Dana Verde

The award winning filmmaker started her career while she was an undergraduate at the New School University pursuing her degree in Media Studies/Screenwriting. In 2003 she entered the Sundance Screenwriters Lab with her first full length feature script "The Only Black Girl" which made the final round in the competition. In 2004 she completed her degree at NSU and became a script reader for Maisha Film Lab (founded by filmmaker Mira Nair) and co-hosted a TV show on MTV called "Your Movie Show" as a film reviewer. Still wanting to further her knowledge of her craft, Dana decided to attend the London Film School, London UK. During her tenure at LFS she wrote and directed a Kodak Student Commercial for Dove's real women campaign, a D&A promotional music video for Thome Yorke of Radiohead. After receiving her MA in Filmmaking in 2008, Dana returned to New York to work as an independent filmmaker - writing and directing spec commercials, music videos, and short films. Her short film Lock & Key was a major success in 2012, screening at 10 film festivals internationally and winning a best short subject award at the NC Black Film Festival. Two years later in 2014 Dana wrote, produced, and directed her first feature film Grand Gesture on a shoestring budget of 14k. The film was shot in three cities New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas and was nominated by HBO for best feature film at the Martha's Vineyard African American film festival and screened in the best of series at the Black Harvest Film Festival in Chicago. In 2015 she wrote two original comedy screenplays, Fight Night and Celibate, for Brandon T. Jackson's production company Class Clown. In 2016, Dana's feature screenplay, Perfect Match, produced by Queen Latifah's production company flavor Unit, debuted #6 in the US box office opening in 925 theaters across the country. That same year Dana founded 3CK Media ( Third Culture Kid Media), a new media company that specializes in short digital content. Under 3CK Media Dana wrote and directed two short iPhone movies; In Black & White and The 800lb Gorilla which screened at several film festivals and are available on streaming services. Dana is in development with several feature & TV projects and is represented by Buchwald talent agency.