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 Budget: $1M - $5M | Fantasy ⋄ Drama 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.
Fruit Fly Budget: $1M - $5M | Comedy ⋄ Drama A gender non-conforming, fashion school drop-out rages against an unaccepting world, until they’re forced to live with their closeted Republican dad and set out to prove the haters wrong and live a life of ultimate fabulousness.
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, conniving 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 struggling, single mom and Dreamer enlists the help of her trans-masculine goth teen and their band of queer renegades to create the ultimate taco and save her failing food truck.
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 - Quarterfinalist - Big Break Screenwriting Contest
(2023)
2023 - Quarterfinalist - Shore Scripts 1-Hour TV Pilot
(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)