Michelle Amor Gillie

Clinical Assistant Professor of Screenwriting | Loyola Marymount University

Los Angeles, CA, UNITED STATES

School of Film and Television

Biography

Michelle Amor Gillie is a screenwriter, producer, and full-time clinical professor in the School of Film and Television at Loyola Marymount University, where she teaches both undergraduate and graduate screenwriting courses. Her areas of expertise include Writing the Feature Screenplay, Rewriting the Feature Screenplay, and Adaptation: From Source to Screen.

She has also taught screenwriting at UCLA, the American Film Institute (AFI), Chapman University, and California State University, Northridge (CSUN), working with emerging writers across Southern California.

Internationally, she led immersive screenwriting courses in Budapest, Hungary (2019, 2024) at the Budapest Film Academy at Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary’s oldest university, where LMU students collaborated with international film students and professionals.

Michelle is a proud member of the Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) and served as co-chair of the WGAW Committee of Black Writers from 2013 to 2023, leading efforts to promote equity, inclusion, and opportunities for Black writers in film and television.

She is currently writing and producing Saving Brandon, a feature film based on the autobiography of WWE Legend Booker T. Huffman. In television, she sold P.G. County, an adaptation of Connie Briscoe’s bestselling novel, to Lifetime in 2024, in collaboration with Lionsgate TV and Mary J. Blige’s Blue Butterfly Productions. Her first series, The Honorable, co-created with Ali LeRoi (Everybody Hates Chris), was sold to CBS in 2019 and later resold to BET in 2020. She also has several new film and TV projects in development.

Her earlier screenwriting credits include the indie films Playin’ for Love, directed by and starring Robert Townsend, and Of Boys & Men, starring Academy Award nominee Angela Bassett. She also co-wrote and co-produced the documentary Tupac Shakur: Before I Wake.

In 2020, Michelle co-authored the viral open letter Dear Hollywood, addressing systemic racism in entertainment. It was featured in The LA Times, Washington Post, Forbes, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, and Variety. That same year, Variety named her one of the “top educators around the world.” In 2024, she was featured in LMU’s Ignite the Future: The Campaign for LMU for her work in storytelling and student success.

Michelle holds an M.F.A. from UCLA and a B.A. from Columbia College Chicago. A proud Chicago native, she now resides in Westchester, California, with her family.

Education (2)

University of California, Los Angeles: MFA, Theater, Film, and Television 2014

Columbia College, Chicago: BA, Arts, Entertainment & Media Management 1995

Areas of Expertise (5)

Narrative Structure

Book Proposals

Feature Film Screenwriting

TV Writing

Outlining

Accomplishments (11)

Semi-Finalist

Universal Feature Writers Program, 2018

Second Round Finalist in both Feature and One-Hour Pilot categories

Austin Film Festival, 2017

Second Round Finalist

New York Television Festival, 2017

Second Round Finalist

Sundance Institute Episodic Story Lab, 2017

Second Round Finalist

Sundance Institute Episodic Story Lab, 2015

Second Round Finalist

Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab, 2015

Second Round Finalist

Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting, 2014

UCLA Student Finalist

Humanitas Prize, 2012

Fellowship Recipient

Barbra Streisand/Sony Pictures Award, 2011-13

Winner, Best of the Fest, "Of Boys & Men"

Chicago International Film Festival, 2008

Centerpiece Selection, "Of Boys & Men"

Pan-African Film Festival, 2008

Affiliations (2)

Co-Chair, Committee of Black Writers, Writers Guild of America West
Co-Founder, LMU's School of Film and Television (SFTV) Students of Color Organization (SCO), whose mission to empower, increase visibility and create career opportunities for Students of Color. Won LMU’s 2019 New Outstanding Organization of the Year.