Dawn Spinella is an award-winning writer, director, actor and producer. He shorts Creme Brulee and The Joymaker are active on the film festival circuit internationally. She won the Alfred P. Sloane award for screenwriting and was nominated for the Humanitis award while a grad student at UCLA. Spinella employs extensive research for her projects and enjoys building complex, multi-layered worlds firmly rooted in reality by way of the characters who inhabit them. Dawn is passionate about sharing her skill through teaching, mentoring and helping her students win screenwriting accolades. Miss Spinella organizes the annual American Screenwriting Conference and oversees the screenplay division of the Sacramento International Film Festival.
She’s worked with filmmakers: Dustin Lance Black (MILK), Bobby Moresco (CRASH), Paula Wagner (MISSION IMPOSSIBLE), and Wolfgang Petersen. She’s a filmmaking mentor for the Youth Cinema Project and holds an MFA in Screenwriting (UCLA) and an MA in Creative Writing.