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About Amy

Amy Giaquinto is a Feature Film Screenwriter, Personal Fitness Trainer, former Freelance Motorsports Journalist, adventurer, and ex-dirt bike racer who used to enjoy racing in the Men’s Class in both amateur Supercross and Arenacross events. But Amy's riding and racing days came to an end four years ago when she and her husband, Justin, made the decision to sell their dirt bikes and move to California so that Amy could pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a feature film screenwriter.

“I've always been a writer who has written everything from short stories and novels to writing freelance for motorsports and health and fitness magazines. In my free time, I had always toyed around with writing scripts, but never allowed myself to take it seriously until one day I was journaling and had an epiphany. I thought back to when I was eight years old an used to hide in my closet with a pencil, a flashlight and stack of wide-rule notebook paper trying to turn my Nancy Drew novels into scripts. At that moment, I chose to allow myself to pursue this dream. In doing so, we sacrificed everything, our sanity, our dirt bikes, awesome jobs and even the roof over our heads. Justin, Silver, our dog, and I packed up and hit the road. We lived in our beat up 1978 GMC Suburban for six and a half weeks and somehow wound up in Pennsylvania instead of California. It must have been a combination of the frigid temperatures, an incontinent dog and a leaky roof which dripped ice water on our foreheads every night."

While in Pennsylvania, Amy signed up for online screenwriting classes through UCLA's Extension and two and a half-years later, she and Justin loaded up the dog and exchanged good jobs and housing for the cramped quarters of their Mountaineer. Arriving in California with no jobs, they slept everywhere from the side of a road near Topanga Canyon to various other random roads and parking lots. They even befriended a Ranger at Blue Jay Campground in Cleveland National Forest after offering to grab groceries for him when they went into town.

Amy's wonderfully supportive husband, Justin, soon found a job, which would allow Amy to stay home and write scripts full-time. "I couldn't have asked for a more supportive husband," she says. "I wouldn't have gotten this far without him, that's for sure."

Within days, the couple then moved into an apartment and Amy was back in school, only this time driving from Irvine to Los Angeles to take classes on campus to finish up her Certificate in Feature Film Writing from UCLA. Since then, Amy has completed, "Casey's Supercross," which can be described as "'Rocky' 50 feet in the air," and two feature-length comedies, the details of which can be found on the Projects page.

"I love coming-of-age stories, whether they're drama or comedy, and have been heavily inspired by the "Rocky" movies (Sylvester Stallone), "Remember the Titans" (Gregory Allen Howard), "Glory Road" (Chris Cleveland and Bettina Gilois) and all of John Hughes's movies ("Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "Weird Science," "Home Alone," "The Great Outdoors," etc.) which I grew up watching and loving. My goal as a writer is to use my unique experiences in life to give people the same gift these writers gave and continue to give to me: a great story, intriguing characters and lots of laughter and tears."

Amy has just begun the process of seeking representation for her scripts. In their free time, Amy and Justin enjoy exploring California, backpacking, camping, hiking, bicycling, mountain biking, car trips and can still occasionally be found sleeping on an air mattress in the back of their Mountaineer.

CREDITS

Produced, Directed, Wrote and Edited the "Casey's Supercross" trailer.
Certificate in Feature Film Writing from UCLA Extension
Sundance Film Institute: Completed an internship as a Script Reader for their Writers and Directors Lab Programs.
Produced, Directed, Wrote, Edited, Sculpted, etc... "Protector of the Night," a Halloween claymation short.
Production Assistant on “Lonely Children,” a music video Produced, Written and Directed by Award-winning Director Maria Markosov.
Bachelor's Degree in Creative Writing from the University of Colorado at Boulder
Nationally published Freelance Motorsports Journalist whose work can be seen in "RacerX Illustrated," "On Fitness Magazine," "NFPT Magazine," "Family Times," Off-Road.com, and so much more.

Amy Giaquinto