about

Alyssa Lerner is a queer Filipinx writer and director heralding from Poway, CA. The child of a guitarist and dancer-slash-reiki-healer, Alyssa knew they could be anything they wanted in life except rich. As a child, they sported an eyepatch/glasses combo, stutter, and scoliosis brace— thankfully not at the same time— and they used their adolescence to train for a professional career in ballet. After years of schlepping their hard plastic scoliosis brace to ballet academies and competitions around the world, they had a 1/5th life crisis, and left their predetermined ballet career to attend the University of California, Berkeley where they explored Ethnic Studies and being gay. They went on to graduate from USC’s MFA in Screenwriting, where they finally found their voice in screenwriting.

They have since written on shows of multiple genres for Amazon Studios, Disney+, and Freeform, including hour-long historical fantasy drama MY LADY JANE, and upcoming hour-long travel comedy WHILE YOU WERE BREEDING. Their directorial debut “Bubble” won Best Narrative Short at aGLIFF32 and the audience award for best short at Frameline43 Film Festival, while their second film, “Break In”, won BEST COMEDY SHORT at the Palm Springs Short Film Festival and Best in Show at Wicked Queer Film Festival (2021) while also being shortlisted for the prestigious Iris Prize. Their feature script JESSE IS A FRIEND was featured on the 2020 GLAAD List, a curated list of the most promising unmade LGBTQ-inclusive scripts in Hollywood.

Alyssa is represented by Nathan Deremer, Erin Morris, Lucy Tashman, and Daniel Leap at Independent Artist Group and Jairo Alvarado & Lubna Hanna at Redefine Entertainment.