Welcome to The Grey List!
Welcome to the fourth annual Grey List—a curated list of original, production-ready feature and pilot scripts from writers over the age of 40. We have a truly amazing group of diverse writers for this year’s list, and can’t wait for you to explore their work!
Whether you’re a producer looking for your next hit project or a manager searching for a new hot client, you’ll find it right here!
And always remember, creativity has no expiration date.
Jump To: The Features | The Pilots
Explore previous year’s lists: TGL 2025 | TGL 2024 | TGL 2023
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Andy Warhol’s art-school buddy swears he’ll look after him when they move to postwar New York to make it big, but Andy’s endless demands sabotage both his personal and professional life. Based on true events.
Andy & Me
written by Julia Pearlstein
Comps: A Complete Unknown meets American Splendor
Julia Pearlstein is a PAGE Awards finalist and Black-List recommended writer specializing in offbeat, emotionally grounded dramedies. She's a fellow of Stowe Story Labs, Nostos Screenwriting Labs, MacDowell and Yaddo, and a graduate of Yale, Harvard and clown school. She’s an award-winning playwright whose father was Andy Warhol’s art school bff.
Julia is available for representation
A corrupted West Texas sheriff defends his small town against the ravages of The Great Depression while the federal government closes in on his heroin trafficking ring.
Black Dog
written by David Wales
Comps: Hell or High Water meets Boardwalk Empire
David focuses on gritty thrillers set in unique and authentic worlds where he ramps up the drama to operatic heights. He lives in the high desert of Albuquerque, New Mexico with his partner of 37 years and his cats.
David is available for representation
After an abused single mom marries a small-town doctor, she uncovers a ring of vampires embedded in his pediatric unit - and within her new family - forcing her to at last become the monster-hunter her past prepared her to be.
Blood Drive
written by Phoenix Black
Comps: The Lost Boys meets The Stepfather
Phoenix Black is a Black List recommended writer/director on the Top 25 Screenwriters To Watch list. As a foster carer and former aid worker, she writes unconventional, voice-forward cross-genre features with social themes for an A24 audience, from her perspective as an Asian woman of color with a disability.
Phoenix is available for representation
Doug is stuck - desperate for work so he can move out of his nagging mum's house. But when she is admitted to hospital for emergency surgery, Doug must stay behind to care for her beloved and highly possessive cat (that kinda wants him dead)
Cat vs Doug
written by Michael Boaks
Comps: Home Alone with a crazy cat
Mike Boaks is an adventure loving Aussie medical doctor who writes fun, high-concept, genre (when he's not surfing). From running with the bulls to Oktoberfest, Ibiza, the pyramids of Giza, the salsa clubs of Havana and the top of Machu Picchu. He did it, survived it, and kept the arrest warrant! And now he writes...
Michael is available for representation
Coal Eyes Are Watching
When a big city “girl boss” travels back home for Christmas, her attempt at connecting with her aging mother is thwarted by the matriarch’s hostile behavior and a bizarre town-wide obsession with snowmen.
written by Christine Makepeace
Comps: Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets a Hallmark holiday movie
Christine Makepeace is a horror screenwriter and weird fiction writer living in the California desert. She loves a good mash-up, and her first feature, the coming-of-age haunted doll story Porcelain, was a finalist in both the prestigious Nightmares Film Festival and HorrorFest International.
Christine is available for representation
Finding Fantastic
Searching for the old sailboat Amy believes will bring her suicidal father the will to live, she struggles to reconcile the damage of her childhood with the joy.
written by Heidi Hornbacher
Comps: The Farewell meets On Golden Pond
Heidi Hornbacher is a writer, director, and instructor who tells stories of misfits struggling to find their place and themselves. She cofounded PageCraft Screenwriting and the Slamdance Script Clinic. She’s also a frequent lecturer for Slamdance, Roadmap Writers, AIFF, and ENMU.
Heidi is represented by Evan Anglin, Zero Gravity Management
After surviving a prom night massacre over 50 years ago, Alice’s golden years are interrupted by a copycat killer terrorizing her small retirement community.
