BIO

Leon Masters is a gay transgender man whose writing fuses the othering of supernatural creatures and real-world horrors to explore issues facing transgender and other marginalized folks. Raised in the proudly weird, small central coast hippie-town and former Murder Capital of the World, Santa Cruz, California, he developed an off-beat sense of humor when it comes to tackling serious issues, and is heavily influenced by his background where cults, ghost-hunts and séances felt like the norm.

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​Leon has a background in fine arts, photography, and design. After undergrad, he worked for on several short videos, live events, and film volunteer projects in multiple capacities in the Bay Area. A short documentary he co-directed and co-filmed screened at Cinequest Film Festival. He also independently created a short film and an experimental no-budget feature as director, writer, producer, and actor.

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​He earned an MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA in 2019. Leon’s writing has placed in a handful of festivals in winner, finalist, and semi-finalist positions. He writes crime thriller, supernatural horror, and science fiction features, teleplays, podcasts, and shorts.

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He and his co-writer recently won in the Roadmap Writers Podcasting Competition for their LGBT+ supernatural crime drama. Leon was also a Roadmap Writers Diversity Fellowship Runner-Up and a Transgender Film Center Fellowship finalist. He has won at Script Summit multiple years, won the Creative Screenwriting Unique Voices Screenplay Competition, and was a short screenplay finalist with Hollyshorts.

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He was in the Pre-Rainbow Pages Mentorship Program and now is a lead team member where he works to help build community with and uplift fellow queer writers.

 

​Currently, Leon works as freelance filmmaker, a professional coverage writer, and a substitute teacher. He enjoys practicing banjo, pole-fitness/dancing, and still participating in seemingly successful seances and unsuccessful ghost-hunts with his black cat in tow.