BIOGRAPHIE

Juan Avella is a bilingual Venezuelan writer-director based in LA who focuses on gritty and social genre stories set in multicultural worlds. As a fellow of the 2020-2021 NBC Emerging Director program, Juan directed episode 815 of THE BLACKLIST for NBC and Sony Pictures. He holds a Screenwriting MFA from the AFI Conservatory, where he won the William J. Fadiman Award for excellence in screenwriting for his crime feature BOLICHICOS. Such script was the recipient of the 2019 TFI Sloan Film Fund grant from the Tribeca Film Institute and was included in The Black List’s 2019 inaugural LatinX List. Juan’s short films, HIJO POR HIJO (2017) and HER BODY (2018), played in over 80 festivals, garnered 10 awards combined, and were picked up and exclusively distributed by HBO Max — where HER BODY currently streams. Most recently, Juan directed and co-wrote the horror short film FREEBIRTH for 20th Digital and HULU, where it currently streams. Next, Juan is set to direct BOLICHICOS with Axel Kuschevatzky and Diego Nájera producing, as well as the feature film adaptation of his short HIJO POR HIJO for Epic Pictures. . He is repped by The Gersh Agency and Thruline Entertainment.

FILMOGRAPHIE

• 2021 Freebirth Director, Referent, Production, Sales, Script, Script
• 2018 Her Body Director, Production, Referent, Script, Script
• 2018 Hit it & Quit it Production, Referent, Sales
• 2016 Hijo por Hijo Director, Referent, Sales, Script, Script