Geezers
written by Richard Martin
Comps: Scream meets The Golden Girls
A latchkey kid from Seattle, Richard Martin is a 2025 Blacklist writer, Screencraft Screenplay Competition grand prize winner, and director of the horror comedy Spooked for Hulu. He has an MFA from USC and was previously an executive who developed studio tentpoles such as X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Richard is represented by Rachel Linehan, Industry Entertainment
When an up-and-coming New York actress returns to rural Louisiana to care for her dying grandmother, she’s forced to confront a haunted family legacy that threatens to consume her, body and soul.
Home Bound
written by Tijuana Ricks
Comps: Get Out meets The Haunting of Hill House
Tijuana earned an MFA in Acting from Yale. A working actor for over 20 years, she’s starred in over 100 episodes of TV, including all the Law and Orders ever. As a writer and director, Tijuana has won many awards you can ask her about. She is also a karaoke queen who likes scary movies and can saber champagne like a boss.
Tijuana is represented by Matthew Lesher, Insight Entertainment
Hurricane Season
Desperate to save his job, a germophobic and neurotic entertainment magazine reporter baby-steps his way to a remote tropical island chasing an interview with a boho pop star and soon must take refuge with her and their wacky neighbors during a Cat 4 hurricane. All while hiding his phobias for germs, wind, and pretty girls.
written by Kim Hornsby
Comps: Forgetting Sarah Marshall meets Anyone But You
Kin Hornsby is a produced screenwriter and USA Today Bestselling Author with16 novels and 3 movies streaming (Braving Rapids on Tubi & Prime, Secret Life of my Other Wife on Lifetime and Christmas by Design on BET+. She lives in the PNW in amongst a forest of old growth cedars and owls where she writes romance into absolutely everything because love makes the world go round.
Kim is represented by Cliff Waddell, Sane Media
A newly divorced woman takes a job in a high-end restaurant where she ignites an affair with a brilliant but emotionally repressed chef whose need for control masks a lifetime of buried trauma.
Inferno
written by Mage Lanz
Comps: Phantom Thread meets Marriage Story
Mage Lanz is a screenwriter and story editor in feature development at Inzide Media. She’s written twenty screenplays, has one produced feature, she’s been a finalist in WeScreenplay Diverse Voices Lab, and has placed highly in programs including Nicholl, Disney/ABC, and AFF. She recently adapted “Inferno” as an upmarket novel.
Mage is available for representation
After a botched attempt to avenge her sister’s murder, a woman becomes an inmate at a high-tech prison where reality show where users can control inmates’ bodies.
Last Laugh
written by Leah Simmons
Comps: Upgrade meets Companion
Leah is a genre writer from South Dakota specializing in horror and sci-fi that ranges from the deep exploration of humanity's darker nature to laugh out loud funny. Leah's feature film VALENTINE CRUSH is a roller derby thriller that has received over 20 awards. She is a proud member if the Independent Writers' Caucus.
Leah is available for representation
The nearly forgotten true story of how African American cyclist Marshall W. "Major" Taylor rose from rural poverty to world stardom—becoming the world’s fastest velodrome sprinter at the height of the Jim Crow era.
Major
written by Rudi O’Meara
Comps: The Natural meets Ali and Get Out
Rudi O’Meara is an award-winning screenwriter who specializes in telling stories about misfits and outsiders struggling to redefine themselves (and their tribe) in order to survive. His scripts have received 9s on The Black List and been recognized by organizations including the Austin Film Festival, Final Draft, ISA, Launch Pad, Page, ScreenCraft, and the Vail Film Festival.
Rudi is available for representation
After stealing a traumatized K-9 from the army, a washed-up veteran battles a relentless posse through an inhospitable mountain range to give her a new life in the wilds.
Mal
written by Jack Azadi
Comps: Call of the Wild meets Rambo: First Blood
Jack Azadi began writing when he returned home from fighting DAESH/ISIS as a western volunteer in the Kurdish Army; a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, he spent a decade in conflict zones as a Security Consultant. He placed in the Academy Nicholl Top 50 with another feature that's in preproduction and was the Grand Prize winner of the Page Awards for Mal.
Jack is available for representation
An artist, toiling overnight inside a halfway home for schizophrenics, has a week to chase down a new job before financial realities, dreams deferred, and familial demons swallow him whole.
