker, Salon.com, Premiere, Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide, Movieline, Los Angeles Times.

EDUCATION

  New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, Institute of Film & Television, Bachelor of  Arts.