First Draft Episode #233: Maggie Levin

Maggie Levin is a director & screenwriter with rock n’ roll roots. She recently completed her debut feature My Valentine for Hulu & Blumhouse’s Into the Dark horror anthology series. She worked as a director and staff writer on Season 2 of Miss 2059, and is the director of The Friendless Five and more.

This episode of First Draft is brought to you by Lovely War, the national bestselling historical young adult novel by Julie Berry, now available in paperback.

Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode

Maggie’s dad is Tony Levin, bass player for Peter Gabriel and King Crimson
Robert Lepage directed Peter Gabriel’s tours, and is well known for the Cirque du Soleil show Ka
Bard College at Simon’s Rock
Marie Kondo (author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up) does not apply to Maggie’s childhood journals
The Writer’s Panel with Ben Blacker (formerly The Nerdist Writer’s Panel) is a great podcast to listen to for screenwriters, as is Scriptnotes with Craig Mazin and John August (listen to his First Draft podcast here!)
Lovesick is the first short she wrote and starred in, and Braeden Herrera directed it
Melanie Recker, creator of digital series, “The Friendless Five”
The Queen (film)
Diva, a short directed by Maggie and starred Helen Highfield
Dangerous Liaisons (film)
Anna Akana, actress, filmmaker, singer, musician, author, and comedian widely known for her YouTube channel. She is also a frequent collaborator with Maggie.
Scott Derickson, writer and director of The Exorcism of Emily Rose and writer, director, and producer on the new Snowpiercer TV show, and C. Robert Cargill, author of books like Dreams and Shadows, and screenwriter of Sinister, Sinister 2, and Doctor Strange, were producers on My Valentine, along with Blumhouse.

I want to hear from you!

Have a question about writing or creativity for Sarah Enni or her guests to answer? To leave a voicemail, call (818) 533-1998.

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Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author of Divergent; Linda Holmes, author and host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast; Jonny Sun, internet superstar, illustrator of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Gmorning, Gnight! and author and illustrator of Everyone’s an Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too; Michael Dante DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender; John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or Rhett Miller, musician and frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we take deep dives on their careers and creative works.

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Nicolas Paine

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