The Oberlin Screenwriters Intensive

The Oberlin Screenwriters Intensive (OSI) invites highly motivated alumni and students to workshop a feature-length screenplay or episodic pilot script in one-on-one sessions with established writers and dedicated mentors. With the goal of cultivating industry-ready storytellers, OSI also includes group workshops, industry panels, and community events, as well as follow-up support after the intensive is completed.  

For OSI 2024, eight Obies were selected to work with six mentors. The intensive took place on campus over Winter Term in various locations including Peters Hall, Oberlin Center for Convergence (StudiOC), and the Apollo Studios.

OSI and Obiewood

The architects of OSI are members of Obiewood: Oberlin Entertainment Network, an organization dedicated to helping Oberlin students succeed in the entertainment industry, working in conjunction with professors of cinema studies Geoff Pingree and Joshua Sperling, as well as Associate Dean Laura Baudot. With the only undergraduate free-standing creative writing program in the country and one of the few stand-alone cinema studies programs, Oberlin is a destination school for students dedicated to the art of storytelling through word and image. OSI enriches this tradition by cultivating the skills, camaraderie, and savvy that emerging artists need for their voices to be heard.

Founding Director and OSI 2024 Mentor Bios:

Michele and Kieran Mulroney are Los Angeles based writer/directors with over 25 years experience in the industry. They are alumni of t he 2004 Sundance Writers and Directors Labs where they developed their debut feature Paper Man, starring Emma Stone, Jeff Daniels, Ryan Reynolds, Lisa Kudrow and Kieran Culkin. 

Writing credits include Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law, and Power Rangers. Current projects include Big Thunder Mountain for Disney,  Land of the Lost for Netflix and Blockbuster for Disney. They are casting their second feature directing project Fox Hills with Berlanti-Schechter. 

They also have two TV pilots in active development:  Cloisterf**k with Entertainment 360 and The Rec with Dare to Be Great. 

Kieran is a graduate of Columbia University.  Michele graduated from the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama in London. 

Michele is the Vice President of the WGA West.

Julian Breece is an award-winning writer-director whose work crosses film and TV. Notably, Breece wrote the screenplay for the Netflix film Rustin about gay Civil Rights strategist Bayard Rustin and the 1963 March on Washington. He co-wrote the Emmy-nominated Netflix series When They See Us and recently penned the screenplay for Fox Searchlight's forthcoming Alvin Ailey biopic, which will be helmed by Oscar-winner Barry Jenkins. Breece is a consulting producer on Lee Daniels' Sammy Davis Jr. limited series at Hulu, and he’s served as a writer and producer on such critically acclaimed series as Amazon’s Harlem and Hulu’s The First.

Allison Schroeder is an Academy Award, Writers Guild of America and BAFTA-nominated writer for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film Hidden Figures. Her other credits include the recent Heart of Stone with Gal Gadot, Frozen 2 and Christopher Robin. She’s currently in development on other projects at Skydance, Amazon, and Netflix. She holds a BA from Stanford University and an MFA from University of Southern California.

Aïda Mashaka Croal was born in Vancouver, B.C., and raised in Surrey and
Georgetown, Guyana. The Guyanese-Canadian playwright and screenwriter
received her BA from Stanford University and her MFA in Playwriting from
Columbia University’s School of the Arts.

An award-winning playwright, she began her TV career writing for ABC’s ONE
LIFE TO LIVE for which she won a Daytime Emmy. She has since written for
Syfy (SANCTUARY), Cartoon Network (STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS),
AMC (“TURN: WASHINGTON’S SPIES”), Netflix (Marvel’s LUKE CAGE and
JESSICA JONES) and Amazon (OUTER RANGE). She was a co-showrunner
for Y: THE LAST MAN at FX. In addition, she has won a Saturn Award and
been nominated for a Peabody Award.

Aïda is currently writing a pair of feature films – one for Netflix and the other
for Universal Pictures.

David Slack. After beginning his career in animation on shows like JACKIE CHAN ADVENTURES and TEEN TITANS, David made the leap from cartoons to LAW & ORDER. Since then, he has served as a Writer/Producer on shows like PERSON OF INTEREST, LIE TO ME, IN PLAIN SIGHT, and MACGYVER. He created APB for Fox and wrote the series guide for Netflix’s DARK CRYSTAL. Most recently, he worked on Seasons 4 and 5 of MAGNUM P.I.