Billy Hanson (Survival Type, Bone Cold) is an acclaimed author, filmmaker and musician, with projects ranging from comics and music videos, to books and feature films. His first book, Spider Season, won the gold medal for Anthology Fiction at the Readers Favorite Book Awards in 2019. Billy served as a writer and story producer for the Eli Roth series, The Legion of Exorcists, and in 2023, Billy’s first feature film as a writer/director, a psychological horror/thriller called Bone Cold was released by Well Go USA.

Paul Inman (That Feeling, Thirst of the Dead) is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, and storyteller. He has worked on over 30 films, earning accolades such as Best Director. His adaptation of Stephen King’s “That Feeling You Can Only Say What It Is In French” had an impressive three-year festival run, screening at dozens of festivals worldwide. His debut novel, Ageless, was a winner of the Sword and Laser Contest at Inkshares.com

Billy and I are serving as editors and writers in KEYS TO THE KINGDOM.

Rodney Altman (Umney’s Last Case, Killers of the Flower Moon) has been a lifelong Stephen King fan, adapting one of his favorite stories, Umney’s Last Case, while studying Film at NYU. Since then he has gone on to develop numerous projects including The Witcher, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

Dr. Robert Cochrane (Luckey Quarter, Acceptance) researches and teaches improvisation and Cinema Therapy-style storytelling for Parkinson’s disease through his nonprofit, [www.yesandexercise.org.] Along with being a popular, energetic, and dynamic keynote speaker, he is an award-winning filmmaker and author. He made the dollar baby, "Luckey Quarter” and won the Simon & Schuster American Gunslinger Contest for his short film adaptation from The Dark Tower series. The grand prize included meeting Stephen King in Manhattan and watching the film with him. His book Acceptance is available on Amazon. He lives in Walnut Creek, CA with his family.

James B. Cox (Grey Matter, Call of the Void) was born and raised in Northern California, the son of a dentist and a school teacher. He caught the film bug early making short films in the backyard and on family trips. After studying his passion at Chapman University, he wrote and directed the short film, Grey Matter based on a short story by Stephen King. James’ take on the story of an adolescent son forced to face his father’s alcoholism and the "monster" he becomes continues to be screened regularly at horror-themed festivals. His first feature, Hacked, featured characters facing anxiety over joblessness and obsolescence at the dawn of a global AI consciousness fueled by Big Data. Hacked caught on with audiences the world over. James continues to weave tales of ordinary people encountering horrors both intimate and cosmic in worlds that are both alien and all too familiar.

Chris Ethridge (Survivor Type, Haven’s End), an award-winning filmmaker, has directed two features and numerous shorts, including an authorized adaptation of Stephen King’s Survivor Type. His debut, Attack of the Morningside Monster, earned critical praise, paving the way for Haven’s End (2020). A festival mainstay, he’s been recognized with multiple awards, including Best Director at Austin Revolution Film Fest, and prestigious Esprit de Gore award at the Nightmares Film Festival in Columbus, OH.

Award-winning genre filmmaker Mando Franco (The Boogeyman, Reaper Road), an LA native, is steadily making his mark in the independent horror scene. Best known for co-writing and directing the zombie web series 8.13, and a Dollar Baby adaptation of Stephen King’s The Boogeyman, which has screened at festivals worldwide.

Currently, he’s wrapping up his next indie horror feature, Reaper Road.

Jay Holben (Paranoid: A Chant, Dexter) is a director, producer, and cinematography expert based in Los Angeles. An associate member of the ASC and co-chair of its Motion Imaging Technology Council, he has authored five books and over 600 articles on cinematography. His Dollar Baby adaptation Paranoid, based on Stephen King’s Paranoid: A Chant, gained international acclaim and remains a festival favorite. Holben has contributed to multiple books on King and has directed feature films, documentaries, and television projects. A former cinematographer, he now focuses on producing and directing, working with major studios and industry organizations on cutting-edge film and technology projects.

