Juan Avella is a bilingual Venezuelan writer and director based in LA who focuses on thrillers and genre stories with social undertones. As a fellow of the 2020-2021 NBC Emerging Director program, Juan directed episode 815 of THE BLACKLIST for NBC and SPTV, starring James Spader. He is currently writing a pilot for Amazon Studios and Propagate with Catherine Hardwicke directing and adapting another pilot for MGM’s Gato Grande Productions. 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, which premiered and currently streams on Hulu as part of their Bite-Size Halloween series.