Screenwriting rep.: Sandy Martinez of MCM.
Currently, I'm working on a number of television pilot projects including The Waste, a procedural about a corrupt cop, set in 1970s Montreal; Drama, a dark comedy series; and The Claddagh Ring, a fictionalized account of my grandfather who, in 1950s Montreal, while raising eight children and wheelchair-bound, becomes head of the city's Irish mob. Vike, a fantasy-mystery/procedural television series that was a Finalist in the Filmmatic Drama Screenplay Awards and a winner in the WildSound Film Festival Fantasy/Sci-Fi competition for Best TV Pilot; here's an interview I did for that, as well as the prize: a live reading of the opening scene. Vike was also a Semi-Finalist in the 2022 ReelHeART International Film and Screenplay Festival, and in the Fade In Awards Drama Competition.
My espionage series, Die Ahle (The Awl), won Best Pilot at the 2023 San Pedro International Film Festival. It features an English-born, German spy in pre-WW2 England who receives orders from German intelligence to sabotage and kill in the little Yorkshire town where she grew up. It was also Finalist in the Filmmatic TV Pilot Awards, in the Screenwriters Network Pilot Competition, as well as in the Feel the Reel International Film Festival of Glasgow, and in the Seattle Film Summit.
Also completed is a bilingual serial comedy set in the late-80s about a theatre school in Montreal where debauchery is forbidden, called Dramical (the school is called "Dramécole"—same pronunciation). It won the award for Best Unproduced Short Script at the Montreal Independent Film Festival in 2023.
My first professional TV writing gig is tentatively titled Litsa's World: A Taste of Antiquity; it's a Greek cooking show that traces the mysteries of mythology and how they relate to traditional Greek cuisine.
Future projects include Lost Twenties, a comedy series about an eccentric group of friends and roommates who work together at a chain restaurant; Indoctrine, a drama series exploring a fictional death cult in Quebec; and Seek the Sacred, about a teenage boy trying to save his beloved uncle's failing memory by journeying to a fantasy world begot by progressive rock.
In 2021, I completed a Master of Arts in Creative Writing with Distinction from Teesside University (UK, distance learning). In 2020 I released Harmony Street, a collection of stories and a novella, purchasable via Amazon:
A number of my prose pieces have been published (online and in print):
- Provenance Journal
- Commuter Lit
- 11 Mag Berlin
- Flashes
- Anti-Heroin Chic
- Strands Lit Sphere
- Versification
- Sledgehammer Lit (poem)
- The Metaworker
- Spelk Fiction
- The Junction
- The Cabinet of Heed
- Anti-Heroin Chic
- Black Dog Review
- (mac)ro(mic)
- Fictive Dream
- Spadina Literary Review
- Black Dog Review (poem)
- Talking Soup Magazine
- Pulp Metal Magazine
- Open Pen London
- The Danforth Review
- untethered (print only)
- Menda City Review
- Transition Magazine (print)
- The Fiction Pool
- Soft Cartel
- (Cult)ure Magazine
- Mulberry Fork Review
- Urban Graffiti
- Foliate Oak
The Anorak, my solo show about the Montreal Massacre and the life and death of Marc Lépine, has been critically acclaimed, and won the 2007 Montreal English Critics Circle award for Best Text. The play was last performed in December 2019, for the 25th anniversary of the tragedy, with Alex Dubois acting. Previous external productions include the french translation in Quebec City (with Gaetan Rancourt acting), and two UK productions including London, England, Off West End, in July 2014, with Felix Brunger in the main role, directed by Matthew Gould. The play appeared at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival by No Frills Theatre Company of Kent, England, with Andrew Hogarth directing and Finn McGee acting. A future production is scheduled in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in Portuguese.
I have made several films that were Official Selections in international festivals, and have won awards. Check out Ack, No Ledge Films for details. My latest is a film version of The Anorak, completed in Spring, 2021, named Finalist in the 2021 SoCal (Southern California) Film Awards, and an Official Selection of the Docs Without Borders International Film Festival in Delaware, USA. Past film collaborations include working with Denis Villeneuve (on Polytechnique), Rakeen Saad (on Foreign Language), Elizabeth Anne (on Bridges Over Montreal) and Elias C. Varoutsos and Chris Alsop (on Montreal Hearts).
Based in Montreal, I'm married to a gorgeous wife, and we have four young children. I'm also the current president of the Monkland Community Centre, where all my classes are held. Life is crazy.
Please check back regularly for updates, and feel free to contact me with feedback.
Thanks for stopping by.
