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2025 Green Room Members
Congratulations to the 2025 Green Room members selected to take part in a special, nine-month writing program designed to increase the strength and visibility of Northwest Screenwriters. For more information on the program, please click here.
George Wing
Green Room Co-Lead
George Wing is a Seattle-based screenwriter and producer who works in feature films (both studio and independent), episodic series, and most recently, Bollywood. He prefers to write original material on spec. He is developing a Broadway Musical version of his movie 50 FIRST DATES with multi Tony winner Casey Nicholaw. After hiding under a rock during the pandemic years, he is newly motivated to help generate some Seattle/PNW film productions.
Joey Johnson
Green Room Co-Lead
This is Joey’s third year co-leading the Green Room, and is excited to help continue the journey of elevating Northwest Screenwriters. Joey has been writing for pretty much his entire life, starting with short stories, an accidental foray into novels, and then finally screenplays, where he has found the most fun and satisfaction. He graduated with honors from Harvard University with an English degree, but his best education was from having written, directed, and co-produced two Seattle-based feature films Shadowed (2013) and Paralytic (2016). While bringing scripts to life has been a life-changing experience, he looks forward to writing stories unbounded by limited production budgets.
Royce Buckingham
Royce Buckingham is an American fantasy writer with an English degree from Whitman College and a law degree from the University of Oregon. In 2006, Royce sold his first novel, DEMONKEEPER, to Penguin, Putnam, and it became a bestseller in Germany. His screenplay for DEMONKEEPER then sold to 20th Century Fox. Over the last decade, Royce has published fourteen novels with major publishers. He became a best-selling author a second time in Germany with his medieval fantasy trilogy, Die Kart der Welt (Mapper). Royce’s latest book, Monster Lawyer, is an urban fantasy released by Blanvalet in Germany at Halloween 2022. The sequel was released for Halloween 2023.
Shea Formanes
The eldest child of a Filipina immigrant and a first-generation Filipino-American, Shea Formanes is a Seattle-based writer/filmmaker from New York City, who tells sci-fi and fantasy stories about healing from trauma. They wrote/directed the queer coming-of-age short film, The Kettle, and the sci-fi/drama stage play, Bahay Kubo. She was the 1st AD apprentice in the Action! Narrative Apprenticeship Program at the Northwest Film Forum, and was selected for the Above the Line-Education Forum at Washington Filmworks. Shea wrote/directed their debut feature film, I Watched Her Grow, which won Best Sci-Fi Film at the Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival, Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Feature Film at the Tri-Cities International Film Festival, Best Makeup in a Feature Film at the Toronto Independent Film Festival at Cift, and is a Quarter-Finalist at the Urban Mediamakers Film Festival. Shea is a Dean’s Medal nominee and English Honors graduate from the University of Washington.
Arthur Rains-McNally
Arthur is a writer and producer at Decoded Films. He is passionate about fantasy and hyperrealism, and his work often explores themes of loss, self-discovery, and the corrosive nature of power. Arthur’s debut streaming series “Tabitha, Witch of the Order” was awarded funding assistance from the Washington Filmworks’ Innovation Lab program. He is currently writing and producing the graphic novel “Cascadia’s Dark Truth” with longtime collaborator James Dailey. He draws inspiration from his wife Kathryn, cats, and nephews, in the techtropolis of Seattle.
SL (Shree Lakshmi) Rao
SL (Shree Lakshmi) Rao is a storyteller with a background in design, scripted, and improvised theater. SL is excited to tell stories about characters we don’t usually see on the screen, by taking a queer, feminist, immigrant and a South Asian perspective. SL draws from her multicultural experience of growing up in India to assimilating in the US as an adult. While not writing, SL regularly performs with the Jet City Improv ensemble and works to create a more equitable world through her education research work.
Ryan Purcell
Ryan is a longtime Seattle-based cinematographer, having shot over a dozen feature films and numerous shorts, and earning recognition for cinematic excellence. His primary focus however remains storytelling. He values the early discussions with directors during pre-production, finding these conversations to be crucial in shaping the narrative. His interest in writing (and reading) go way back. He wrote and directed a short play at New City’s “New Playwrights Festival,” an experience that led him to study acting with the Lee Strasburg Institute. Over the years, Ryan has written several spec screenplays, with his third, “Shiver,” being optioned by a Los Angeles production company. An avid musician, his songs have been played on radio stations globally and are another aspect of his artistic sensibility. He is excited to join the screenwriters community of the Green Room!
Mel McCarthy
Mel McCarthy runs an independent production company called 1443 Films with her partner in Tacoma. She’s in post-production on her first feature film, Wheel Force Go!, and for some strange, masochistic reason, she wants to make another one. She typically plays the role of writer and producer on these projects, and gravitates toward surreal comedies. Mel is inspired by how bizarre and destructive the world can be, and wonders if she can top it in fiction. Mel looks forward to putting this to the test in her next feature script, and is excited to collaborate with other passionate creatives in the 2025 Green Room.
Brad Wilke
J. Brad Wilke is an accomplished screenwriter and producer who has done work for both Roger Corman (CAMEL SPIDERS) and Norman Lear (GAMERGATE). He most recently wrote the script for Jim Wynorski’s forthcoming reboot of the 1950s sci-fi classic, CAT WOMEN OF THE MOON, and is currently developing a card game and a book inspired by his MOVIES NEVER MADE posters project. Brad resides in north Seattle with his wife and two children.
Susannah Powers Stengel
Susannah Powers Stengel is a southern-fried screenwriter and a professional matchmaker with theatre kid roots and a passion for scripting zany, genre-bending love quests. Susannah led an award-winning writers’ room during Seattle’s 48 Hour Film Project 2023. In 2024, Susannah’s short Fire & Oak was honored at CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival’s Script Studio and was produced by SubliminalEd Films. In the summer of 2024, Curtain Up Productions brought Susannah’s screenplay The Road to Plan C to life. Susannah works on set as a writer, producer, actor, and script supervisor. Susannah runs a blog with her writing partner at tellyfish.com. Her voice on the page sounds like a gutsy, livewire woman, laughing through chaos at an inside joke.
Serena McIntire
Described as a “boundary-pushing comedian who crafts bubbly narratives driven by gritty undercurrents,” Serena is a celebrated writer who enjoys crafting unique stories centered around female characters challenging societal norms. Her original television pilot “Frenemies” won the 2021 Portland Comedy Film Festival and has received accolades in numerous screenwriting competitions. In 2023, Serena was a top 5 finalist in ISA’s highly competitive pitch competition for her pilot about the life of bisexual icon Julie d’Aubigny. Her original web series and television pilots have been selected for table reads at Seattle Film Summit, Northwest Film Forum, and Portland Comedy Film Festival. This is Serena’s third time being selected for The Green Room fellowship. When she isn’t writing, Serena enjoys traveling, going to concerts, and asking people abnormal questions. Serena lives in Seattle with her cats, Kira and Leo.
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Mathew Wright
Mathew Wright is an educator, parent, and screenwriter born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. Mathew’s horror education started young: mom smoking at the kitchen stove reading Stephen King, sneaking episodes of Twin Peaks on VHS, and watching The Exorcist for his 10th birthday sleepover. Working in public schools and raising kids of his own has only reinforced that upbringing and his understanding of the world: dread and anxiety can fester in the smallest corners. Mathew writes contained horror-thriller features where ghosts and gore are rooted in the slow violence of everyday life and is thrilled to be working with fellow NW writers.
Readings for the Green Room scripts to take place in November.