WENDALL THOMAS | AUTHOR
Author Wendall Thomas @ Book Soup
SHORT BIO:
Wendall Thomas teaches in the Graduate Film School at UCLA, lectures internationally on screenwriting, and has worked as an entertainment reporter, development executive, script consultant, and film and television writer. Her first Cyd Redondo novel, Lost Luggage, was nominated for the Lefty and Macavity Awards for Best Debut Mystery of 2017. Her second, Drowned Under, was nominated for an Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original Mystery of 2019 as well as a Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery that year. Fogged Off was a finalist for Best Humorous Mystery of 2021 and the fourth Cyd Redondo mystery, Cheap Trills was the Lefty Award Winner for Best Humorous Mystery of 2023. Her short fiction appears in the crime anthologies Ladies Night, Last Resort, the Anthony nominated Murder-A-Go-Go’s, Crime Under the Sun, and the upcoming Hollywood Kills.
FULL BIO:
Since receiving her M.A. in English in 1986 from the University of North Carolina, Wendall Thomas has worked in Los Angeles as a casting director, director's assistant, script reader, story editor, development executive, entertainment reporter, script consultant, and screenwriter, writing and developing projects for companies including Disney, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Universal, Showtime, PBS, RKO, A&E, NBC, Scottish Screen, and Australia’s Tojohage Productions.
Her novel, Lost Luggage (Poisoned Pen Press), was nominated for the Lefty and Macavity Awards for Best Debut Mystery of 2017. Her second Cyd Redondo mystery, Drowned Under, was nominated for a Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery of 2019 and the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original 2019. Fogged Off was nominated for a Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery of 2021. The fourth Cyd Redondo novel, Cheap Trills, was the Lefty Award winner for Best Humorous Mystery of 2023. Her short fiction has appeared in the crime anthologies Ladies Night, Last Resort, Murder A-Go-Gos, Crime Under the Sun, and the upcoming Hollywood Kills. She also blogs with eight other international mystery writers at Murder is Everywhere (https://murderiseverywhere.blogspot.com/).
In addition to writing and consulting, she is in her twenty-eighth year as Adjunct Professor of Screenwriting in the Graduate Film School at UCLA, has been a Star Speaker for Creative Screenwriting’s Screenwriting Expo, and runs the Living Room Lecture series. She has consulted for the Atelier du Cinéma Européen Producing Program in Paris, served as Writer’s Mentor for Screen South’s Good Foundations program 2005-2007, and directed the LA FEATURES writer’s mentorship program in the UK for 2007-2009. She also consults for Australia's Film Victoria, Screen Australia, the South Australia Film Corporation, the New Zealand Film Commission, was the Director of Screen Queensland's SQ PROJECTOR program for emerging feature filmmakers (2014-2016), their RE-TOLD diversity program (2017-2018), and served as an Instructor and Mentor for their joint STAGE TO SCREEN initiative with the La Boîte Theatre in 2020.
As a lecturer, she has worked throughout Europe for the Arista Screenwriting Workshops and in the U.K. for the Welsh and Northern Irish Film Commissions, Northern Film and Media, the Folkstone Literary Festival, and Screen South. She has also presented a series of dialogue and rewrite workshops for the New Zealand Film Commission and was opening speaker for the Santa Fe Screenwriting Conference. She has presented her "Wendall Thomas Talks Scripts" series at the Melbourne International Film Festival since 2011 and presented 24 lectures for Screen Queensland in 2019/2020.
Her student/client projects include Talk Black (finalist 25th Annual HBO Short Film Award Showcase, Official Selection American Black Film Festival, Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival, Micheaux Film Festival 2022), Echo Base (Cartel Films, 2022), Dark Roots (DBS Films, 2022), Verity (Amazon Studios 2021), Untitled Will Honley/April Maguire series (NBC 2022), Escape Room 2 (Sony 2021), Lethal Weapon (Fox, 2019), Bloodline (Momentum Pictures, 2019), The Chi (Showtime 2017), Don't Tell (Audience Award Newport Beach Film Festival 2017), I'm Dying up Here (Showtime 2017), Superstore (NBC 2016), The Water Diviner (Warner Bros. 2015), Web Therapy (Fremantle Media/ Moviestar+ 2016), The Republic of Rick (official selection Slamdance Festival 2014), Any Day Now (winner Audience Award Tribeca 2012, Music Box Films, 2012), The Most Fun You Can Have Dying (Chocolate Fish Pictures/Rialto 2012). The Republic of Two (Winner Chris Brinker Award San Diego Film Festival, official selection Hollywood Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival, Circus Road Films 2012), The Space Between (Official Tribeca Selection 2010, USA Films 2011), and The Truth Below (MTV Films 2011).