Katie Elster

Katie was born and raised in Santa Barbara, California her whole life. She began dancing at the age of 4 years old and trained in performance and dance for 20 years, and on top of that she always had an interest in creative writing. Starting at the age of 7, she kept journals and notebooks filled with notes, short stories, and ideas for novels and characters for potential future projects and creative endeavors. Her father instilled a love for movies in her at a young age as well. She was introduced to classic films right away and from there blossomed a secret passion for being an actress. While attending San Marcos High School in Santa Barbara, Katie took a Film Production class during her junior year, where her teacher informed her about the Santa Barbara International Film Festival's Screenwriting Competition known as the 10-10-10 and encouraged Katie to submit. Having never written a screenplay in her life, and only going off her ability to write short stories, she submitted a piece of her work and was chosen to be one of five finalists in the screenwriting competition at the high school level. She was paired with a screenwriting mentor, Jeff Arch, who guided her through writing her very first screenplay, which was titled "With All My Heart". At the film festival's end, Katie went home a winner and thus propelled her even further into the world of film and television, and igniting an even bigger yearning to want to become a writer. She attended Santa Barbara City College for three years, where she was actively involved in the Theater, Film and Dance programs. In May 2014 she graduated with two AA Degrees in Liberal Studies and with honors. From there she took the plunge into the big city of Los Angeles and transferred to Loyola Marymount University, where she was accepted into their prestigious School of Film in Television, majoring in Screenwriting (with an emphasis in Feature Film Writing) and a minor in Theater Arts. During her two years at LMU she acted in over 35 student films and wrote three feature films, along with her very first television pilot. She became a founding member for the Kappa Phi chapter of the sorority, Alpha Chi Omega, and joined the professional, gender-inclusive, cinematic arts fraternity Delta Kappa Alpha. She held leadership positions in both organizations and still managed to keep up on her studies and remain on the Dean's List. In May of 2016 she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Screenwriting, Cum Laude. After graduating, Katie's first television pilot she wrote while at LMU, "Crossbones", was selected to be one of three finalist scripts, in the category of Best Undergraduate TV Pilot/Teleplay, at LMU's Film Outside the Frame Awards, which was held at the Director's Guild of America in the Autumn of 2016. Katie spent one year of her post-grad life living and working in Los Angeles, holding a brief internship at a below-the-line talent agency, and eventually working as a Trainee within the Creative Production/Development department at Columbia Pictures within Sony Pictures Entertainment. In the summer of 2017 Katie moved back to Santa Barbara, where she chose to take a step away from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles to focus primarily on her screenwriting and her other passion, which is working with children. She is looking forward to applying to Graduate School to get her Masters Degree in Education along with her credentials to teach elementary school. She is still incredibly driven about writing and acting for film and television and is looking forward to having a career which allows her to combine all her passions into one. As a writer, she has always related with teens and has been driven by the Young Adult genre for as long as she can remember. She wants to continue expanding her horizons in writing many genres of film and challenging herself, but she takes pride in being a coming-of-age writer and relating with characters who have more "dark horse" qualities. She enjoys giving a voice to the voiceless and making sure that "average" humans are proven to be superheroes because they are unafraid to be themselves.