Filmmakers: What is your primary skill and where do you work most?
Actor Norcal, Norcal Directing, Writer Norcal
My current Project Title:
The Everlasting Gift
About me - current project:
Wren Valentino is an actor, author, entrepreneur, film producer, movie critic, and workshop instructor. The bestselling author of twenty-one novels, he writes across multiple genres, including romance, thriller, young adult, and horror. To date, Wren has written more than seventy stage plays produced in twelve countries and three languages, with eight of his original screenplays and seven stage plays adapted for the screen.
Wren is the founding CEO of Blue Dasher Productions, a multifaceted creative company dedicated to empowering writers, celebrating storytelling, producing innovative films and television, and championing the transformative power of the arts.
As a film producer, he has helped bring more than one hundred independent movies to the screen, including A Beast in the Manor, Dark Feast, Ever After, The Farmhouse Murders, Hollow Lake, I Feel Fine, Shredded, A Soldier’s Descent, and many more.
As an actor, Wren has appeared in over forty films, with credits that include Amityverse, Desert Fiends 2, Four Nights in Fear Forest, Friday the 13th: Blood Loss, Gobblefoot, The Last Sleepover, Night of the Strangers, Paula Takes the Stage, Shadows of the Night, Snow Falling on Pumpkins, Two Truths and a Lie, and Venus Die-Trap. He will next appear as newscaster Braydon Eisner in Midnight Maniac, alongside horror icon Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp).
His literary work has appeared in Atomic Flyswatter (Long Shot Books), The Best 10-Minute Plays (Smith & Kraus), Disquiet Arts, Halfway Down the Stairs, Powders Press, Regency Reflections (Wingless Dreamer), and Wicked Gay Ways, among others. His essays have been featured in several Chicken Soup for the Soul anthologies.
An educator for more than twenty years, Wren is the founder and instructor of Workshops with Wren, a series of virtual writing workshops designed for writers of all experience levels, genres, and forms.
As curator of Fantastic Classics, he writes critical essays on films across all genres and eras of cinema, with a particular focus on film noir.
Wren received a Pushcart Prize nomination for his poem Cherry Drop and was named an international finalist in the Jane Austen Writing Contest for his short story Home. His award-winning screenplays have been recognized at festivals worldwide, including the Beverly Hills Film Festival, Chicago Horror Film Awards, Los Angeles Film Awards, Omaha Film Festival, and Scream Queen Film Festival.
His original scripts have also placed in major competitions, such as the Filmmatic Horror Screenplay Awards, ISA Fast Track Fellowship, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards, Nashville Film Festival Screenwriting Competition, ScreenCraft Feature Competition, and WeScreenplay Shorts Contest.
For the pilot episode of his original television series Her Other Life, Wren received first prize in the Fade In Awards TV Pilot/Web Series Competition and Best TV Pilot Screenplay at the Melbourne International Screenplay Awards (MISA). The pilot also earned honors from the Filmmatic TV Pilot Awards and Final Draft’s Big Break Screenwriting Contest. The series follows two teenage sisters who suspect their bipolar mother led a secret life—and that her death may not have been what it seemed.
Wren graduated with honors from Oglethorpe University in Atlanta with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and English, earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte, and completed the Professional Program in Screenwriting at UCLA.
He is a proud member of Contemporary Romance Writers, the International Screenwriters’ Association, Rainbow Romance Writers, and the Romance Writers of America, which honored him with a Volunteer Service Award.
Laurels, awards and other accomplishments:
THE EVERLASTING GIFT (adapted from the novel)
2025: Official Selection, The Beverly Hills Film Festival, Screenplay Competition
2023: Winner, Skiptown Playhouse International Film Festival, Best Feature Screenplay
2023: Quarterfinalist, ScreenCraft Family Screenplay Competition
2023: Quarterfinalist, Creative Screenwriting Unique Voices Screenplay Competition
2022: Finalist, Hamburg Film Awards (Germany), Best Feature Script
2022: Second Round, ISA Fast Track Fellowship
2022: Official Selection, Shiny Sparkle Independent Online Film Festival, Feature Script
2021: Finalist, San Pedro International Film Festival, Screenplay Competition
2021: Nominee, The Workers Unite Film Festival, Screenplay Competition
2021: Official Selection, San Diego Movie Awards, Best Feature Screenplay
2021: Official Selection, Big Bear Film Summit, Feature Screenplay Contest
2021: Official Selection, Canadian Diversity Film Festival, Best Screenplay
