Elsa Bermúdez
Los Angeles Regional Manager
and Outreach Programs Manager
Associate Director of WriCampia
Elsa Bermúdez has loved teaching creative writing, essay writing, comedy writing, and graphic noveling at Writopia Lab since 2014. As National Programs Manager, she runs Writopia Lab’s on-site scholarship program, Write to Recognition, and several off-site partnership programs. Elsa is a writer, comedian, artist, and educator. She earned her BA in Philosophy from Providence College and her MFA in Creative Writing in Fiction from The New School. Her short story Agency was published in H.O.W. Journal's Issue 11. She also studied improv and sketch comedy writing at UCB. Elsa has produced and performed on comedy stages around New York City, including the Magnet Theater, the Pit, and Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. She has directed for Magnet Theater’s sketch program, Remix, and was on Magnet Theater’s house sketch teams Mama’s Boy and House Party. Elsa also wrote, directed, performed for, and produced the filmed sketch comedy show I Feel Funny. Currently, she is thrilled to continue her journey as Writopia’s LA Regional Manager and to focus her creative energy on writing screenplays and drawing comics. Elsa lives in East Hollywood with her puggle, Bug.
Jacquelyn Stolos
Instructor
Jacquelyn Stolos can barely contain her excitement about joining the Writopia Lab team in Los Angeles this spring! Jacquelyn began her writing career as an elementary schooler filling up spiral-bound notebooks while perched on a mossy rock in the woods behind her childhood home. Her habits have barely changed since. She studied English and French literature at Georgetown University, where she completed an honors thesis of short stories and won the Annabelle Bonner Medal for short fiction. For her masters, Jacquelyn was awarded the Writers in the Public Schools fellowship to study fiction in New York University’s MFA program. She has also workshopped at the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop, and the New York Summer Writers Institute. Her short fiction has appeared in The Atticus Review, Conte Online, and The Oddville Press. Jacquelyn is an ardent believer in the power of story and is always looking for ways to spread the love through education. She previously worked as a teaching artist at Teachers and Writers Collaborative, leading creative writing workshops in elementary and middle school classrooms, as well as an adjunct professor at New York University. Jacquelyn's first novel, Edendale, will be released by Creature Publishing, a feminist horror press, in the spring of 2020.
Korama Danquah
Instructor
Korama Danquah started teaching workshops at Writopia Lab in 2015 and loves it! She is a playwright, screenwriter, poet, and fiction writer originally from Los Angeles, CA. After studying Theatre Arts at Brown University, she produced her first solo show, Mixtape for New Year's Eve (Secretly a Love Story) in Providence, RI. She has published multiple pieces in Coast Magazine, most recently a personal essay on cultural diversity in the ever-expanding industry of food delivery services. In 2019 she was a finalist for Skylight Theatre Company's Fresh Brews competition, and she is currently working on writing her second television pilot (while trying to sell the first). When she's not writing, she enjoys acting, karaoke, and going to the theatre!
Cassandra Rose
Instructor
Cassandra is over the moon to be back at Writopia Lab after a year away! As a playwright, she followed up a BA in Playwriting at Columbia College Chicago with a decade of theatrical self-productions and residencies, including Chicago Dramatists' Tutterow Fellowship. She made the move to LA and screenwriting in 2019 and completed a certificate in Writing for Television at UCLA's Professional Program. She won Austin Film Festival in 2022 with her scripted Digital Series WALK INTO A BAR. She’s also written for video games and fiction podcasts, including as a Narrative Designer for a small mobile game company and as a contract writer for Wondery. No matter the format or genre, she's here to help young writers connect deeply with their stories and with their audiences.
Kelly Hudson
Instructor
Kelly Hudson is delighted to become an instructor with Writopia Lab! Kelly is based in Los Angeles, originally hails from Austin, Texas and is a working writer, actor, and podcaster. She co-created the fake takeout menu FUDS, and co-authored the book FUDS: A Complete Encyclofoodia with Dan Klein and fellow Writopia Lab instructor Arthur Meyer. Kelly has also written for Funny or Die, Adult Swim, and The Onion, and is an Upright Citizens Brigade alum. Kelly’s fondest memories of school and college were the creative writing workshops she took part in where she blossomed as a writer and a creative human being. She is so honored to carry on that legacy as an instructor for Writopia Lab!
Ben Wietmarschen
Instructor
Ben Wietmarschen (pronounced "wheat-martian") is super excited to be an instructor at Writopia Lab. Ben is based in Los Angeles, but is originally from Cincinnati, OH (whose sports teams he loves way too much). Ben has been a professional comedy writer, performer, and director since 2011. He has worked as a staff writer at Funny Or Die, contributing writer for The Onion News Network and Onion Sports, and most recently worked in TV development at Just For Laughs. He also is co-creator of the long-running internet series Long Haired Businessmen. Ben got his start writing sketch comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, where he wrote, improvised on house teams, and taught all levels of sketch writing. Ben earned a B.S. in English Education from Kent State University where he ran cross country and track for the Golden Flashes.
Matthew Pancer
Instructor
Matthew Pancer is thrilled to be joining the Writopia Lab LA team as a creative writing and filmmaking instructor! Originally from Toronto, Canada, Matthew first came to Los Angeles to study at the prestigious American Film Institute, where he received his MFA in Screenwriting. Since graduating, Matthew’s thesis film, Akeda, has screened at over 20 festivals and has won six awards. His screenplays have also been optioned by esteemed producers, including The Breakfast Club’s Michelle Manning. These accomplishments secured him representation from the industry-leading Creative Artists Agency. When Matthew is not writing or making movies, he is teaching, having lectured at York University for their screenwriting and business courses. Matthew also has experience in journalism, having written articles for Entity Magazine: For Women That Do.
Katelyn Tinius
Game Leader
Katelyn Tinius is ecstatic to begin her time at Writopia Lab as a Game Leader this summer. She is the Producer, Writer, and Dungeon Master for Of Mice and Men and Monsters, a podcast that combines actual play D&D with classic literature. Beyond the DM screen, she has served as a high school educator, teaching English, Humanities, ELD, and IB Literature for the past 12 years. For seven years, she has served as a content writer and copy editor for the YouTube video essay channel Entertain the Elk. Katelyn graduated with a Master of Arts in Teaching from UC Irvine, and still looks fondly on her days as a Medieval and Renaissance Studies undergraduate at Colgate University, bringing the influence of fantasy and languages thought to be long lost into her worlds at the role-playing table. She is brimming with joy to run role-playing games for new and practiced RPGers alike at the Los Angeles Writopia Lab, helping them find their inner hero!
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