Justin D James
- Writer
- Producer
#1 Pilot on The Black List
1st Place Winner of Script Pipeline
Born and raised in central Florida, Justin grew up with a lifelong dream of following in Steven Spielberg's footsteps. At nineteen, he set out for the west coast, where he spent the first few months bouncing between PA gigs while living out of his car. Eventually, he worked his way up the production ladder, while squeezing in late-night writing sessions in pursuit of his ultimate dream.
A few weeks after beginning development on a passion project with Amazing Spider-Man producer, Pam Williams, a family health crisis sent him and his high school sweetheart back to the east coast, where he was forced to put his career on pause to help care for his mother-in-law while she was in the ICU. What was meant to be a two-month hiatus turned into a three-year detour. With 2,000 miles between him and the industry, Justin sought alternative methods to get his material noticed.
Soon, an original pilot, inspired by his mom's South Florida real estate tales, landed at the top of The Black List, where it stayed at number one for an unprecedented seventeen weeks.
Later that year, while working as a PA for an east coast reality show, he decided to enter his first screenwriting contest. With a sobering one-hundred-and-thirty-two dollars in his bank account, he coughed up the $60 admissions fee and prayed for a miracle.
Two months later, that miracle came true when he was announced the winner of Script Pipeline's TV Writing Contest out of 11,000 entries. "Justin's pilot, submitted to one of the most competitive seasons in Script Pipeline history, rose to the top thanks to a prodigious and intimate sense of character development and overall storytelling."
Within weeks he found himself writing for one of the biggest producers in TV, landed major writing assignments, and has seen his young career begin to rise. In the fall of 2022, he hit a selling streak, selling two thrillers, two romcoms, and a TBA soapy drama series to a streamer with Untitled Ent. producing. So far in 2023, he's sold a mother, daughter drama from Cartel Pictures, optioned a female buddy comedy to Happy Accidents, sold a romcom to Candace Cameron Bure's CandyRock, set up an original thriller with Jenna Dewan attached to produce and star, began developing a children's animated series with Untitled Entertainment, and set up an action thriller at Kevin Hart's Hartbeat. Up next, he is set to write a sports comedy with Blink 182's Tom DeLonge, and write and produce a series based on the incredible true story of Walker Hayes, the Grammy-nominated country singer of the viral hit, Fancy Like and author of the bestselling book, "I'm Glad You're Here."
"It took me thirteen incredibly humbling years of rejection to get here... and the more things that went wrong, the more I knew they'd eventually go right."
Written by Via Script Pipeline
Born and raised in central Florida, Justin grew up with a lifelong dream of following in Steven Spielberg's footsteps. At nineteen, he set out for the west coast, where he spent the first few months bouncing between PA gigs while living out of his car. Eventually, he worked his way up the production ladder, while squeezing in late-night writing sessions in pursuit of his ultimate dream.
A few weeks after beginning development on a passion project with Amazing Spider-Man producer, Pam Williams, a family health crisis sent him and his high school sweetheart back to the east coast, where he was forced to put his career on pause to help care for his mother-in-law while she was in the ICU. What was meant to be a two-month hiatus turned into a three-year detour. With 2,000 miles between him and the industry, Justin sought alternative methods to get his material noticed.
Soon, an original pilot, inspired by his mom's South Florida real estate tales, landed at the top of The Black List, where it stayed at number one for an unprecedented seventeen weeks.
Later that year, while working as a PA for an east coast reality show, he decided to enter his first screenwriting contest. With a sobering one-hundred-and-thirty-two dollars in his bank account, he coughed up the $60 admissions fee and prayed for a miracle.
Two months later, that miracle came true when he was announced the winner of Script Pipeline's TV Writing Contest out of 11,000 entries. "Justin's pilot, submitted to one of the most competitive seasons in Script Pipeline history, rose to the top thanks to a prodigious and intimate sense of character development and overall storytelling."
Within weeks he found himself writing for one of the biggest producers in TV, landed major writing assignments, and has seen his young career begin to rise. In the fall of 2022, he hit a selling streak, selling two thrillers, two romcoms, and a TBA soapy drama series to a streamer with Untitled Ent. producing. So far in 2023, he's sold a mother, daughter drama from Cartel Pictures, optioned a female buddy comedy to Happy Accidents, sold a romcom to Candace Cameron Bure's CandyRock, set up an original thriller with Jenna Dewan attached to produce and star, began developing a children's animated series with Untitled Entertainment, and set up an action thriller at Kevin Hart's Hartbeat. Up next, he is set to write a sports comedy with Blink 182's Tom DeLonge, and write and produce a series based on the incredible true story of Walker Hayes, the Grammy-nominated country singer of the viral hit, Fancy Like and author of the bestselling book, "I'm Glad You're Here."
"It took me thirteen incredibly humbling years of rejection to get here... and the more things that went wrong, the more I knew they'd eventually go right."
Written by Via Script Pipeline
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