Cheryl Laughlin is an award-winning, dramedy screenwriter and copywriter crafting stories about messy funny people cleaning up messy funny lives.
As a Midwestern transplant in California, she draws on the comedy of her Irish-Polish heritage — meaning she’s composed of half bread pudding and half pierogies. She's wired for words, tenacious, and collaborative.
She writes a column for Script Magazine, and her scripts have won at the Sacramento International Film Fest, Finalist in the Stage 32 & National Lampoon Search for Comedy Writing Gold, and Semi-Finalist in the Gidden Media RomCom Incubator Program.
Two of her short scripts have laureled up as selections on Scriptwriters & Co Table Read, while another short was selected for a table read on Six Page Scripts Podcast. Plus, her memoir — Confessions of a Kindergarten Klepto — placed as Top 25 Roadmap Authors Write Start. And it's possible she ran through the house with her Top 10% in the Nicholl Fellowship announcement, like Anne Hathaway with her Oscar.
Personal Manifesto:
You can never say please and thank you enough for all the kindnesses along the way.
We Didn't Start the Fire Budget: $0 - $100K | Romance ⋄ Independent A chance meeting between a street-smart, female fire breather and a wealthy black teenager running an illegal scam sparks a night of understanding, acceptance, and a brutal burning. Short script and pilot. - Outstanding Short Script at Sacramento International Film Festival - Official Selection, Scriptwriters & Co UK Table Read- Semi-Finalist, Scriptwriters & Co International Film Festival
Tacos Guapos Budget: $0 - $100K | Drama ⋄ Comedy Stuck working overtime on Valentine's Day, a berated publisher's assistant finds that her relentlessly awful boss still needs her for the little things after a batch of bad tacos.
Chug Budget: $0 - $100K | Thriller ⋄ Independent A misogynist, gives-no-shits car salesman finds himself in over his head when he pockets a store lighter at a stop in the remote town of Chugwater. - Official Selection, Scriptwriters & Co UK Table Read
Irish Twins
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Film
(Short and Drama)
Miscellaneous Crew Born within a year of each other, Michael and Seamus Sullivan have become very different men - just how much becomes apparent on the eve of their father's funeral.
Nite Tales: The Movie
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Film
(Horror and Thriller)
Miscellaneous Crew Nite Tales is a horror anthology introduced by "Flava Flav" that includes two movies, Karma and Storm. "Karma" teaches four young thieves that crime does not pay. In "Storm" college students learn that an urban legend may be more than just a story. Written by Irishlass240
Anxiety
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Film
(Horror and Thriller)
Art department Add a Plot »
Locked
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Film
(Drama)
Miscellaneous Crew When Anna returns to her childhood country home in Locke following her father's death, she finds herself unable to let go of the abuse her father inflicted on her as a child. Left even more vulnerable after being kicked out by her boyfriend, George, the triggers of Anna's childhood issues intensify when she is sexually accosted by her sister's fiancé during what is supposed to be a weekend celebration. Anna and her sister, Mia, have never seen eye to eye on their past. But Anna decides to make the best of it when Mia and Mia's fiancé, Eric, arrive at the country home to celebrate their engagement, along with Mia's best friend, Kate, and Kate's husband, Rhys. Despite Anna's best efforts, the celebration takes a backseat to a weekend of drama in dealing with unresolved childhood and romantic relationship issues. Between Eric's unwanted sexual advances, George's uninvited arrival, and Mia's continual denial and superiority, Anna is left feeling desperate and pressured into telling the ... Written by Nancy Whitehurst
Top 25 Memoir, Roadmap Authors Write Start
(2021)
Semi-Finalist Stage 32 & GIdden Media Romcom Incubator Program
(2019)
Finalist National Lampoon & Stage 32 Search for Comedy Gold
(2018)
Won Sac International Film Fest Outstanding Short Script
(2018)
Script Top 10% in Nicholl Fellowship
Second Rounder in Austin Film Festival script contest
Quarter-Finalist in PAGE Awards