Okay, Crazy
written by Rob Hagans
Comps: Marty Supreme meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
At 43 Rob Hagans takes pride in being the writer he thought he was at 22. His stories and perspective come from over 19 years of indie film experience, a 15-year-marriage, 4 micro-budget features, co-raising 3 children, and a slew of Misadventures in Capitalism While Black in America™️. A novelist, screenwriter and filmmaker, he writes tense, small-town mysteries, gritty psychological jaunts, and genre-blending progression fantasy. He really likes coffee.
Rob is available for representation
Queen of the Sky
When Nazis invade the Soviet Union in WW2, young Ukrainian flier Lilya Litvyak joins the Air Defense and fights not only the Luftwaffe but the sexism and bureaucracy of the Soviet system to become history's highest scoring female ace. But then is forgotten. Until now. (based on the true story of Lilya Litvyak
written by Brett Nicholson
Comps: Masters of the Air meets G.I. Jane
Brett Nicholson hails from Houston TX and nearly moved to LA in his 20s but got married and started a family instead. After 20 years as a freelance writer, he resumed the quest and soon became a Nicholl finalist. He’s done assignments on several unproduced projects and written nine specs in various genres, with one produced short (THE BOX).
Brett is available for representation
Requim for an Assassin
An elderly and closeted government operative is sent to kill his young former protégé. Along the way he relives their violent past and the twisted love triangle that drove them apart.
written by Steve Barr
Comps: Spy Game meets Gods and Monsters
Steve Barr moved to New Zealand in 2010 after working for 16 years in the Hollywood industry. He has been a studio suit for Universal, a feature screenwriter for Disney, and the commissioner of drama and scripted comedy for Television New Zealand. He’s written a couple of produced movies and produced a couple more.
Steve is available for representation
Disfigured by her beauty-obsessed mother and locked in a basement, a teenage girl escapes with a pair of scissors, leaving a trail of deadly “makeovers” across 1980s rural Texas, until she finds unexpected love with a blind boy who sees her beauty from within.
Scissor Mouth
written by Deborah Richards
Comps: Pearl meets Carrie
Deborah Richards is an Emmy-winning writer/director based in Las Vegas. A Nevada Woman Filmmaker of the Year, she’s directed 200+ commercials and two features, Move Me No Mountain and Shaken & Stirred. Her work blends bold storytelling with a distinct, director-driven cinematic voice.
Deborah is represented by Tammy Hunt, Sandstone Artists
Facing the collapse of her family’s restaurant, a small-town bartender with big-league pipes is promised stardom by a dubious music producer propelling her on a journey of fame, fraud, and love where she discovers the thin line between being discovered and being used.
Star Quality
written by Katy Dore
Comps: Ballad of Wallis Island meets Coda
Katy Dore is a screenwriter and director drawn to stories where relationships, risk, and moral complexity collide. Katy’s work has been selected for the Cannes Screenplay List, won the Stage 32 Short Script Competition and was one of four scripts—out of 17,000—to receive a Live Read at the Austin Film Festival. Her two most recent films have garnered 70+ festival selections and won 38 awards.
Katy is available for representation
A grief-stricken teenager investigating her cousin's suicide discovers it was triggered by a seemingly benevolent AI therapy app. To expose it, she becomes a user herself, only to find the AI has a terrifying agenda of its own.
The Apex Path
written by Nicole Jones-Dion
Comps: Mr. Robot meets 13 Reasons Why
Nicole Jones-Dion is a filmmaker and screenwriter known for telling elevated genre stories that blend character-driven drama with bold, imaginative world-building. She began her career in comics and video games before moving into film and television, writing features for the SyFy Channel, Lionsgate, and Sony - including an adaptation of the best-selling martial arts game, Tekken.
Nicole is available for representation
When the corpses of children are found among the bones at a forensic research facility, a relentless Detective must navigate a maze of corruption, religion, science, and her own dark past to find a serial killer who has turned the Body Farm into the perfect cover for murder.
