Lisa Johnson Mitchell is a screenwriter, author, director, and producer, as well as a seasoned ad copywriter, who got her start on Madison Avenue in the gritty, Madonna-crazed '80s. Her collection of short stories, "So as Not to Die Alone," is out from Finishing Line Press in February 2024. She is a Short Story instructor with Project Write Now out of Red Bank, New Jersey.
She co-directed/produced a documentary film, His Name is Bob that screened in nine festivals across the U.S. Everywhere from Mammoth in Cali to Red Rocks in Utah to Hoboken in the Garden State. The film aired on The Documentary Channel for a year and can be streamed on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, IMDB, Google Play, Vimeo, YouTube Movies, and Tubi TV, among others. Bob and the film were featured twice in The Dallas Morning News. It was also was voted by the Dallas Observer as one of the Top 10 Music Documentaries in Dallas.
Her screenplay, Stoney, Hero of Tamarack Lodge, (one that she co-wrote with Sara Lundell Wahl), was accepted by the Festival for Drama, Film & Writing. It also placed in the Quarterfinals of the InkTip Pro Screenwriting Contest and the Quarterfinals for Emerging Screenwriting Family and Holiday Contest. Recently, the logline was selected to be included in the InkTip Producer's Newsletter.
Her screenplay Everything But Love was a Quarter-Finalist in the ScreenCraft Comedy Competition in Los Angeles. It was a Semi-Finalist (Comedy Category) in the Screenplay Festival in Los Angeles, as well as an Official Selection in the Beverly Hills Film Festival. Lizzie Skurnick, New York Times editor of That Should Be a Word, has featured two words she coined on her Twitter page.
She co-wrote/directed a piece in Joey Soloway’s (Transparent) underground comedy venue, Sit ‘N Spin at the HBO Workspace in Los Angeles. Melanie Hutsell (SNL, Bridesmaids, Transparent), and Mitchell worked together to create it and Hutsell performed the piece. Sarah Silverman was on the show that night.
She was one of seven writers selected to perform and read her true story during Oral Fixation at the Wyly Theater in the Arts District in downtown Dallas. Oral Fixation is akin to The Moth.
She has written numerous plays. One of them received a staged reading at the Tamarind Theater in Los Angeles. She also made the Top 3 in the 1-Minute Monologue Contest in Clay Banks Studio in LA, where excerpts from her plays are used in technique and scene study classes. She was a founding member of Playwrights Project, 1990-97. It was a non-profit dedicated to new voices in the theater in the Southwest. Board members included the late Harvey Schmidt ("The Fantasticks").
A graduate of Southern Methodist University, Lisa also holds an MFA from Bennington Writing Seminars. where during her last term, she was an Assistant Graduate Fellow in Fiction.
Her work has appeared in X-R-A-Y, Fictive Dream, and Cleaver, among others. One of her pieces was a Finalist in the 2022 London Independent Story Prize Competition. Another received First Place in the 2021 Button Eye Review Summer Contest and placed in the Top 10 of the 2020 Columbia Journal Short Fiction Contest.
Everything But Love Budget: $1M - $5M | Romance ⋄ Comedy “When Harry Met Sally” with OCD. Or, if you rather: Two Madison Avenue ad creatives with crippling OCD try to hide their pathology from each as they claw their way to the top, ultimately finding the courage to open their hearts to each other and true love.
Datemares Budget: $5M - $10M | Comedy Tales that go far beyond the pale, Datemares is a collection of short stories that chronicle a wide swath of women grappling with unthinkable, funny and outlandish romantic situations that will stick with you like gum on the bottom of your shoe. www.datemares.net
Stoney, Hero of Tamarack Lodge Budget: $1M - $5M | Family A sensitive, supernatural sled dog teams up with a pair of kids and Santa to save his teammatesfrom abandonment after his beloved owner suffers a heart attack.
Scrapbook Boyfriends Comedy ⋄ Drama Ellie McAlister, former prom queen, meets Donny, a black, gay attendant in the Honey Grove Retirement Village in small town Texas. When she finds out she has three months to live, they escape to New York to pursue their dreams.
His Name is Bob
(
Documentary
by 3 Frogs Productions (Documentary)
Co-Director/Producer The most famously quirky man to wander East Dallas, Bob is a spiritual savant who survives his own personal holocaust. Available on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Tubi TV, Roku, Google Play, YouTube Movies, Plex, and other streaming platforms.
Stoney, Hero of Tamarack Lodge - Quarterfinalist, ScreenCraft Family Screenplay Competition
(2024)
"Stoney Saves Christmas" - Quarterfinalist, InkTip Pro Screenwriting Contest
(2022)
"Stoney Saves Christmas" - Quarterfinalist, Emerging Screenwriting Family and Holiday Contest
(2022)
"Stoney Saves Christmas" - Winner, Festival for Film, Screenplays, and Novels
(2022)
"Leota Fogg" was a Semi-Finalist in the 2016 ScreenCraft Cinematic Short Story Contest
(2017)
"Leota Fogg" was awarded an Honorable Mention in the 2017 Glimmer Train Fiction Open
(2017)
"Everything But Love" Screenplay, Official Selection in Beverly Hills Film Festival
(2014)
"Scrapbook Boyfriends", Top 3 in 1-Minute Monologue Contest, Clay Banks Studio, Los Angeles
(2014)
"Everything But Love" Screenplay, Semi-Finalist, Comedy, in the 2014 Screenplay Festival in Los Angeles
(2014)
"His Name is Bob" Remi Winner, Annual WorldFest Houston International Film Festival
(2011)
"His Name is Bob" Finalist in Mammoth Film Festival, California
(2010)
"His Name is Bob" Official Selection, Hoboken International Film Festival
(2010)
"His Name is Bob" Official Selection, 40th USA Film Festival
(2010)
"His Name is Bob" Red Rock Film Festival Market Place Documentary
(2010)
Bennington College
(2016-2018)
Southern Methodist University
(1978-1982)