Independent Screenwriter / Director dividing his time between Denver, CO and Palm Springs, CA. Mark's writing focuses on the struggles and impact of the LGBTQI+ community. "I feel representation is not enough. Inclusivity is not enough. LGBTQI+ stories span centuries and we have just started to explore the breadth of this history. I hope to bring a few of these tales to light. The queer community aren't merely supporting characters. The time has come for our stories to take center stage."
Life During Wartime - Pilot Episode Budget: $1M - $5M | Drama ⋄ Comedy Rejected by friends, his career in shambles, an alcoholic, gay actor seeks refuge in a Palm Springs trailer park inhabited by Hollywood has-beens, where he struggles with sobriety, HIV, caring for his mentally declining mother, while battling 80’s AIDS hysteria.
The Ass of G.A.W.D. Budget: $10M - $30M | Drama ⋄ Comedy When he suffers a humiliating injury on live television, a reclusive washed-up queer punk rock star must choose between desperate solitude or recover his lust for life by forgiving those who hurt him in the past.
Blame It On The Bossa Nova (Lower East Side Story) Budget: $1M - $5M | Drama ⋄ Independent After undergoing electroshock therapy, a closeted, emotionally-fragile playwright moves to Manhattan's beatnik-inhabited Lower East Side to rebuild his life, only to be undermined by his social-climbing, vindictive sister, who plots to cut him from the family inheritance and send him back to the sanitarium.
Fairy Tale High Budget: $5M - $10M | Drama ⋄ Independent As the 70's disco era comes to an end, a sexually-confused teen befriends a gender-ambiguous punk exchange student who encourages him, against his family's strict Fundamentalist beliefs, to shed all inhibitions and become himself.
Pepita Budget: $1M - $5M | Drama ⋄ Comedy With bankruptcy looming, a single mom Dreamer enlists the help of her trans-masculine goth teen and their band of queer renegades to create the ultimate taco and save the family's failing food truck.
Fruit Fly - Pilot Episode Budget: $1M - $5M | Comedy ⋄ Drama A gender non-conforming, fashion school drop-out rages against a hostile world, until they’re forced to live with their closeted Conservative father and sets out to prove the haters wrong by living a life of fabulousness as a female drag queen.
2024 - Quarterfinalist - Cinestory TV Fellowship
(2024)
2024 - Semifinalist - Creative Screenwriting Pilot Unique Voices
(2024)
2024 - Launchpad Pilot Competition - Top 100
(2024)
2024 - Page Turner Screenplays - First 15 - Semi-finalist
(2024)
2024 - Winner - Best TV Pilot - Palm Springs International Screenwriting Awards
(2024)
Coverfly Red List - Top TV Drama for 10 months
(2024)
2023 - Quarterfinalist - Screencraft Film Fund
(2023)
2023 - Semi-finalist - Atlanta Film Festival
(2023)
2023 - Second Round - ISA Fast Track Fellowship
(2023)
2023 - Winner - Writers X Writers
(2023)
2023 - Finalist - Stowe Story Labs - Diverse Voices Fellowsip
(2023)
2023 - Quarterfinalist - Emerging Screenwriters Drama
(2023)
2023 - Finalist - Filmmatic Drama Screenplay
(2023)
2023 - Quarterfinalist - Script Pipeline TV Writing
(2023)
2023 - Semifinalist - Creative Screenwriting Pilot Screenplay
(2023)
2023 - Coverfly Red List Top 20 TV dramas and top 1%
(2023)
2023 - Semi-finalist - Big Break Screenwriting Contest
(2023)
2023 - Quarterfinalist - Shore Scripts 1-Hour TV Pilot
(2023)
2023 - Top 50 - ISA Fast Track Fellowship
(2023)
2022 Quarterfinalist - Cinestory TV Retreat
(2022)
2022 Quarterfinalist - Pitch Now Screenwriting Competition (Season 4)
(2022)
2022 Second Round - ISA Fast Track Fellowship
(2022)
2022 Winner - Top 50 - ISA Fast Track Fellowship
(2022)
2022 Finalist - Santa Barbara Screenplay Awards Diverse Writers Outreach
(2022)
2022 Genre Winner - ISA Fast Track Fellowship
(2022)
2023 Quarterfinalist - Screencraft TV Pilot Competition
(2022)
2023 Quarterfinalist - Table Read My Screenplay - Park City
(2022)
2022 - Emerging Screenwriters Genre Screenplay
(2022)
2021 Semifinalist - Series Fest Storytellers Initiative
(2021)
2021 Quarterfinalist - WeScreenplay Diverse Voices
(2021)
2021 Quarterfinalist - Emerging Screenwriters Genre Screenplay Competition
(2021)
2021 Finalist - Austin Film Festival Virtual Pitch Competition
(2021)
2021 Script Competition Second Rounder - Austin Film Festival
(2021)
2021 Winner - ISA Virtual Pitch Challenge
(2021)
2020 Official Selection - Stowe Story Labs
(2020)
2020 Quarterfinalist - Diversity Springboard Screenwriting Competition
(2020)
2020 Quarterfinalist - Cinestory TV Retreat Fellowship
(2020)
2020 Fellow Runner-Up - Lighthouse Litfest Advanced Workshop
(2020)
2019 Semifinalist - Writers for Writers Fellowship
(2019)
2017 Gold Winner - Screenplay , International Independent Film Awards
(2017)
2017 Finalist - Roadmap Writers Wise Words Writing Contest
(2017)
2017 Semifinalist - Screencraft Nicaragua's Writers Retreat
(2017)
2017 Quarterfinalist - Screencraft Jamaica Residency Program
(2017)
2016 Quarterfinalist - 3rd Annual Screencraft Screenwriting Fellowship
(2016)
Lighthouse Writers Workshop
(2011-2023)
Colorado Film School
(2009-2011)
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
(1993-1995)
San Francisco State University
(1988-1992)
The Art Institute of Colorado
(1980-1981)