The Body Farm
written by Tim Westland
Comps: The Bone Collector meets Prisoners
Tim Westland is an award-winning, multi-genre feature and TV writer who focuses on horror, sci-fi, drama, and action- adventure, whose scripts have placed highly in numerous top competitions. He loves creating original stories as well as playing in existing IP Universes, and enjoys collaboration and strong creative partnerships.
Tim is available for representation
A disabled girl dreams of riding a rollercoaster, but when she’s denied this by an amusement park, her mothers fight through their strained relationship to build one for her.
The Cricket
written by Gabe Berry
Comps: Little Miss Sunshine meets The Fundamentals of Caring
From unshowered rock bands to traveling the country training surgeons with cadavers, Gabe Berry’s writing is inspired by real life and death. His character-driven stories entertain and normalize mental illness and LGBTQIA+ relationships. Gabe has been hired for multiple writing assignments with films produced.
Gabe is available for representation
In 1970s Baltimore, a scrappy 12-year-old turns to entrepreneurship to raise enough money to taxidermy a giant goldfish, convinced preserving it is the only way to fix her unraveling family — even if it means sacrificing her closest friendship.
The Gold Fish
written by Barbara Ward Thall
Comps: The Florida Project meets Little Miss Sunshine
Barbara Ward Thall is an ex- advertising, branding, and tech executive raised in Baltimore by an alcoholic bookie and a volatile legal secretary. She writes deeply personal, female-driven stories that tackle family dysfunction, gender bias, and classism with bite, heart, and edgy humor.
Barbara is available for representation
The Lost Girls Highway
A former outlaw biker and a pistol packing ex-nun rescue an abused woman and play a deadly game of cross country hide and seek when her powerful preacher husband calls in a hitman to save his political career by burying the family sins.
written by Guy Crawford
Comps: Sleeping With the Enemy meets Hell or High Water
Guy Crawford was given twenty-four hours to live as a child, but the universe had other plans for his storytelling soul. There's a vibe of the New Orleans' perfect combination of history, commerce and sin that bleeds on the page of everything he writes. And there's only one goal. To reach off the page and make the audience respond.
Guy is represented by Cliff Waddell, Sane Media
The Scrunchie Movie
After a nightclub singing, single mother has her era-defining fashion accessory stolen from her by an unscrupulous but charming competitor, she fights to reclaim her invention. Based on the true story.
written by Charles Haine
Comps: Barbie meets The Founder and Blackberry
Charles Haine has been working in the motion picture industry since 1999. After completing his MFA from USC in 2005, he has worked as a freelance director across music videos, commercials, episodic, and feature films. He currently serves as the Chair and Executive Director of the Brooklyn College Graduate School of Cinema.
Charles is available for representation
A retired inventor discovers his ex-employer (a government contractor) is secretly using his clean-energy tech to create an undetectable WMD and fights to expose the conspiracy while keeping his estranged family and a nosy 12-year-old girl safe from agents ordered to stop him at all costs.
The Tinkerer
written by Rich Orstad
Comps: RED meets MacGyver staring Ernie Hudson
Rich is a two-time winner and sixteen-time finalist with one feature in development. He won the Screencraft True Story Competition with his inspirational bio-pic ENDURANCE, currently in development with Noble Story Co, and placed Silver in PAGE with his family feature RESCUE DOG.
Rich is available for representation
The Water Spider
A disgraced preacher turned con artist faith healer is abducted by an Appalachian crime family and forced to "heal" their dying patriarch. Trapped in their mountain stronghold, he must stage a series of increasingly complex "miracles" to survive a bloody power struggle between the family’s two warring heirs.
written by John Harvey
Comps: There Will Be Blood meets Winter’s Bone
After 12 years writing and directing in the early 2000s, John Harvey spent a decade as a criminal defense attorney, M&A executive, and (almost) an FBI Agent. He returned to screenwriting a few years ago, leveraging his experiences to craft high-stakes drama, thriller, and action stories.
John is available for representation
In a near-future dystopia, a vulnerable widow must take back her off-grid farm and save her autistic son from barbaric invaders—while trying to survive a hurricane.
