JOE GILFORD
Joe started in the lighting booth at EST in 1976. He was active as a stage director and documentary producer for many years before turning to writing.  His play Finks had its critically acclaimed premier at EST. It was a NY Times Critics Pick and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play and an Off-Broadway Alliance Best New Play award. Finks has been produced regionally as well. He is the screenwriter of Mobtown (2019) starring David Arquette and Jamie Lyn Siegler. He is the writer and co-creator of With Loving Eyes, a graphic biography of German artist Kaethe Kollwitz which is also in development as a mini-series for German TV. He is a two-time recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant for playwriting about science: for Danny’s Brain, about the tragedy of football concussions; and for The Radio Boys, the true story of Edwin Armstrong and the invention of FM Radio. He is the writer of the PBS documentaries The Great American Songbook, hosted by Michael Feinstein, and Beyond Wiseguys: Italian Americans & the Movies. He is the winner of a New York Emmy Award for his documentary work on New York’s Channel 13(PBS). He is the author of the popular guide to screenwriting, “Why Does the Screenwriter Cross the Road?” Since 1999 Joe has taught screenwriting at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts’ Undergraduate Film & TV program.