Steven Awalt
Steven Awalt wants to help the world laugh through creating silly things, whether on the page or screen. In such, his writing focuses on comedy, specifically genre comedy—horror, sci-fi or fantasy, animated and live-action. His short film
The Mundanity of The Christ was a selection in the LA Comedy Film Festival and The Great Canadian Comedy Festival. And despite his penchant for the humorous side of life, Awalt also has a serious side when it comes to movies. He has
written extensively on the career of Steven Spielberg for over two decades, including in his book,
Steven Spielberg and Duel: The Making of a Film Career, about the making of Spielberg’s breakout 1971 thriller. Awalt served as the founding editor and digital content producer for Amblin.com, the official website of Spielberg’s Amblin Partners production company, from 2018-2022 More recently, Awalt has been working on books on the making of Joe Dante’s
Gremlins and Richard Donner’s
The Goonies.
Angelisa Cortorreal
Angelisa Cortorreal is a technical writer earning her screenwriting MFA at DePaul University. She obtained her undergraduate degree in creative writing from Hunter College. She has a background in playwriting and has participated in the TDF Young Playwrights Group for three years. Afterwards, she worked for TDF as a playwriting intern for the school year. She worked as a development intern for the Webby Awards, where she honed her research, organizational, and communication skills. Their writing tends to capture the lows of human experience in an upbeat and atypical manner. They love collaborating with other DePaul students and have two short films in pre-production. One Short is about a teenage girl who begins to see the ghost of her recently deceased Dominican mother while on her first day on the job as a cashier. The other Short is about a homeless man who is determined to make enough money to eat a Chicago hotdog.
Nicole Cunanan
Nicole Cunanan is a nerdy screenwriter from Virginia by way of the Philippines. Joining the screenwriting MFA program at DePaul is her first foray in screenwriting, but she’s been a storyteller and writer her whole life. She writes grounded dramas, dramedies, and rom-coms and uses her characters to speak about the immigration experience, intergenerational divides, different types of love, and criticisms about the status quo. She graduated with a BA in women’s, gender and sexuality studies from American University, so she has a lot to say about the state of the world. Outside of writing, she’s an avid baker, activist, cat mom, and hopeless romantic.
Lucas Cunningham
Lucas Cunningham is a writer, runner, and filmmaker from Bellingham, WA. He’s currently enrolled in DePaul’s Screenwriting MFA program, concentrating in comedy through The Second City. Lucas also runs Division 1 track and cross-country for DePaul. Go Blue Demons! Before coming to DePaul, he received BAs in media studies and environmental physics from Pomona College in Claremont, CA. He loves everything outdoors and tells stories that aim to bring us closer to the natural world, and to each other.
Mini Dallison
Mini Dallison is a comic and screenwriter based out of Chicago, Illinois. She earned her undergraduate degree from Coastal Carolina University in physical theatre. She is currently earning her M.F.A. in comedic screenwriting and is set to graduate in 2025.
Mawou Djelhi Yahot
Mawou Djelhi Yahot is a writer and filmmaker from Maryland where she pursued her bachelor’s degree in film & theatre studies at Towson University in 2023. Though she started pursuing acting right out of high school, she quickly realized storytelling was her true passion and has been pursuing it since. In 2019, she was able to get published in the Sligo Journal and just a few years later got nominated in at the Paris International Film Festival and the FilmJoint, based in Lagos, Nigeria. Born to Ivorian immigrants, she uses storytelling to comment on what is perceived as social norms, through culture and characters, she loves to challenge her audience’s perspective and spark a discussion. She’s currently pursuing her MFA in Screenwriting at DePaul University.
Emily Finger
Emily Finger is a screenwriter who is currently based out of Chicago, Illinois. She received her BA in film and visual media studies from Carnegie Mellon University in 2023 and is currently enrolled in DePaul University’s screenwriting MFA program, set to graduate in the spring of 2025. Outside of writing, Emily is an avid sports fan and participated as a NCAA student-athlete during her time at Carnegie Mellon.
