I’m submitting a script to a screenplay competition and to
an agent that accepts unsolicited material. Both ask for a biography. Common
sense says to keep it short and sweet–and spell everything correctly. But
I’m finding it very hard to write anything other than a two or three sentence
summation of my education and career (none of which is entertainment related
and all of which is surely boring). I suppose I could add something about my
interests or goals as a writer, but does anyone care? Any advice or guidance
would be greatly appreciated.
–MA
Here’s my all-purpose screenwriter bio. Change the relevant details
to match.
Mark
Anonymous hails from Osh Kosh, Pennsylvania, the zipper capital of
the world.
The son of average suburbanites, he found escape
from the crushing sameness of early-90’s America through the films of Pedro Almodovar
and Lars Van Trier. Inspired to become a rule-breaking filmmaker, he
dedicated himself to learning the rules so that he might break them more
fully and artistically. To this end, he earned a bachelor’s degree
in communications from Oberlin, where he made stylish and inscrutable
films. Forced to take a slave-job at The Gap in order to repay monumental
student loans, he turned his attention to screenwriting, hand-scribing
his first feature-length screenplay during
slow periods in Men’s
Wear.
That script wasn’t very good. However, his second screenplay, A SWIFTLY
TILTING DOUGHNUT, turned out great. A light-hearted riff on Joseph Conrad’s
HEART OF DARKNESS, DOUGHNUT tells the story of a Krispy Kreme manager
sent to close an unprofitable store in the Florida panhandle.
Mark is 25 and lives in Pittsburg.