Lisa Wood

L. Marie Wood is an award-winning author and screenwriter. She is the recipient of the Harold L. Brown Award for her screenplay, Home Party, and the Golden Stake Award for her novel, The Promise Keeper. Wood was recognized in The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, Vol. 15 and as one of the 100+ Black Women in Horror Fiction.

Tonia Kempler

Tonia Kempler lives in New York, though her roots run deep in a rural south still steeped in the occult traditions of the Gullah Geechee and the animism of the Cherokees. Surrounded and empowered by the lore and practices of these supernatural cultures, Tonia leans toward macabre worlds with isolated, damaged, and yet capable and empathic female leads. This personal connection drives her concentration on Supernatural Horror/Thrillers, and dark comedies, including features, pilots, shorts, web series, and podcasts. Her approach to storytelling and understanding audience engagement is fortified by a career in the Music Industry, including concert production and managing Grammy Award-winning producers, engineers and songwriters.

Ashley R. Hall

Ashley R. Hall has spent the last twelve years working in film and television. Her credits include four seasons at Psych and two seasons at Castle and Complications. She also has experience writing and producing an international podcast, managing independent films, (Sympathetic Details starring the cast of HBO’s The Wire), writing narrative trailers and performing stand up comedy in Los Angeles. One of Ashley’s special talents is creating 1980’s movie moments in 2020 by accident. For example, a few years ago, she inadvertently got REO Speedwagon to play a concert at her old high school in Virginia. It’s still one of her finer moments. She’s originally from outside of Richmond, Virginia and received her B.A. in Communications and Film at Virginia Tech. She loves her dog, her family, cooking, traveling and going to Gwarbar. *Ashley loves New Orleans, and credits the gift she gave to Marie Laveau II with this and any other good fortune she may receive.

Ally May

Stuart Creque

Stuart is a native of the San Francisco East Bay and attended UC Berkeley. Growing up with The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits shaped his love of horror and science fiction, and raising three children gave him an appreciation of fantasy. Stuart’s award-winning short scripts Autonomy, He Knows and Over Coffee have been produced, and he wrote and directed the short Memento Mori (which screened at the San Antonio Film Festival). He adapted the short story The Last Earth Girl into a feature screenplay and it has been produced by independent filmmaker Jim Weter.

Phyllis Allison

Phyllis Allison grew up in Louisiana and has one writing credit for an independently produced film. She attended KD Studio Actor’s conservatory in Dallas, but after dabbling in acting she decided writing was more her calling. She worked in Los Angeles as a script supervisor and costume designer for 13 years. She moved back to Louisiana to become a middle school ELA teacher and hopes to plant some creative writing seeds.

Rachel Searcey

The first film I made was Attack of the Killer Asparagus (2000), a campy monster B-movie. In 2005, I graduated from Texas Christian University with a B.S. in Radio/TV/Film. I’ve produced various short films under Vegetable Thing Productions (2000-2009), as well as working on trailers, music videos, and local short films in Texas. Now located on the Gulf Coast, I established A Girl and her Goldfish Productions (2016-present) and have produced short films, screendance, and commercials. My hobbies include painting, drawing, belly dancing, sewing, and photography. I have two daughters, one husband, and two black cats.

Robert Cole

Robert is a Michigan native, growing up in the Detroit suburb of Warren, and is a graduate of Adrian College. His travel experience with extended stays in Spain, Argentina, and Mexico have shaped his global perspective on storytelling. Robert is a self-taught writer and his screenplays have received international accolades with over 100 official selections and awards. He is represented by Alexandra Maramenides of the Reve Agency.

Christian Gridelli & Hunter Norris

Christian Gridelli & Hunter Norris have been cowriting, directing, editing, and producing video & audio content for over a decade under the moniker of DimeStore Films. In 2017, DimeStore Films released their first feature film, The Origins of Wit and Humor, which co-stars Joe Hursley (Resident Evil) & Steve Lemme (Super Troopers, Beerfest) and garnered awards on the festival circuit. More recently, Christian and Hunter wrote an episode of the Sarah Award-nominated sci-fi anthology podcast, “The Outer Reach: Stories from Beyond” and were tapped to do a complete rewrite on the forthcoming film adaptation of the Image Comics title, “Revival.” Their latest film, “Hypoxia”, a sci-fi short, will be debuting online soon after its festival run. They also have a 6 episode narrative podcast titled “No Better Lot” coming out this fall on the Modern Horrors podcast network.

Gemma Paul

Gemma is fairly new to writing and the film industry, but it has been a long-held passion since she was a child. After several years of working in business, she left to pursue her long-held dreams of writing and making movies. After writing, and directing her first short in 2018 she quickly gained the bug and hasn’t stopped since. That first short went on to win multiple awards in the USA and was quickly followed by a second short which went on to do even better than the first. Since then Gemma has been focusing on her writing and developing several television shows. She is looking to add to her writing by delving into books as well as news and blog posts, and unleashing her creativity, knowledge and imagination to a whole new world.