JoAnn Hess

JoAnn is a multi-award-winning screenwriter for film and TV. Named as one of the industry's Most Recommended Writers, she writes dynamic, character-driven stories that examine the struggle of the socially-disenfranchised -- the misfits and miscreants -- as they seek to find their place in unfamiliar or unforgiving worlds. Growing up with a strict Catholic upbringing and a rebellious spirit, a break in the family forced her to struggle unprepared on the fringes of society, seeking her own place in which to thrive. Married to a Hispanic man and raising a bisexual daughter who has high functioning anxiety and depression, brings additional insight into the struggles of acceptance, identity, and multicultural family dynamics. Experiences that bring emotional context to the stories she tells. After spending over a decade in the corporate world in international finance for a Fortune 500 company, JoAnn took a break when she started her family. She spent the next two decades studying and honing her craft, becoming a full-time screenwriter with over a dozen scripts written for-hire for producers in both the US and UK. Besides being a 2017 Page FINALIST, JoAnn's work on The Devil's Dandruff earned her 3rd place at the London Film Awards. JoAnn's project STAR QUEST was a 2018 Torino ScriptLab selection, one of only eight projects.