Michael Swiskay

Life has been a vivid, sometimes harrowing experience. The drive now is to process it into film and theater narrative that will capture the attention of and emotionally move large audiences. Following studies at the University of Pennsylvania and Wharton, I worked for a Hedge Fund, then quit to pursue an acting career. Took a "real job", in the brutal mercenary world of non-carnivorous "cannibalism", that is executive search, more commonly known as "headhunting". The engagement allowed flexibility to pursue the acting. An extremely effective 'cannibal', soon came a London relocation to build a European business with the acting 'on hold'. In those days was the business good, the money easy, the life decadent and me a very bad boy. Then the flirtation with mortality and 13 day coma. The job ended. less than favorably. I returned to acting, performing in Edinburgh during the festival and on New York's theater Row. Studies in dramatic writing with Robert McKee, Milan Stitt and at the Ensemble Studio Theatre were next. Now I'm a writer in residence at the Simon Studio, a member of the American Renaissance Theater Company (aka ARTC), the Independent Feature Project (aka IFP) and the Dramatists Guild. "The Meaning", an autobiographical one act play, the Winner of the Village Gate Festival of One-Act Plays in New York. "Oebiting Ezmerelda", (originally titled 'Orbiting Frieda' and rewritten as a feature film script) a play in two acts, chosen Finalist for the Robert J. Pickering Award for Playwriting Excellence and Semi-Finalist in the American Theater Co-Op spring competition. It has also been adapted to film and recognized as a finalist in the the screenplay competition for Evolution, Mallorca International Film Festival. "Enterprising", a Finalist in The Movie Deal screenplay contest, chosen as the Best dramatic script at the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival and recipient of Honorable Mention at the van Gogh awards of the Amsterdam Film Festival. Most recently, his one-act play, "Across", was staged during the Strawberry One-Act Festival in New York, advancing to the Festival Competition second round.