Nancy Nigrosh

Instructor Biography:

MFA/MA, former talent and literary agent at Innovative Artists and Gersh Agency, who has represented many award winning writers and directors for film and television including Academy Award winner Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), Stuart Beattie (Collateral, Pirates Of The Caribbean), Amanda Brown (Legally Blonde), Leslye Headland (Russian Doll), Luke Davies (Lion, Beautiful Boy), among many others.

Instructor Statement:

Storytelling is mostly a problem-solving exercise of the imagination, but to have a successful career as a storyteller is to master a different set of problem solving skills in the real world.

Beyond writing…how does a screenwriter enter the profession? To truly accomplish this, a writer must develop an understanding of the profession itself. As an agent it was my job to help keep my clients focused on the importance of realistic behavior in all their professional dealings.

My teaching philosophy is simple. I’m with Socrates, who said the first step to knowledge is recognition of one’s ignorance. Hearsay, urban legends, big lies, common misapprehension, gossip, old wives’ tales, superstition, ‘if onlys’, ‘what ifs’, sad truths, actual testimony and apocryphal stories about the entertainment business will be examined. Out of this examination, a greater understanding of the multiple forces that drive the business of entertainment will be revealed.

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