Playwright/screenwriter Randy Lee Gross has had plays presented in thirteen U.S. states and also in London and Sydney. His full-length play, “The Naugahyde Man,” was awarded the prestigious Pacific/Rim Prize as part of the 2020 Kumu Kahua/UHM Theatre Department Playwriting Contest; his full-length play, “The Haunted Train,” received an off-off Broadway production – with music – at Theatre For The New City in October 2015; and his play “Bread” was included in “The Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2015” (Smith & Kraus, Inc.). As a screenwriter, his full-length screenplay, “A Crooner for Christmas,” was purchased for future production by Blue Heron Films in August of 2022; his TV pilot script, “Five Kid Stud,” was a quarterfinalist in the 2022 Pitch Now Screenwriting Competition (Season 4); his TV pilot script, “99 Ways to Get Out of Gym Class,” was a 2nd Round selection in the 2021 ISA Fast Track Fellowship; his full-length musical screenplay, “Vegan Vampires From Vermont,” was honored as Best Horror/Comedy Screenplay at the 2021 Die Laughing Film Festival; his TV pilot script, “Playing With Ghosts,” was a quarter-finalist in the 2021 Inroads Screenwriting Fellowship (Season 4); his full-length animated screenplay, “Tuft Enough,” was a quarter-finalist in the 2020 Atlanta International Screenplay Awards; and his full-length screenplay, “The Obligatory,” won the Best Genre (Comedy) Award at the 2015 Asbury Park Music in Film Festival. Additionally, since 2003, Mr. Gross has been staging charitable live radio theater comedy productions in the Central PA region - the annual Halloween Radio Theater & Winter Radio Theater shows, most recently at Center Street Grille in Enola, PA.
Unique traits: Specializes in comedy.
The Obligatory Film-noir ⋄ Comedy All of the necessary elements of a film noir are in place – a buxom femme fatale, a mysterious villain, heck even a spider web of deceit – but suddenly two amateur filmmakers are instructed by their eccentric financier to add an obligatory Christmas scene. Awards: Best Genre (Comedy) Screenplay - 2015 Asbury Park Music in Film Festival 3rd Place Laurels - 2016 Land of Illusion/BAO Prods Screenplay Competition
The Tin Shed Drama ⋄ Fantasy Two lost souls – (A) a philandering dentist on Long Island; (B) a timid garment worker in Bangladesh – both of them unhappy with their lots, pray for release from their dreary existences while in their (A) tin-roofed work shed; (B) corrugated tin shack; and inexplicably have their identities swapped. ***Note: partially based on the true story of the Rana Plaza garment factory collapse that took place near Dhaka in April of 2013. Awards: Official Selection, 2017 Oaxaca Film Fest.
It's A Not So Wonderful Christmas Carol Comedy ⋄ Fantasy "It’s A Wonderful Life” collides with “A Christmas Carol” in a what if? tale set in Pottersville, so named because ornery old Mr. Potter has successfully driven George Bailey to suicide, and now rules the town with a Scrooge-like iron fist.
Star Lite Independent ⋄ Comedy A pair of drinking buddies are joined by a self-proclaimed NASA expert on a quest to tap an alcohol-laden space cloud some 10,000 light years from Earth. ***A mockumentary-style film.
Seldom Is Heard Comedy ⋄ Drama Meet John Seldom, Philadelphia’s very own Capraesque “every man,” who suddenly finds himself homeless and running for mayor against incumbent Sly Pignolli, a machine politician whose dirty politics may force the City of Brotherly Love’s indigents to lose their mouthpiece.AWARDS:2nd Place, 2012 KAYfilms Summer Screenplay Contest
Quarter Finalist, Pitch Now Screenwriting Competition (Season 4)
(2022)
Quarter Finalist, Hot Springs Screenplay Competition
(2022)
Quarter Finalist, Inroads Screenwriting Fellowship (Season 4)
(2021)
Winner, Best Horror/Comedy Screenplay, Die Laughing Film Festival
(2021)
2nd Round Selection, ISA Fast Track Fellowship (Season 4)
(2021)
Semifinalist, Frances Bell Screenwriting Competition
(2021)
Official Selection, Los Angeles Animation Festival
(2021)
Quarter Finalist, Atlanta International Screenplay Awards
(2020)
Winner, Pacific/Rim Prize, Kumu Kahua/UHM Playwriting Contest
(2020)
Top 50 Finalist (Teleplays, 30 mins), Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival
(2019)
Official Selection (Best Screenplay Nominee), LA Neo Noir Novel, Film, and Script Fest
(2018)
Semi-Finalist (Best Screenplay for Animated Short), BLASTOFF Festival
(2018)
Semi-Fiinalist (Best Short Script), TSWY International Film Festival
(2018)
Audience Favorite, WestFest 2016, Theatre West, Los Angeles, CA
(2017)
Best Play, ACT ONE: One Act, The Secret Theatre, Long Island City, NY
(2017)
1st Place, Teleplays, Burning Love Screenplay Contest, Poe Films
(2017)
Genre Winner (Comedy) Best Screenplay, Asbury Park Music in Film Festival
(2015)
2nd Place, KAYfilms Summer Screenplay Contest
(2012)
Finalist, Original TV Pilot, Search For America's Newest Comedy Writer
(2012)
Winner, Play, Six Players In Search of Two Plays, New Embassy Theatre, Cumberland, MD
(2010)
Top 10 Finalist, Canadian Short Screenplay Competition
(2009)