Screenwriting Blog | Final Draft®

Vanessa King

Vanessa King is an NYC-based producer, screenwriter, and professor who has worked in development with top-level industry talent for nearly two decades. Her work as a writer has received numerous awards, having earned her recognition from industry bodies including AMPAS/Oscar’s Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship (feature) and Sony Worldwide Entertainment’s Emerging Filmmaker Program (TV Series). In 2005, she co-founded the New York Screenwriters Co-Op, New York’s only free-to-the-public screenwriting workshop with over 2000 active members. Vanessa is faculty at Gotham Writer’s Workshop (NYC) and Staffordshire University (UK), where she teaches both television and screenwriting to students, beginner to post-graduate. She recently was Showrunner of the TV pilot “Two Roads”, a concept she co-created and co-wrote for Sony’s VUE Network. Vanessa is passionate about diversity and inclusion within the industry and was a consultant on Final Draft Screenwriting Software’s Diversity and Inclusion product build. She’s a board member of the Diversity List, amplifying top scripts written by female-identifying and BIPOC writers. She is a judge for the Hip Hop Film Festival, The UCLA Graduate Screenwriter’s Showcase and The 24 Hour Film Festival. She was named one of The Huffington Post’s 13 Women To Watch and for three consecutive years, has been named to Vanity Fair’s “Downtown 100”, a list that recognizing New York’s top networkers in the entertainment industry. Originally from Canada, she lives in New York City.

Writer-Director Mali Elfman on her Tribeca debut 'Next Exit'

June 21, 2022

Next Exit is a sci-fi dramedy that debuted at 2022’s Tribeca Film Festival and follows the “what next” of characters Rose and Teddy, two strangers who end up sharing a rental car to drive across the country to meet with Dr. Stevenson for their rendez...

The creators of 'Fairfax' on clout culture and season 2

June 17, 2022

Celebrating the start of its second season, Final Draft sat down with Matt Hausfater, Aaron Buchsbaum and Teddy Riley, creators of the animated show Fairfax, a critically claimed “irreverent” comedy following the day-to-day life of thirteen-year-old ...

Writer-director Craig Pryce and 'The Marijuana Conspiracy'

December 29, 2021

In Toronto, Canada circa 1972 when marijuana was still considered highly controversial, young women looking for a fresh start in life endure isolated captivity in a true 98-day human experiment studying the effects of marijuana on females — a manufac...

Christian Sesma's 'Every Last One of Them' isn't your average shoot-'em-up

November 4, 2021

In writer-director Christian Sesma's Every Last One of Them, ex-Black Ops soldier Jake Hunter, played by Paul Sloan, finds himself at the center of a revenge story as he desperately seeks to find his missing daughter.

Snakehead': Evan Jackson Leong's homage to the '70s gangster

November 3, 2021

Sister Tse, played by the incredible Shuya Chang in Evan Jackson Leong's Snakehead announces in the opening, "I never believed in the American Dream — all I knew was how to survive." It's this comment that sets the stage for the remainder of the film...

Aharon Keshales talks pacing, character and 'South of Heaven'

October 13, 2021

Co-writer and director Aharon Keshales’ latest feature, South of Heaven features Jason Sudeikis as Jimmy, who we meet at the end of a jail sentence for armed robbery. The film opens with Jimmy pleading to the camera to be released so that he can marr...

Siân Heder's 'CODA': Writing and directing a film with deaf actors from a hearing person's perspective

August 19, 2021

CODA (also the acronym for Child of Deaf Adults) written and directed by Siân Heder follows Ruby (Emilia Jones), the only hearing person in her deaf family. A beautiful coming-of-age film with all the familiar genre beats, CODA takes the viewer on a ...

Timur Bekmambetov's 'Profile' explores terrifying aspects of our all-digital lives

May 21, 2021

Though we were headed there prior to the pandemic, it seems like everything in our lives has become digital — or at least has the option to be online — since March 2020. Where actual face time was a necessity of life, COVID-19 has enabled us to hide ...

The female powerhouse trio behind 'Golden Arm' discuss friendship and what makes good story

May 20, 2021

Maureen Bharoocha's Golden Arm, a female-driven comedy with a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer and could be this year's destined-for-cult-status-sleeper-hit, centers on female friendship and arm wrestling (yes, arm wrestling).