Denise Cruz-Castino is a Latina screenwriter whose first produced movie, 5 Weddings, premiered at Cannes in 2018, played in 52 countries, and starred Rajkummar Rao (star of the Oscar-nominated film The White Tiger), with co-stars Bo Derek and Candy Clark. Her latest animated children’s horror shorts that she sold to DreamworksTV are on Peacock’s streaming series Spine Chilling Stories. She sold a live action short, The Fountain, to Disney, her horror short, Imaginary Friends, was produced by Raving Eejit Entertainment, and her comedy short, Things Look Grim was produced by Sasha Goldberg.

Denise and her writing partner Johnny Harrington have a sitcom that’s currently in development about Denise’s crazy family that’s Mexican on one side and Jewish on the other. She’s getting ready to go into production to direct her first short in 2023 for a strong female lead dramedy. Her scripts have placed in Final Draft Big Break, Fade-In Screenwriting and Nicholl’s Fellowship contests.