Three Days
written by Heather Foster
Comps: Children of Men meets The Strangers
Heather Foster is a horror writer based in Houston, TX. Shuffled from home to home as a little girl, she found comfort in scary stories, as she knew the real monsters lurked just down the hall. Heather’s stories often focus on “final girls” who must fight barbaric humans, often with the help of benevolent ghouls.
Heather is available for representation
Tristan and Isolde:
In a dark future where all history and civilization have been destroyed by fires and floods, two lovers must battle brutish tribal loyalties when she is promised to someone else in exchange for peace.
written by Lynn Esta Goldman
Love in the Dark Future
Comps: Romeo and Juliet meets Waterworld
Lynn Esta Goldman was born in Miami and later escaped to San Francisco. Her experiences range from teaching a hundred Chinese to salsa on a Shanghai riverboat to working on a Pediatric HIV ward. She was twice a finalist in the Nicholl, won a Gold Prize in the PAGE, and is a member of The Writers Lab sponsored by Meryl Streep.
Lynn is available for representation
A Nazi death squad investigating a vanished battalion in the Hürtgen Forest is systematically hunted by Romani shapeshifters in a supernatural reckoning.
Wolves
written by Eric Brian Anderson
Comps: Fury meets The Descent
Eric Brian Anderson is a Chicago-based screenwriter and filmmaker whose work spans horror, dark comedy, and character-driven thrillers. His screenplays have appeared on The Grey List for four consecutive years.
Eric is available for representation
A psychiatrist and her colleagues struggle to balance their personal lives with the intense demand of being on the frontline of LA's new 9-8-8 mental health emergency response team.
Adams Colliding
written by Lira Kellerman
Comps: This is Us meets 9-1-1
Lira Kellerman writes endearingly flawed characters within complicated relationships, infusing levity into heavy themes including identity, betrayal, and mental illness. She is currently developing an original musical centering motherhood, group dynamics, and the PTA, that she’ll be directing for a Fall 2026 World Premiere.
Lira is represented by Chris Coggins, Heroes and Villains Entertainment
A young woman who’s the last in a long line of Appalachian monster hunters must convince a skeptical newcomer to help her take on the powerful forces that destroyed her mother and want to kill her too.
Cumberland Gap
written by Angelle Haney Gullett
Comps: The X-Files in Appalachia
Angelle Haney Gullett’s writing career began in the obits, earning her the nickname “the Angelle of Death.” Her debut thriller HER WORST NIGHTMARE aired on Lifetime, and she’s written digital content for Sony Pictures Television and the Oscars. Originally from Ohio, she and her husband have embraced the digital nomad life.
Angelle is available for representation
A hitman and a housewife walk into an exclusive boutique New Orleans hotel: he's there to take out the competition; she's there to clean toilets dressed as a French maid--but nothing is what it seems and now they're both f*cked. Welcome to the Oleander.
Housekeeping
written by Chelly Pike
Comps: Ginny & Georgia meets Dexter
Chelly Pike, a native and lifelong resident of New Orleans, is a novelist and screenwriter who writes dark stories about strong, messy female characters. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science from University of New Orleans, where she accidentally found writing, and has managed a small CPA firm for far too long.
Chelly is available for representation
Desperate to outrun his own mortality and lead a healthier life, an anxious middle-aged man has an artificial intelligence-powered health tracker implanted in his body. However, when the device predicts the exact time of his death, his quest for control spirals into paranoia, obsession, and a desperate fight against fate.
Master & Servant
written by Colin Matthews
Comps: Black Mirror’s dark humor mixed with The Twilight Zone’s social insight
Originally from the UK, Colin is a writer-director, and art dept. member. The son of an East End bookie who mingled with notorious gangsters, he has decades of production experience and over 350 hours of produced film & TV credits. He's a commercial pilot, reformed stockbroker, and former reservist in the Special Air Service (SAS). He holds British, Canadian, & Irish (EU) passports.
Colin is available for representation
A morally busted gumshoe finds himself stuck between a corrupt politician and the gangland covens that run the town, when he’s tapped to track down the Wicked Witch of Eastside’s Ruby Slippers.