Marty Fletcher
Marty Fletcher is a screenwriter and self-published author from the Southside of Chicago. She’s written three books including
The Better Than Best Friend Guide, which was awarded Finalist by the National Indie Excellence Awards (NIEA). Marty is currently enrolled in DePaul University’s MFA screenwriting program with a concentration in comedy, in collaboration with The Second City. Her goal is to write comedy features with African American women as main characters.
Chet Haase
Chet worked for decades as a software developer and leader in Silicon Valley, most recently for fourteen years on the Android team at Google. On the side, he wrote humor and nonfiction and performed comedy and presented many technical talks related to his job and expertise. His writing includes short pieces on
Medium.com as well as several books (two programming, three humor, and one tech history).
Jona Inman
Jona Inman is a comedy screenwriter, actor, and pest who calls his exasperated mother for decision-making help even though he already knows what he's going to do. A Spain-born American who started school in Saudi Arabia, he knows his way around an Islamic prayer call, though the only mosque he's set foot in was by the Dome of the Rock. Jona pluckily earned a BA in theatre arts studies, acting emphasis, from Brigham Young University and also graduated from The Second City Hollywood’s Comedy Improv Conservatory and UCLA’s Professional Programs in Screenwriting and in Acting for Film. While in the Acting for Film program, Jona won the program-wide pitch contest, pitching his original actor vehicle “The MSA Ward,” a Mormon-based dark comedy series, to a panel of industry professionals. His win was published by Deadline in July 2023. A serial healing guru, catch Jona viciously devouring plants, stretching yoga style, and jamming to hypnotherapy tracks...and to Kylie Minogue.
Kirtana Iwamoto
Kirtana Iwamoto is intent on giving the world a string of digestible fiesta pepper lights of what it means to be a forever learner. Having relentlessly if reluctantly clawed up the cultural cliffs of being born an Indian in America, attending high school as an American in India, working as an East-Indian-American software dev in Canada, and generally dabbling in everything, you’ll likely see her knitting something really bright in a quiet corner. With a love for ‘80s family-friendly flicks and in-depth knowledge of Tamil film, Kirtana is determined to introduce deliberate but virtually undetectable multicultural easter eggs in her work for the enjoyment of audiences who share her ilk of obscure experiences in life. Her dream superpower is to possess the tenacity of a soft baby’s bottom; that superpower that allows them to fall SPLAT! but get right back up again because the world is too beautiful to miss.
Will Kanter
Will Kanter is a screenwriter, performer, and game master who is inspired by stories that approach life’s challenges with a wry grin and a ready sense of humor. After graduating magna cum laude from The Theatre School at DePaul University, Will moved back to his hometown of Champaign, where he used his BFA in theatre arts and talent for writing as a launchpad into the arts world as an enthusiastic entertainer. Before returning to Chicago in pursuit of his MFA in comedy screenwriting, Will wrote film and theater reviews for the online publication
Smile Politely, worked tirelessly at the local escape room (and gained a lot of comedy material in the process), and honed his voice at weekly comedy open mics. In his writing, Will is passionate about destigmatizing mental illness and promoting equity for people with disabilities. Will’s favorite book is
The Hobbit and his favorite movie is
Fargo.
Lauren King
Lauren King is a screenwriter from Prince George’s County, Maryland. In 2020, she graduated from Towson University with a bachelor’s degree in English with a focus in writing. She is currently enrolled in DePaul University’s MFA screenwriting program, set to graduate in 2025. She is interested in writing stories that explore complex relationships, what it means to “come of age” in different age brackets and life chapters, as well as what it means to come to terms with one’s past through a mystery, dramatic, or sci-fi lens. She hopes to one day become a showrunner and create her own television shows as well as her own production company.
Hannah Lindvall
Hannah Lindvall is a Chicago-based screenwriter and filmmaker, specializing in documentary, music video, and narrative content. Fascinated by the drama of the everyday, Hannah’s work delves into the intricacies of human relationships both real and imagined. In addition to pursuing her MFA at DePaul University, Hannah is a multi-platform producer for NBC Chicago, where she has produced, shot, and edited segments for
Chicago Today and
It’s OK to Ask Questions. She is also a co-founder of Studio Estro, an all-female music video production company. In 2021, Hannah graduated from Northwestern University with a BA in radio/television/film and commercial music. Her directorial debut,
It’s Not You, It’s Me, played at a number of festivals and received the Outstanding Student Film Award from the Short. Sweet. Film Fest and the Best Drama Award from the Fault Line Film Festival.
