CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2025 TV CONTEST SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS!

CineStory is pleased to award six scholarships for the 2025 TV Retreat & Fellowship Contest. These scholarships are made possible by generous donations from members of the CineStory community.

Many thanks to our donors, and congratulations to our scholarship winners!

(Pictured above, from left to right: Duncan Lewis, Ellen Ancui, Ruth Jiang, Kristen M. Scatton, Jo Harper, and Kasi Brown)

Duncan Lewis – CineStory Original Comedy TV Scholarship

The CineStory Original Comedy TV Scholarship is awarded to an outstanding writer whose TV pilot reached the semifinalist level or higher in the Original Comedy Division of the TV Retreat & Fellowship Contest. The winner is awarded a $500 tuition reduction for this year’s TV Retreat.

The winner of this year’s CineStory Original Comedy TV Scholarship is Duncan Lewis for his original comedy pilot ALL MY FRIENDS ARE GAY. In it, a closeted 16-year-old loner growing up in 2006 New York City has his world thrown when his estranged best friend and childhood crush comes out. In his journey to rekindle their friendship and take it into something possibly more, he falls into his friend’s underground clique of gay friends and together navigate the turbulence of high school, heartbreak, and everyday New York City life.

Duncan Lewis is a New York City-born and raised film and television writer who takes inspiration from the weird, the absurd, and the painfully real. He mostly focuses on comedic and/or young adult projects, probably because despite how hard he tries to run, he can never escape those embarrassing high school years. He graduated from Oberlin College and UCLA’s Professional Programs for Film and Television Writing. His works have placed in Big Break, ScreenCraft, WeScreenplay, TV Pilot Lab, and Austin Film Festival.

Ellen Ancui – CineStory Original Drama TV Scholarship Winner

The CineStory Original Drama TV Scholarship is awarded to an outstanding writer whose TV pilot reached the semifinalist level or higher in the Original Drama Division of the TV Retreat & Fellowship Contest. The winner is awarded a $500 tuition reduction for this year’s TV Retreat.

The winner of this year’s CineStory Original Drama TV Scholarship is Ellen Ancui for her original drama pilot THE SOLICITOR. In it, when a powerful, headstrong criminal defense attorney gets disbarred for sleeping with a client, she takes a job managing a rival firm’s struggling staff to prove her remorse and get her license reinstated.

Ellen Ancui is an award-winning, WGA writer for TV, film, theater and podcasts. Her special sauce, “traumadies,” is a mix of Catskills schtick blended with a feminist edge, featuring strong female protagonists who dig their own graves, but rebel as they climb their way out. Raised on Long Island, Ellen’s Sicilian mom converted for her Jewish dad but would sneak ham sandwiches in the garage, so it’s no wonder Ellen loves storytelling and food. She was a private chef in NYC for Oscar-winning writer Horton Foote, while running her theater, SOLO ARTS GROUP, where she gave the original Upright Citizens Brigade (Amy Poehler, Matt Walsh, Matt Besser & Ian Roberts) their first home.

Ellen moved to LA after the success of her two one-woman shows, ZEL REBELS! (Public Fringe) and JUMPING OFF THE FRIDGE (HBO Workspace). She was a staffed on the sitcom, MALCOLM & EDDIE (Sony) and her play GLORY PIE received rave reviews from Variety. Other professional credits: BROWN & FRIENDS (Netflix), BONNIE SCREWS UP (podcast), SIZZLER (Next Stage Press), and THE STORY OF DAVID (Braid Theater, LA.) Her directorial debut for her short film, SAVERIO, just won the Audience Award for Best Short at The Phoenix Film Festival. SAVERIO is being developed into a feature and actively looking for investors. Look out for Ellen’s new podcast, FILTHY MILFS, about sex for women of a certain age, on Spotify this summer.

Ruth Jiang – CineStory Original Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Scholarship Winner

The CineStory Original Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Scholarship is awarded to an outstanding writer whose TV pilot reached the semifinalist level or higher in the Original Sci-Fi/Fantasy Division of the TV Retreat & Fellowship Contest. The winner is awarded a $500 tuition reduction for this year’s TV Retreat.

The winner of this year’s CineStory Original Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Scholarship is Ruth Jiang for her original sci-fi/fantasy pilot SURGE. In it, a zombie-like virus has decimated humanity, triggered by emotional stress. A small community adept at managing their emotional flare-ups finds their survival threatened when a sociopathic group of predators arrives at their walls.

Ruth Jiang is a writer from Minnesota, now based in LA. She writes high-concept genre stories grounded in the real world where survival and morality collide. She is the 2023 winner of the Stowe Story Labs x Studio SKYFIRE fellowship. Her work has been recognized by Black List/Women in Film, CineStory, Slamdance, Script Pipeline and Screencraft, among others. Prior to diving into screenwriting, Ruth was a writer and publicist in the music industry. Her bylines include BANDCAMP, PITCHFORK, and THE FADER, and she has worked with artists from labels such as Universal Music Group and Republic Records.

Kristen M. Scatton – Bellem Entertainment TV Scholarship Winner

The Bellem Entertainment TV Scholarship is awarded to an outstanding woman writer with an engaging story to tell who is 40 years of age or older and whose TV Pilot reached the quarterfinalist level or higher in the Original Drama or Original Comedy Division of the TV Retreat & Fellowship Contest. The winner is awarded a $500 tuition reduction for this year’s TV retreat.

Bellem Entertainment seeks to empower women and support their stories.