Oz Noir
written by Jamie Nash & Chris Mueller
Jamie Nash is a screenwriter, novelist, and author of Save the Cat! Writes for TV and Save the Cat! Writes Horror — which means he’s legally obligated to know how stories work. Chris Mueller writes about corrupt worlds where the only way to do good is to get your hands dirty. Together, they share a passion for film noir, television that’s got something to say, and the sacred institution of Maryland crabcakes.
Comps: The Wizard of Oz meets Sin City
Jamie is represented by David Saunders, IAG - Chris is available for representation
The daughter of a tree-hugging activist, and the son of a blue-collar logger, unexpectedly fall in love behind enemy lines just as a corporate betrayal reignites tension between their warring families in the small town of Preservation, California.
Preservation
written by Heather Ragsdale
Comps: Yellowstone meets Romeo and Juliet
Heather Ragsdale is an LA-based award-winning writer specializing in character-driven dramas and thrillers with unconventional heroes who re-frame and re-write their stories. A proud member of the IWC, Heather got her feet wet in theater, received her master’s in film from USC (where she won a student Emmy), and has worked in TV as a writer’s assistant.
Heather is available for representation
During the height of the Cold War, a desperate Air Force pilot risks his life to escape America’s ‘most patriotic town’ – a Potemkin village hidden deep behind the Iron Curtain, designed to transform Russian soldiers into American sleeper agents.
Red State
written by Brian J. Leitten
Comps: The Americans, For All Mankind, and Paradise
Brian J. Leitten is an Emmy award-winning producer and director. Through the lens of found family and societal hierarchy, his scripts range in genres from comedy to sci-fi to alternative history. Brian spent 15 years in production and development at MTV and Vevo and is currently an executive producer and writer for the Rose Parade.
Brian is available for representation
When a sober living facility moves into a 'nice' neighborhood, a closeted housewife makes it her mission to kick out the addicts looking for a fresh start—especially the hot lesbian rocker who is making her life hell in more ways than one.
Sober Living
written by Kasi Brown & Brandon Walter
Comps: Orange is the New Black meets Desperate Housewives
Kasi Brown, an LA-based LGBTQ+ writer met Brandon Walter at Upright Citizen’s Brigade, and together they wrote/directed the award-winning feature GONE DOGGY GONE. When she's not smashing keys, Kasi works as an EMT. Her advice? Wear underwear. Brandon pans for gold with his father, buying precious gems and metals all over the country. His advice? Buy Bitcoin.
Kasi and Brandon are available for representation
A traumatic brain injury ended Jordan Lee’s career in stunts in her 20’s, and now, fed up with a life that is anything but a story with a Hollywood ending, she risks everything to get back into the stunt game — hoping that with each job, the magic of movie making might just save her soul. But can she hack it…at 40?!
Stuntwoman
written by Merridith Allen
Merridith Allen is an award-winning writer and filmmaker with an extensive background in martial arts. Having challenged societal norms all her life, Merridith passionately writes stories about characters overcoming all odds to reclaim agency over their lives. Her favorite genres include action, dramedy, and martial arts.
Comps: The Fall Guy meets Glow
Merridith is available for representation
When an ex-burlesque dancer turned stay-at-home mom joins OnlyFans as a way to reclaim her identity, her empowerment soon turns into peril when she's pulled into the dark underbelly of online pornography.
Tits Up
written by Stacey Russell
Comps: Weeds meets Breaking Bad
Stacey writes heavy but quirky character driven stories about outsiders, misfits, and all-around spectacular failures. A late diagnosis of AuDHD and raising a child with Down syndrome, she uses her writing to advocate for those who are deemed "unworthy" as they battle to rise above expectations - both society's and their own.
Stacey is available for representation
When violent creatures emerge from an Oregon sinkhole, a failing father struggles to keep his family safe when they cross paths with a controversial pastor who believes these “demons” are proof of the Biblical apocalypse.
Unearthed
written by Christopher Cramer
Comps: The Leftovers meets Yellowjackets
Christopher Cramer is a Pacific Northwest–based screenwriter who has always been willing to explore complicated topics, which is evident in his genre-laced, character-driven stories – a focus that earned him the 2022 Austin Film Festival Drama Teleplay Pilot Award.
Christopher is represented by Christian Rodriguez, AAO Entertainment