© 2024

 

AUTHOR
SCREENWRITER
PLAYWRIGHT

The most recent tv gig for me was as Co-EP of the third season of 6-time Emmy Award-winning AFTER FOREVER, dropping this Spring on Amazon. I directed the stage musical adaptation of my book MR. CONFIDENTIAL at Actors Theatre of Indiana in April, where we played to a sold-out run. My next book, STARRING JOAN CRAWFORD will be published by Applause Books on June 4, 2024, and I just delivered the manuscipt to the punlisher for CESAR ROMERO: THE JOKER IS WILD, due ut possibly by Christmas. It is the first bio of the star. Next up is a book about Roddy McDowall for Kensington Press, due at the end of the year, and I plan to be in LA, NY and SF in May and June for the launch of the Joan Crawford book during Pride. (The publicists asked me if I would be comfortable appearing at a book signing in drag as Joan. I declined, as I am a serious author. And I don't look good in ankle straps.)

When asked to summarize myself, I usually say something about how my life and writing reflect the wild intersections of modern life. Because they do. I was born to an undocumented Mexican mother who passed as white with a fake name, and a Jewish father who moved us to Cairo for a year while Israel and Egypt were stil at war. According to my grandmother he was busy selling arms to the Palestinians while we were there. I should note that she was not known as a reliable witness. All I remember is lots of mysterious men with dark, flashing eyes, coming and going at night. Those are my clearest early memories, being a gay Jewish 6-year-old surrounded by hot Egyptians, without a clear way of expressing myself. I lived in my head a lot, spinning stories, as I grew up all over the world: Cairo, Honolulu, Austin, Phoenix, Albuquerque, New York, Los Angeles, and Ft. Collins, Colorado.

Husband Ronald Shore and I have been together since 1994 and split our time between Los Angeles and Porto, Portugal. We co-founded BABYHEAD PRODUCTIONS in 1997, and have married each other three times now. The first was a non-legally binding ceremony performed by our rabbi in 1996 in LA. We married again in Canada in 2003 when it became legal there. Then for good measure we got legally married again in the United States in 2013 when Prop. 8 was struck down. We are exploring the possibility of marrying again in Portugal now that we have begun the process of obtaining dual citizenship there. Soon will then be able to live and work anywhere in the E.U. Of late we like this idea very much. In 2016 I became a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) to a fantastic foster kid. You can meet him in a CASA video HERE. He is how almost 20 years-old and we are still in touch. I have been a facilitator for LGBTQIA+ youth rap groups and designed and co-chaired a mentoring program for high school writers. Ronald and I are currently being held hostage by three incorrigible DACHSHUNDS. Send help.

AWARDS: THE SECRET WORLD OF DANNY LOPEZ WGA Writers Access Program Honoree for Television Comedy; New York Film Awards Best Screenplay; Los Angeles Film Awards Best Comedy Screenplay; C21 International Drama Summit Nominee Best Drama Pilot Script ELEPHANT & CASTLE London Independent Film Award Best Screenplay, Special Commendation British Independent Film Festival Best Unproduced Screenplay BOBBIE'S GIRL GLAAD Nominee Best TV Film; Emmy Nomination Bernadette Peters; Advocate Top Ten Television Events of the Year LULU eLit Silver Medal; Finalist: Int’l Book Award; Finalist:Next Generation Indie Award SILENT LIES Houston Int’l Film Festival Gold; Charleston International Film Festival Silver MR. CONFIDENTIAL (non-fiction book) Hermes Best Non-Fiction; Foreword Book of the Year Finalist MR. CONFIDENTIAL (stage musical) Anna Sosenko Trust Grant; NYMF Individual Performance UNCOMMON HEROES American Library Association Stonewall Book Award.