Paul Chitlik, Writer-Producer-Director-Teacher-Episode #312

Storybeat with Steve Cuden

This is Paul Chitlik’s second appearance on StoryBeat. Paul has written for all the major networks and studios in both English and Spanish. He was story editor for The New Twilight Zone, and staff writer for the Showtime sitcom, Brothers.

He’s directed episodes and been coordinating producer for “Real Stories of the Highway Patrol” and “U.S. Customs Classified.” He wrote and produced “Alien Abduction,” the first network movie shot on digital video for UPN. He wrote, produced, and directed “Ringling Brothers Revealed” a special for The Travel Channel, which was right up his alley because years earlier he’d been a roustabout for Circus Vargas.

Paul has written features for Rysher Entertainment, NuImage, Promark, Mainline Releasing, and others. Most recently he wrote, produced and directed “The Wedding Dress,” for Amazon Prime.

Paul was nominated for a Writers Guild of America award for his work on "The Twilight Zone" and a GLAAD Media Award nomination for Telemundo’s "Los Beltrán.” He also won a Genesis Award for a Showtime Family movie.

Paul has taught in the MFA programs at UCLA, the University of Barcelona’s film school ESCAC, Cuba’s film school EICTV, Chile’s film school UNIACC, The University of Zulia in Venezuela, The Panamerican University in Mexico City, The Story Academy of Sweden and as a clinical associate professor at Loyola Marymount University.

Paul’s latest novel is Lies, All Lies. I’ve read Lies, All Lie, and found it to be one of the most entertaining works of fiction about behind-the-scenes Hollywood I’ve had the pleasure to peruse.

He’s also the author of one of the most indispensable, must-read books for anyone interested in writing screenplays, teleplays, plays, and even novels, called Rewrite.

For the record, I was one of Paul’s students during my days in graduate school at UCLA. Without question, Paul’s teachings have remained exceptionally influential on me for both my own writing and in my subsequent years as a college professor of screenwriting.