Julia Makarsky
Julia Makarsky is a comedy screenwriter from St. Louis, Missouri. Originally a theater kid, she graduated with a BA in theatre from Missouri State University in 2022, but has since reformed. Shortly after, her coming-of-age feature script,
Submerged, won a Screenwriting Award of Excellence at the BEA Festival of Media Arts. She has also written, produced, and directed her dark comedy web series,
The Pledge, taken classes at Second City Chicago, and served as a producer for DePaul University’s Big Shoulders International Student Film Festival. In her writing, she focuses on the connections that lead people to find their own chosen families, the joy of silliness, and the personality style of being incredibly sarcastic.
Tanner Maschka
Tanner Maschka is a screenwriter currently based in Chicago, IL. He received his BFA in film and television from DePaul University in 2022 and is currently enrolled in DePaul University's MFA screenwriting program, set to graduate in the spring of 2025. When not re-writing scripts, Tanner collaborates, in various capacities, on projects with fellow Chicago filmmakers.
Brisha McDowell
Brisha McDowell is a screenwriter, filmmaker, and a bonafide hustler from Indianapolis, Indiana. She studied cinema & media arts with a concentration in production studies at Indiana University where she received her bachelor’s degree. Before joining DePaul's screenwriting MFA program, she split her time working as a development intern in Los Angeles at production companies owned by Sam Raimi and Mona Scott-Young all while developing and shooting her own short film projects. Brisha was an intern when projects like Umma, starring Sandra Oh, and WeTV's reality television series
Tamar Braxton: Get Ya' Life were under development. Although Brisha gained valuable hands-on experience at these internships, she realized that being on set for long hours isn't that glamorous and she really wanted to focus on her screenwriting skills. Brisha is a true observationist who incorporates her passion and sometimes paranoia to craft horror stories and tales centered around her experiences as a black woman.
Ryan McKenna
Ryan McKenna is a screenwriting MFA student from Atlanta, Georgia, who is not infrequently made fun of by his friends for liking "black-and-white movies no one's heard of". His favorite movies are
The Thing, State of Siege, Kiss Me Deadly, and
Ghost in the Shell. He likes to write genre movies, particularly science fiction, fantasy, and horror, while also having an interest in historical drama.
Raleigh Nezzer
An offbeat, quirky, and resolute individual, Raleigh Nezzer is a lifelong cinephile and movie nerd. Though they’re an Austinite at heart, in 2023 they returned to Chicago to pursue their MFA. in screenwriting. They hope to write films that explore the dark and unpleasant sides of the human psyche, as well as many films about vampires as possible. They hold two bachelor’s degrees from Loyola University Chicago, one in film & digital media production, and one in Latin. While an undergraduate, they fell in love with the art of screenwriting, and its particular position between mechanics and art. They’re a lover and a fighter, passionate about equitable representation and socially conscious art, and they don’t believe these ideas are mutually exclusive with entertainment.
Colleen Ochab
Colleen Ochab is a writer and screenwriter based out of the northwest Chicago suburbs. She writes primarily fantasy and is driven to bring more female voices and protagonists to the fantasy space. As a breast cancer survivor, Colleen has crafted her unique motto “Fight for the Fairytale; it does exist” to encompass and motivate everything she does. Her first book, titled the same, is due to be released in late 2024 or early 2025, a self-growth and fantasy crossover! Colleen is inspired by films like
Lord of the Rings and
Pirates of the Caribbean, and TV shows like
The Witcher and
Stranger Things—she loves to craft unique and compelling worlds. She also is committed to the Bookstagram and BookTok communities, hoping to help more aspiring writers get their novels published and then created into movies or series. When not focused on writing, Colleen loves to weight lift, travel, and spend time with her rescue dogs.