Jared Frieder’s writing career began at the age of nine when he wrote his first unpublished novella, If Lucy’s In The Sky, She‘ll Probably Need a Parachute. He graduated from Columbia University’s undergraduate fiction writing program and did not graduate from USC’s Screenwriting MFA, but instead dropped out to write for ABC Family’s Chasing Life. His screenplay Three Months made the 2015 Annual Blacklist, was accepted into the Sundance Diversity Initiative, and won Austin Film Festival’s Comedy Screenplay Award, Outfest Film Festival’s Screenwriting Lab Fellowship, the Screencraft Comedy Screenplay Grand Prize, and the Big Bear International Film Festival Screenwriting Prize.
Current projects: He is currently writing a dance feature for the financier Lost City Works, adapting a YA novel for television, creating a digital series for Bento Box Entertainment, and writing for MTV‘s upcoming one-hour dramedy, Little Darlings. His fiction has been published in The Newer York and The Collective Press.
What would be your advice to aspiring screenwriters? 1) Write shit you care about. 2) Figure out your brand and fucking run with it. 3) Cursing is fine.
How did you get your break? As someone who didn’t really know people in LA, my way into entertainment was via the competition track. I’d have to say winning my first contest, the Outfest Film Festival‘s Screenwriting Lab, was a significant turning point. That being said, Three Months’ Austin win was pretty insane and directly led to writing opportunities. So it’s a toss-up between the gays and Texas.
Favorite moment at AFF? My favorite Austin experience (barring the barbecue) was probably sharing sweet potato fries at the Driskill Bar with Dan Petrie Jr. and hearing his stories from 80’s Hollywood. It was pretty fucking spellbinding.