The winner of this year’s Bellem Entertainment TV Scholarship is Kristen M. Scatton for her original drama pilot HELEN OF SPARTA. In it, teenage misfit Helen of Sparta discovers she’s the daughter of the Greek god Zeus, catapulting her into the spotlight, upending her relationship with the mortal family whose love she craves, and setting her on the course to being the legendary beauty at the center of the Trojan War.

Kristen M. Scatton is an LA-based screenwriter with a background in theatre and comedy and a passion for telling genre-blending stories about outcasts, underdogs, and rebels and uplifting underrepresented voices onscreen and behind the scenes. Her original one-hour coming of age fantasy dramedy pilot HELEN OF SPARTA was a 2nd Rounder in the 2024 Austin Film Festival Drama Teleplay competition and a Semifinalist for the 2025 CineStory TV Fellowship and Retreat.

Recent projects include the narrative short films EYE ON THE PRIZE (writer/producer) and SORORITY (co-writer/executive producer). She also served as story editor and producer for the festival-running short THE FUSCOS (Winner: Best Ensemble Award – 37th Annual Connecticut LGBTQ Film Festival; Female Perspective Award – Hollywood Int. Diversity Film Festival; Best Female Driven Ensemble – City of Angels Women’s Film Festival; Finalist: 2024 Blackmagic Collective Film Festival).

When not writing original TV pilots, screenplays and shorts, she writes and performs with the satirical news social media channel @dailymisinformer. Previously, she was the associate artistic director and resident playwright for Philadelphia-based feminist theater company ReVamp Collective, which produced her world premiere plays THE HELEN PROJECT and JIMMY GORSKI IS DEAD. She has an MFA in Playwriting from Temple University and a “jawn” tattoo because you can take the girl out of Philly, but you can’t take the Philly out of the girl.

Jo Harper – King Bob TV Scholarship Winner

The King Bob TV Scholarship is awarded to an outstanding writer who reaches the semifinalist level or higher in the TV Retreat & Fellowship Contest. The winner receives free tuition (valued at $2,400) for this year’s CineStory TV Retreat.

The winner of this year’s King Bob TV Scholarship is Jo Harper for her original comedy pilot CUT ME AND I BLEED ICE. In it, a washed-up ice skating coach, forever haunted by her notorious alias, “Frosty Bum,” is desperate to leave her past behind and land a normal job to save her home, but when a rebellious but talented champion skater crashes into her life she’s forced to confront her demons to chase Olympic glory assuming they don’t crack the ice under each other first.

Jo Harper was selected for Willamette Writers FilmTVLab for her TV drama script TIGER MUM, also semi-finalist for Shore Scripts TV Pilot competition. Her comedy drama pilot FROSTY BUM was semi-finalist for Outstanding Screenplays and WeScreenplay. She’s particularly proud of her award-winning short film DAUGHTER starring Juliet Cowan which was based on her family’s own experiences of adoption.

Her plays have been produced in theatres around U.K including: THE BEACH HOUSE – premiering at Park Theatre London, “An exquisitely crafted production,” (Broadway World) and “Beautifully created characters with flaws and vulnerabilities who, above all else, feel utterly genuine and totally normal” (The Reviews Hub); and CAN YOU HEAR ME RUNNING? premiering at Pleasance Theatre, London, “Beautifully written by Harper, a probing real-life drama that challenges our sensibilities but leaves us feeling warm inside.” (LondonTheatre1) Jo lives in London with her partner and two sons and a yellow Labrador who makes an adorable writing companion.

Kasi Brown – Sartor Underrepresented Voices TV Scholarship Winner

The Sartor Underrepresented Voices TV Scholarship is awarded to an outstanding writer who belongs to a community that has been historically underrepresented in Hollywood – particularly BIPOC writers, AAPI writers, LGBTQIA+ writers, women writers who are 45 or older, and writers with disabilities – and whose TV pilot reaches the quarterfinalist level or higher in the TV Retreat & Fellowship Contest. The winner receives a $1,500 tuition reduction to attend this year’s TV retreat.

The winner of this year’s Sartor Underrepresented Voices TV Scholarship is Kasi Brown for her original comedy pilot SOBER LIVING, cowritten with her writing partner, Brandon Walter. In it, when a sober living facility moves into a “nice” suburban neighborhood, a closeted housewife makes it her mission to kick out the addicts looking for a fresh start—especially the hot lesbian rocker who is making her life hell in more ways than one.

Kasi Brown is an LA-based LGBTQ+ comedy writer from the cornfields of Kansas. She suggested a writing partnership with Brandon Walter (hailing from the cornfields of Indiana) as a consolation prize after he hit on her during their stint at Upright Citizens Brigade. He agreed and they wrote and directed award-winning sketch comedy series, MOTHER APPROVED, and feature film, GONE DOGGY GONE. Chris Packham of LA Weekly said, “The film’s sweetness, its storyline and the script’s cartoony characters recall Raising Arizona.” Brandon and Kasi’s superpower is bringing diametrically opposed people together through laughter. They aim to be the go-to team for comedies with heart that elevate the human spirit and challenge people from all walks of life to embrace one another. They are Coverfly Red List X 3, CineStory Finalists, Launchpad Top 50, Nicholls Top 15%, Page Awards Semifinalists, and Semifinalist “threepeats” in the 2024 Screencraft Comedy Competition with their pilot, SOBER LIVING, and comedy features BARRY’S BODY and WENDYBOT. When she’s not smashing keys, Kasi works as an LA County EMT. Her advice? Wear underwear. Brandon pans for gold with his father, buying precious gems and metals all over the country. His priceless advice? Buy Bitcoin.