COMMUNITY
OUR STORIES
Dana
Braziel-Solovy
TV Writer
In true bisexual fashion, Dana Braziel-Solovy hates having to choose, so she writes all types of comedy television: workplace, high concept, dark, light, hard, female-driven.
As a former Chicago punk rocker, Dana knows how to rebel but promises only to do so for good. Through properly timed, insensitive jokes, she hopes to help people see the world differently. Dana believes strongly in interpersonal understanding, which is why she spent time in Berlin studying German and continues to learn the silent language of circus arts.
Having grown up with a suicidal mother, Dana knows the importance of safe forms of escapism. Her writing seeks to lessen pain through laughter. Dana's first foray, a comic book mini-series, landed her on the Diamond indie bestsellers list twice.
To support her compulsive writing habits, Dana works as a television Art Director with credits on shows such as CSI: VEGAS and WANDAVISION.
Denise Cruz-Castino
Television/Film
Denise Cruz-Castino has sold a live action short to Disney, her first feature 5 Weddings premiered at Cannes in 2018 and will play worldwide September 21, 2018. Her horror short was produced by Raving Eejit Entertainment, and her short, Things Look Grim, was produced by Sasha Golberg.
She’s currently writing and co-producing a WWII movie with Academy Award-winning producer Kim Magnuson and Neil Machlis. Her blog that helps newbie screenwriters, screenwriterwriting.blogspot, was named Website of the Week by Script Magazine. Her scripts have placed in Final Draft Big Break, Fade-In Screenwriting and Nicholl’s Fellowship contests.
Cara Morrison
TV/Features
Cara is a native Texan who grew up reading Pride and Prejudice and The Lord of the Rings with the conviction that some other world was better than the one she inhabited. While the stark reality of life has humorously weakened that belief (just a bit), her stories still carry that same sense of wonder, now intertwined with the sharp edge of reality that inevitably creeps in.
Her writing mixes a love for fantastical worlds with a sharp awareness of life’s messy realities. Digging into themes of identity, memory, and belonging, her stories often follow characters as they struggle between the pull of their idealized dreams and the hard truths they’d rather avoid. With a blend of dry humor, emotional depth, and a hint of the surreal, she aims to show how the ordinary holds its own kind of magic—if you look close enough.
Cara’s work has been featured at Romcom Fest LA, Mortified LIVE LA, and The Mortified Podcast’s episode, “My Diary is a Jane Austen Novel."
Julia Bergeron
Screenwriter
Julia Bergeron is an LA-based writer-director obsessed with telling stories about people forced to answer the question, “What would you do for family?” As the mom of a bio and an adopted kid, to her “family” means adoptive, step, found, and traditional. It’s all family to her!
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Phil Traill is set to direct her feature screenplay “Austen Time.” Her feature film, “Murder Van” (writer, co-producer) is in post and will premiere in August of 2023. She has written and directed 2 shorts, and won 3 festivals. Her other screenplays have finaled in AFF, Page, ScreenCraft, and Shore contests.
Meggie Spellman
Film and TV
Writer
Meggie started her writing career at the Dramatic Writing BFA program at SUNY Purchase's Conservatory for Theater Arts and Film.
After graduating, she started taking improv and sketch classes at the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theater in NYC. Since 2013, she has written for the UCB Theater’s sketch comedy night on their house Maude teams. She has also written and produced her own comedy variety show in various NYC theaters as part of the sketch duo Black Magic Lab. Her comedy writing also includes past work as a contributor to the Funny or Die NewsFlash App, where she wrote jokes about today’s top stories. Comedy articles of hers have also been featured on the female news satire blog Reductress and Funny or Die. Her work can be found on her website meggie-spellman.com.
Megan J. Wilson
Film and TV
Writer
Megan wrote her first play (a modern and irreverent take on the Three Little Pigs) at age 10. She chooses to believe the laughter from the audience was at the jokes, not at the effort.
Megan is a Seattle native. She’s worked at a publishing house in Seattle, a law firm in North Carolina, the NFL in New York, and a cannery in Alaska – and yes, there were bears. She was a writers assistant for 3 years in NYC, and she wrote and produced a 6-episode webseries (The Sanctum, 2009). She writes action/comedy with a side of sci-fi and often features stories with families dealing with mental illness. Her scripts have been quarter finalists for the PAGE Award, Script Pipeline and Austin Film Festival, and she currently has multiple projects in development.
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in 2018 she helped found the League of Women Writers, and Megan is also on the board of Chicks With Scripts. In her free time she likes snowboarding, quilting and writing graphic novels.
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Shana Holmes
TV Writer
Shana Holmes (no relationship to Sherlock) is a queer writer from Minnesota. She was a Disney Writers Program Semifinalist and is a participant in Ryan Reynold’s Group Effort Initiative. Shana got her start in improv and sketch comedy and now writes half-hour comedies featuring unconventional women, intergenerational relationships, and queer identity. After living across the world–Turkey, Taiwan, Mexico, and New York, to name a few–Shana is happily settled in Los Angeles. She spends her free time gazing adoringly at her two cats, getting scraped up at the climbing gym, and accidentally killing succulents.