Alessio Franko was born in Santa Cruz, CA, raised in New York, NY, and is currently based in Austin, TX, where he earned his MFA in Screenwriting from the University of Texas at Austin. He’s thrilled to be a runner-up this year, having previously placed as an Academy Nicholl Semfinalist, a Screencraft Sci-Fi Finalist, a Coverfly Pitch Week Official Selection, an Austin Film Festival Second Rounder, and more. He grew up studying acting at HB Studios and with The Wooster Group in New York, performing at theaters such La Mama and the Ontological-Hysteric, and worked on educational and transmedia games as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago and as a fellow at the Game Changer Chicago Design Lab. Alessio’s interests in drama and media collided when he took his first screenwriting class and realized how influential movies and TV shows have been on him. He immediately knew he wanted to influence them back.

Alessio specializes in thrillers and dark comedies and writes to reveal worlds that are hidden– from secret underground societies to the silent, often insidious systems that shape daily life without us knowing. He frequently returns to themes of bureaucracy, debt, paranoia, games and gamification, and the fight against unjust authority. Alessio’s path has been shaped by the modern day Jewish saints Franz Kafka, Jacques Derrida, David Graeber, and the Marx Brothers.