D.F. Jester (One for the Road, Stay Safe) is a writer and filmmaker who loves the surreal and absurd; finding life is truly stranger than fiction. His Dollar Baby, One For The Road, was filmed in the barren, cold wasteland that is Maine at the height of winter. His two documentaries have been featured on broadcast television and have received awards at film festivals across the world. His public access television series, Stay Safe, was broadcast across thirty-three states, with the most surprising being Anchorage, Alaska. When he is not writing, filming, or reading, he is trekking across foreign lands on tiny motorbikes that were never conceived to be driven in the conditions he subjects them to. You can find some of his writing at www.dfjester.com.

Shawn S. Lealos (I Know What You Need) is an award-winning writer who has directed several short films, including an authorized adaptation of Stephen King’s I Know What You Need. Shawn has been writing since his teens, when he fell in love with King’s novels and comic books. Shawn wrote the first official book about the Stephen King Dollar Baby Filmmakers, titled Dollar Deal: The Story of the Stephen King Dollar Baby Filmmakers, which includes the stories of 19 filmmakers who made it big thanks to the King of Horror. He has also worked as a journalist since 1996, earned several honors, including Gold Circle and Society of Professional Journalists Awards, and is a voting member of the Professional Oklahoma Film Critics Circle.

Julia Marchese (I Know What You Need, Out of Print) is a filmmaker, actor, writer, podcaster, film programmer, and cinephile. She directed Out of Print, a documentary on revival cinema and 35mm, now archived at The Academy Film Archives. A lifelong Constant Reader, she adapted Stephen King’s I Know What You Need into an award-winning film, shot at the University of Maine in its original story locations. It played at San Diego Comic-Con 2024 and KingCon in Las Vegas. She co-hosts Horror Movie Survival Guide, The Loser’s Club, and JodoWOWsky. Follow her @juliacmarchese or visit juliamarchese.com.

Bolen Miller (Gray Matter, Delilah) is a writer/director from Portland, Oregon. He wrote screenplay adaptations for Stephen King’s "Gray Matter" and "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away," both of which he also directed. Currently, he’s in post-production on "DELILAH," a feature-length horror film co-written with Jeff Whitehead.

Jackie Perez (Beachworld, Bad Vibes) is a nuclear engineer turned screenwriter specializing in genre and STEM-centric stories. An MIT grad and Navy veteran, she has consulted on SEAL TEAM (CBS) and written for Bad Vibes (QCODE) and Veterans You Should Know (iHeart Media). Her Stephen King Dollar Baby adaptation BEACHWORLD streams on DUST, and her biography of astronaut Sally Ride debuts via Bloomsbury in March 2025. She’s a 2024 Women in Film DC Documentary Fellow and is co-producing a cosmic horror documentary. After traveling to 32 countries, she now lives in the Washington D.C. area with her husband Jon and rescue pup Maxie.

James Renner (All That You Love Will Be Carried Away, The Man From Primrose Lane) is an investigative journalist and author of several books, including True Crime Addict and the novel, The Man from Primrose Lane. His latest book, Scout Camp, is a dark memoir about a secret society inside the Boy Scouts of America. In 2004, he adapted Stephen King’s All That You Love Will Be Carried Away. Visit JamesRenner.com.

Stephen Tramontana (A Very Tight Place, Killer Piñata) is a writer, producer, and director focusing on horror and crime stories. He began his career in post-production, working on SyFy Channel original movies such as Man with the Screaming Brain, Stan Lee’s Lightspeed, and Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys. He transitioned to writing with Welshgate, a horror feature that finaled in the Austin Film Festival. He’s written and developed projects for Further Films and Penchant Films, as well as Stan Lee and Takashi Shimizu. In 2013, he co-founded Angry Mule Films, co-writing and directing the micro-budget horror-comedy Killer Piñata, as well as its 2022 sequel, Bride of the Killer Piñata. In 2018, he adapted the Stephen King short story A Very Tight Place under the Dollar Baby program. He’s a proud Chicagoan and nacho enthusiast.

Jennifer Trudrung (Here There Be Tygers, Halloween Kills) loves all things horror. She’s appeared in The Vampire Diaries and Halloween Kills and written the short films Hickory Dickory Dock, Unbearing, and the award-winning Here There Be Tygers based on the Stephen King story. Jennifer is currently in production on her first feature film, The Virgins.

Next Chapter: Story Loglines