Early March 2026

Diane Drake is a professional screenwriter, author, writing instructor, story consultant, and speaker. Prior to becoming a screenwriter, Diane served as Vice President of Creative Affairs for Academy Award-winning director Sydney Pollack. Her first produced original script, ONLY YOU, starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Marisa Tomei, sold for one million dollars, while her second produced script, WHAT WOMEN WANT, starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt, is the second highest grossing romantic comedy of all time. In addition, both films have been remade in China featuring major Chinese stars, and WWW was remade as WHAT MEN WANT, with Taraji P. Henson.

Diane is a member of the Writer’s Guild of America, teaches screenwriting for UCLA Extension, and has served as a judge for the Humanitas Prize, Writers Guild Awards, and Austin Film festival, among others. Her debut book on screenwriting, Get Your Story Straight, is available on Amazon.

Sabrina Parra is the founder of The Scriptster. She has helped hundreds of writers on their quest to craft the perfect screenplay. Sabrina is a professional script consultant with over five years of experience as a film development executive. She honed her skills as the former Vice President of Di Novi Pictures, a production company that has grossed over $1 billion worldwide and brought you films including LITTLE WOMEN, CRAZY STUPID LOVE and A WALK TO REMEMBER. She most recently was on the producing team for Apple+/A24 film THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE.

By working closely with studios like Amazon, Apple, A24, and Netflix, Sabrina has spent her career developing projects from inception and guiding writers through the studio process. Her experience provides invaluable insight into what financiers are looking for when they read your screenplay. She values creative integrity and imagination of story above all. She believes there is nothing stronger than a film or series that allow its viewer to catapult themselves into the perspective of another.

Prior to co-founding the management/production company Fictional Entity in January 2017, Chris Deckard spent over seven years working with and representing talent at major agencies such as ICM Partners and WME. He has worked closely with traditional and new media buyers to find and develop content for domestic and international audiences. In addition to helping cast and package numerous features and series, he has evaluated thousands of scripts for actors and directors. Chris graduated from Cornell University and earned his J.D. from Notre Dame Law School.

Fictional Entity’s clients have been named to The Black List, The Hit List, The Young & Hungry List, The Blood List and been lauded by the PAGE Awards, the International Emmys and placed as finalists in The Heath Ledger Scholarship and the Academy Nicholl Fellowship The Academy Nicholl Screenwriting Awards, the AWG, ADG, SPA, and AACTA. Clients have written, directed, starred, and produced in numerous formats, including features, TV, virtual reality, and podcasts, independently and for companies like Netflix, NBCUniversal, AMC, Legendary, Meta, Marvel, Fremantle, SyFy, the CW, Warner Bros., Amazon, Blumhouse, Comedy Central, BBC, the ABC Australia, Foxtel, TruTV, Super Deluxe, Hallmark, CBS, Lifetime, E!, and MSNBC.

Chris has advised clients through multiple successful series pilot and pitch sales. He and his business partner were non-writing Executive Producers on a series pilot that sold to a major US network in 2021. In 2024, Fictional Entity client highlights include: a book-to-series pitch sale to Netflix, a first-time writer/director’s feature film entering production, the release of three series from first-time writing Executive Producers, and a feature film release.

Michael Davies is a UK-based director and writer, currently in pre-production on THE CAPTIVE HEART, a romantic adventure film, shooting this autumn on the Amalfi Coast.

Michael began his career making a wide range of critically acclaimed, award-winning documentaries and drama-documentaries for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 - including seven films with legendary producer Beryl Vertue at Hartswood Films - as well as dramatised adventure films for Discovery Channel. Michael also directed fourteen episodes of the hit BBC children’s drama series TRACY BEAKER RETURNS, winning a BAFTA and two RTS (Royal Television Society) awards.
 
Michael has a long association with the RADA (the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts), working with writers and directing rehearsed readings and performances of new plays. Two of his feature scripts - THE CAPTIVE HEART and PSYCHOPOMP - have been developed with the Academy. Michael also teaches a regular screen acting masterclass in London, and passionately believes that the way to attract the best talent to your projects is to write characters actors will want to play.

Michael's short film WHAT’S VIRGIN MEAN? screened at over sixty international festivals, winning eight awards and attracting more than ten million hits on YouTube; unusually for a short, it also made a profit. Another of his films, LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT, starring John Hurt and Phyllida Law, won fifteen awards, including an RTS, Rushes and Raindance, and was shortlisted for an Oscar.

Dan Zeff is a director and screenwriter based in the UK. He works across drama and comedy, and especially loves projects that combine the two. Whether dark noir thriller or playful romantic comedy, the key elements for him are always character and emotion – storylines that powerfully move their audience to tears or laughter - and often both. His work has won three BAFTA awards and gained a further seven BAFTA and EMMY nominations.

He is currently writing the screenplay adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel NUTSHELL for Snapper Films/Streetcar Productions. His previous original screenplay PROJECT MUSTARD won the Tribeca Sloan Development award and was showcased at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Dan’s TV movies as director include CONSUMING PASSION starring Olivia Colman and Jodie Whittaker, THE QUEEN AND I starring Samantha Bond and Frances Barber, HATTIE - still BBC4’s highest ever rating drama, and the BAFTA winning thriller WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS starring Jason Isaacs and adapted from the bestselling novel by Kate Atkinson.

Other notable TV work includes the hugely popular mini-series LOST IN AUSTEN starring Gemma Arterton as Elizabeth Bennett, Amazon Prime’s period drama THE COLLECTION starring Mamie Gummer, and the Emmy-nominated ADOLF HITLER : THE ARTIST starring Rupert Grint, as well as episodes of celebrated British series INSIDE No9 and DR WHO.

His early short films as writer-director won awards worldwide, most notably SWEETNIGHTGOODHEART starring David Tennant, DUAL BALLS and THAT SUNDAY which were both BAFTA nominated, the latter (starring Alan Cumming and Minnie Driver), also won awards at the Chicago and San Diego Film Festivals, and was screened by the BFI across their cinemas as their number one Valentine’s Day short.

Dan mentors in film schools regularly, and has spent six years on the board of Directors UK, the professional association for the UK’s screen directors. He is also a trustee of the Directors Charitable Foundation, a charity that seeks to support and inspire people from all backgrounds to consider a career in the industry.