Event

How does a screenwriter break into the industry? What should storytellers be thinking about right now in an industry that has been turned upside down by tech? Join us for a panel discussion of these and other questions with four emerging Penn alumni screenwriters: Jay Elias (C’14), Benjamin Finkel (C'16, G'17), Isabelle Mecattaf (C’17), and Nihaar Sinha (W’14).

A transgender man of Syrian descent, JAY ELIAS (C’14) grew up in the small, rural town of Red Hill, PA. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and began his career at Disney TV Animation before working with Carrie Brownstein on her Hulu pilot, Search + Destroy. From there, he spent three years writing research for the hit true crime comedy podcast My Favorite Murder and worked in development for the hosts’ podcast network, Exactly Right Media. He has staffed on the reboot of Degrassi with HBO Max and rewrote a holiday feature for the Jim Henson Company, alongside his writing partner, L.T. Verrastro. Currently, he and L.T. are developing a kids' show for the Disney Channel. In his writing, Jay aims to shine a light on the things that connect us as human beings and bring levity to the heavier parts of life.

BENJAMIN FINKEL (C’16, G'17) is a writer and director from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Penn in 2017 with a degree in English. His debut film Family is currently in post-production.

ISABELLE MECATTAF (C’17) is a French-Lebanese Filmmaker based in New York City. She studied English Literature and Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and holds an MFA in Filmmaking from NYU Tisch school of the Arts. Mecataff has worked on projects in Beirut, New York, Paris and Los Angeles. Her most recent short film Beity (2021) was officially selected to TIFF, Aspen, and Hollyshorts (where it won an award), among other festivals. It was purchased by The New Yorker and is now streaming on their platform. She is currently developing her first feature film titled May You Outlive Us. The script was selected to the TIFF Filmmaker's lab in 2022, where it won the Every Story People's Fellowship. It was a winner of the BlackList-inspired NYU Purple List in 2023, an official selection of the NYU Production Lab Slate in 2023, and a Black Family Feature Prize Finalist in 2023.

NIHAAR SINHA (W’14) is a screenwriter who has sold a TV series to a major studio and developed projects with multiple Oscar and Emmy winning producers. Prior to his writing career, Nihaar ran new investments for Sean 'Diddy' Combs and was a Content Strategy exec / "Algorithm Guy" at Netflix. He began his career at Paradigm Talent Agency and as a media investment banker at Telos Advisors. He has a degree in Economics with a Finance concentration from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and was a 2013 RealArts@Penn internship recipient. He was the show runner of the Kelly Writer House's Classless TV "Office Hours" web series during the 2013–14 school year.

For further information, see the Kelly Writers House calendar.