Our Story

At Coverfly, we love great storytelling. Stories have the power to inspire, to enthrall, and to effect positive change in the world. Coverfly was born when the teams behind ScreenCraft and WeScreenplay partnered in 2017 to solve some serious problems they saw with Hollywood’s decentralized and messy screenwriting talent-discovery process. Coverfly’s purpose is to provide centralization for the entertainment industry to discover diverse, talented new voices in screenwriting from all of the best-regarded screenwriting competitions, fellowships, labs, festivals and talent-discovery programs.

In an industry which is becoming increasingly international and inclusive, Coverfly’s mission is to encourage the industry to discover and hire writers from diverse backgrounds and places, looking beyond the insular bubble of Hollywood for writers whose voices reflect under-represented communities and worldviews.

Coverfly has quickly grown to include dozens of the industry’s best screenwriting organizations, each with their own unique readers, evaluation guidelines, judges, administrators, industry partners, and prizes. Organizations use Coverfly to make administration faster, more transparent, and more fair. 

Coverfly’s writer-facing dashboard allows writers to securely and transparently access their data on Coverfly’s platform. Writers can also opt to make their projects searchable and discoverable by entertainment industry professionals who are looking for emerging talent. 

Today, Coverfly has over 50 carefully curated organizations accepting submissions via Coverfly, and thousands of screenwriters have signed up for the free writer dashboard. Coverfly’s mission is to highlight writers’ competition successes to the entertainment industry and to connect talented emerging writers with script buyers, producers, agents, managers and studio executives. 

Our Team

Scot Lawrie

President / CTO

Software engineer and problem-solving guru, Scot spent years tapping on a piece of plastic in just the right way to create Coverfly. He has a great recipe for fried Okra, but he forgot it.

tash-guimond

Natasha Guimond

Head of Branding and Design

Tash is an internationally published designer, writer and photographer. When she was 15, she carried the Olympic Torch and learned every single one of George Carlin's seven dirty words.

Merry Grissom

Script Analyst Lead / Tastemaker

An actress, director, and award-winning writer and producer, Merry has been involved in performance and production for more than 35 years. She is proud of her many accomplishments, including a deep understanding of the difference between they’re, there, and their. She also really likes gum.

John Rhodes

Head of Marketing and Business Development

John has worked in script development on such projects as The Grey starring Liam Neeson, Rabbit Hole starring Nicole Kidman, and Drive starring Ryan Gosling. He co-founded ScreenCraft Media in 2013. He doesn't know where he parked his car.

tom-dever

Thomas Dever

Head of Writer Success

Fiercely proud Ohio native, Tom Dever is an independent film producer & writer, published author and, if he does say so himself, a damn fine script analyst.

Mark Stasenko

Head of Operations

Mark is the co-founder of WeScreenplay and most recently a staff writer on a Netflix show. He doesn’t always know where to find the closest water fountain, but he always knows where John parked his car.

Waffles

Head of Human Appreciation

Born of modest means in what is now the modern day Czech Republic, Waffles came to America during her formative years with a singular dream: to provide appreciation for the team behind a best in class technology service for the screenwriting industry. She is a Pisces.

Advisory Board

Patrick Raymond

Patrick is a Creative Executive at Mandalay Pictures. At Mandalay, Patrick gets to do what he loves: find great storytellers to tell undeniable stories. Patrick studied business and film production at the University of Southern California. He worked in the financial services industry for four years before transitioning to entertainment, where he worked as a production assistant in television for four years. Afterwards, he transitioned to Gersh’s production department, where he gained exposure to the literary world, working with writers represented by the agency. Following Gersh, he worked at LD Entertainment for three years where he served asCreative Executive, working with writers, helping shape scripts and acquiring ideas for new projects. At LD he had the opportunity to work for Tate Taylor on a James Brown biopic entitled Get On Up, where he learned the ins and outs of producing big-budget studio films. He has since transitioned to the Creative Executive position at Mandalay Pictures. Patrick was born in Alaska and raised in Seattle prior to moving to LA.

Emily Dell

Emily Dell is an award-winning director & screenwriter.  Her work has gained millions of views online and distributed worldwide, for studios and networks such as CryptTV, DreamworksTV, Netflix, Starz, Alibaba, El Rey Network, Showtime and Amazon Prime.  Her recent graphic novel VERONA, for Emet Comics, is available on Amazon’s Comixology and bookshelves 2018. She is an ADDY-award winning commercials director for companies such as Marvel Studios, FOX Home Video, Estee Lauder, Pepsi, The Science & Entertainment Exchange, Purina and more. She has taught film and writing for Shanghai Film School, New York Film Academy, Screen Actors Guild, National University and more. She studied film at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and the University of California, Berkeley. She is a member of the WGA, Film Fatales and sits on the board of the Alliance of Women Directors (AWD).

Theresa Won

Theresa Won is an independent film producer. In her previous role as Director of Production and Acquisitions at Myriad Pictures, a leading independent feature production, financing and distribution company, she supervised a wide slate of projects in various stages of development and production and has been instrumental in packaging, acquiring and producing commercial and art house films. She most recently acquired at script stage and produced THE LAST WORD starring Shirley MacLaine and Amanda Seyfried directed by Mark Pellington which made its worldwide premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival ahead of its theatrical release via Bleecker Street. Thompson, Richard Loncraine’s FIVE FLIGHTS UP starring Diane Keaton and Morgan Freeman, and YOU’RE NOT YOU starring Hilary Swank and Emmy Rossum. Prior to her recent producing career, Theresa was at Intellectual Property Group, a prestigious literary management company representing top writers and directors in features and television such as James Ellroy, Paul Haggis and Dennis Lehane. Theresa attended Fordham University and is a Los Angeles native.

Scott Carr

Scott is a literary manager. He studied film at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, where he also played football and did competitive amateur bodybuilding, and upon graduating with his Bachelor’s degree, he immediately relocated from Canada to Los Angeles in 2004. It took some creative thinking and resourcefulness for Scott to procure employment opportunities in the USA being a Canadian citizen. He eventually got his start inside the coveted walls of Hollywood in the William Morris mailroom in Summer, 2008, where he worked until the merger with Endeavor. He also worked at UTA for 3 years, and spent a year as a development executive at Hollywood Gang Productions at Warner Bros., before starting the literary management company Management SGC where he represents writers and directors in film, television, books, and digital content.

Trevor Kress

Trevor is currently Director, Brand Content & Partnerships at Stage 13, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment. He has over a decade of experience working in various facets of the entertainment industry, including production & development for leading film and television producers. The last five years, he has worked in branded entertainment, building integrated campaigns for top brands like Microsoft and Walmart, and acting as a brand ambassador throughout the entertainment industry.

Ari Lubet

Ari is a literary manager at 3 Arts Entertainment. After graduating from film school at the University of Wisconsin in 2007, Ari began his career in the film industry as an assistant to a literary agent at Creative Artists Agency and to Michael Sugar at Anonymous Content. He went on to become a literary manager and producer at 3 Arts Entertainment, where he has been since 2013. Ari represents writers and directors in television and film, as well as novelists and comic book creators. He is currently producing the second season of the Netflix television series AMERICAN VANDAL which received nominations for the 2017 Critics’ Choice and WGA awards.