Kate Longoria

I think the most interesting person I've ever known was my grandmother. She grew up in Mexico, and immigrated to the US with her husband in the 50's. They picked fruit in California, lived in Louisiana. Finally they settled on the Texas gulf coast where my grandfather worked on the docks and my grandmother raised their five sons. To make extra money, my grandmother read tarot cards--without the knowledge or consent of her devoutly Catholic husband. The woman was uncannily accurate. She said she didn't even remember what she told people during a reading, yet people would come from far and wide for her advice. She continued to see clients long after my grandfather died.

What does any of this have to do with me and screenwriting? I'm not sure, aside from the fact that I plan to write a screenplay about her. If you really want to know about how I chose writing, I don't think it was a conscious choice. It was more of an addiction that got out of control, an addiction to story. I'm sure a lot of screenwriters can relate.

I studied theatre through my entire educational career. With years of stage experience, story structure was driven deep into the marrow of my bones. I completed my first screenplay a year after I'd graduated from college. I had no formal training in screenwriting. I just wanted to get the story on the page, so of course it was a beautiful disaster.

Fast-forward through a lot of fits and starts, some writing partnerships, and finally a short screenplay that made it into some festivals and won some awards, giving me a little courage and confidence. Eventually I got a job as a local lifestyle television show producer, so someone actually pays me to write-- which is a wonderful feeling. We air 5 days a week for an hour each morning. There's one other producer on the team, and I've been there 5 years, so technically I've written over 600 hours of (local) television.

In 2019 I completed the UCLA Screenwriting Professionals Program, and now I'm focused on writing rom-coms with interesting, complicated women, like the women I know and love and hope to be like. I enjoy writing comedies. I enjoy bringing some laughter and joy and love into the world.

I'm excited to see one of my scripts produced so I can enjoy the collaborative part of the process. That's something from theater that I miss-- working with a big group of artists.