MENTORS
Tobin Addington
Sreenwriter & Director
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Tobin Addington is a screenwriter and director whose work has won awards from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Hallmark Development Fund, the Slamdance Screenplay Competition, and the Page International Screenwriting Awards. He wrote the screenplay for the 2021 film A Christmas Stray, which premiered on the Oprah Winfrey Network and Discovery+. Tobin’s work has been optioned by Academy Award nominated producers, produced by Netflix, and his short films have screened in more than 40 film festivals worldwide, winning numerous awards. A graduate of Columbia University’s MFA Film Program, Tobin now lives with his family in Missoula, Montana and has finally — finally — learned to ski.
Bri Castellini
Writer & Director
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Bri Castellini is a bi, asexual writer/director of dialog-driven drama that errs on the side of comedy at the intersection of queerness, aggressively ambitious female leads, mental health, and unlicensed private detectives with her eye on the prize; writing and directing for television. In the meantime, she writes, directs, and produces independent shorts and web series. Her tone is best exemplified by the 2017 award-winning short Ace and Anxious, which just surpassed 155k views on YouTube and was previously distributed by the queer streaming platform RevryTV. When she's not on set, she's the co-host of the podcasts Burn, Noticed and Breaking Out of Breaking In, about the USA television series Burn Notice and independent film production, respectively. She can also lick her elbow (not clickbait)
David Wappel
Screenwriter & Writing Educator
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David Wappel is a feature screenwriter and writing educator. He wrote the screenplay for Long Gone By (HBO) and worked on projects such as Angel Has Fallen, 1BR, and Quest of the Muscle Nerd. Wappel also works as a story analyst for multiple management and production companies, as well as one-on-one with writers. When not talking about screenwriting, he's probably talking about Middle-earth, Shakespeare, or sailing.
C.C. Webster
Screenwriter & Writing Educator
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C.C. Webster, who earned an MFA in Directing and Screenwriting from Columbia University’s School of the Arts, crafts stories about folks who live paycheck to paycheck in those small towns between big cities. She is consistently inspired and writes about the dreamers and underdogs of the world. She has had projects in development with various producers and directors. She has had the privilege to be selected for the prestigious Writers Lab--sponsored by Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep, Stowe Narrative Story Lab. Squaw Valley Writers Conference, and has been a finalist for the Sundance Lab and the Black List Feature Lab. She has taught writing at Westchester Community College, Sarah Lawrence College, Gotham Writers Workshop, and most recently Sundance Collab.
Katherine Street
Sreenwriter
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Katherine Street is an LA-based award-winning screenwriter and Philadelphia native. A cinephile at heart, she writes female-driven stories with complex (oftentimes damaged) main characters, centered around self-discovery, self-love, and belonging. She has written numerous short-form projects, including original pilots and features, along with her flagship web series "The New Adult,” which is currently streaming on Kweli TV. She earned her degree from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts with a concentration in Cinematography. She is repped by Culture Creative Entertainment.
Rachel Vine
Writer
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Rachel Vine is a writer with experience across live-action, animation, and features. She is currently developing a YA single-cam comedy at HBOMax and a kids' animated series at Spinmaster. Previously she was at Disney TV Animation under an overall deal and served as Head Writer of the Peabody Award-Winning series The Owl House. She got her start teaching screenwriting at the MFA level and has developed a number of feature films. She is a mother of two and likes to nerd out about California native plants and Jungian takes on mythology.
Michael Connors
Filmmaker
Michael Connors is an award-winning filmmaker whose films have played festivals worldwide, including Tribeca, London and Austin. He made his feature film directing debut with Allegiance, starring Aidan Quinn and Pablo Schreiber.
Michael produced the award- winning feature film Amira and Sam by director Sean Mullin and produced It Ain’t Over, the definitive documentary about New York Yankees legendary catcher, Yogi Berra, which is scheduled to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2022. Michael also directed episodes for Uncaberet, an unscripted series for Amazon about the legendary Los Angeles-based alternative comedy show. He is currently in development on the feature film Ashland Falls.
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Michael is the winner of the National Board of Motion Pictures Award and the IMAX Outstanding Achievement in Motion Pictures Award. He holds a BA from Harvard University concentrating in Political Science and his MFA in Directing from Columbia University’s Film Division.
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Kara Storti
Fiction Writer
Kara Storti is an award-winning young adult fiction writer. Her first published book, Tripping Back Blue, won the gold medal for the Independent Publisher Book Awards in Young Adult Fiction. She graduated from the University of Southern Maine with an MFA in Creative Writing. Throughout her career, she has mentored aspiring writers, taught high school and college writing classes, and edited books for other authors. She is currently finishing up her next novel about a teen with epilepsy who travels to other dimensions through her seizures. She lives with her husband in “Witch City” Salem, Massachusetts and practices tarot card readings with her dog Osmosis.
Matthew McCue
Writer & Producer
Matthew J. McCue is a writer and producer from New York. He is a Fulbright and Bavaraian State Scholar who earned his M.F.A. in screenwriting from Columbia University. His first produced screenplay The Track won Best First Feature at the Las Vegas Film Festival and is currently available on Prime.
Matthew was a two-time screenwriting fellow to Puglia, Italy where he was mentored by James Hart (Hook), David Magee (Finding Neverland), and Nicole Yorkin & Dawn Prestwich (“The Killing”). Matthew then worked as the writers assistant on Yorkin & Prestwich's new Netflix series “Hit & Run.” Afterward, he worked for Soo Hugh (“The Terror”) on her adaptation of the hit novel “Pachinko” for Apple TV, where Matthew co-wrote an episode along with Hugh.
Currently, Matthew is working as the Staff Writer for Michael Chabon & Ayelet Waldman on the adaptation of Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.” When not writing, Matthew rows, boxes, plays an adequate ukulele, and listens to a lot of David Bowie.
Cal Armistead
Fiction Writer
KCal Armistead is a novelist, journalist, essayist, and (most recently), a screenwriter. Cal got her start writing and illustrating her own books and stories in elementary school, and never stopped. She has written for The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, Shape Magazine, Christian Science Monitor, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and other publications. Cal’s award-winning young adult novel Being Henry David was published in 2013. Recently, she completed a screen adaptation of Being Henry David, and is actively introducing it to the world of film. Cal holds an MFA in creative writing from the Stonecoast program at the University of Southern Maine, is a voice-over actress, sings semi-professionally, and lives in a Boston suburb that is a mere seven miles from the cool, clear waters of Walden Pond.