ABOUT
FROM HOLLYWOOD SETS TO FEATURE SCRIPTS:
MY JOURNEY AS A STORYTELLER
ANDREW JENKIN
Hollywood Years
Much like the characters I depict through my writing, I, too was propelled into a great adventure when I decided to leave my routine work life to forge a creative path. In October 2017, I moved from Michigan to Hollywood to pursue a lifelong dream of working in film.
With no experience whatsoever and eager to get onto film sets, I did what any other clueless transplant would do- I signed up with Central Casting. My journey as an extra gave me experiences I had only ever imagined before. I worked on big-budget films, major hit television shows, indie movies, and everything in between, including Space Jam 2, Top Gun: Maverick, Tenet, Euphoria, Silicon Valley, The Mandalorian, and over 100 more.
By 2018, I was working full-time as a background artist, and by 2019, I decided to pursue acting more intentionally. I took acting and commercial classes, got management, landed speaking roles, and began auditioning. I became eligible to join SAG-AFTRA and was well on my way to making acting my full-time career. Then 2020 happened…
From Acting to Writing
Hollywood shut down. Opportunities dwindled, leaving people like me—whose livelihood depended on booking the next role—scraping for anything available or packing up to head back home. I toughed out the pandemic in L.A., which felt like an apocalyptic ghost town compared to the City of Angels I once knew.
By the end of that isolated year, I was ready to give up Hollywood—and acting—forever. But then I realized I had been chasing the wrong dream. Acting wasn’t my true passion—it was writing. I had always wanted to create my own stories. That had always been my truth.
I wanted to explore every part of my psyche through different characters and scenarios, to express myself through dialogue, to see pieces of my own life reflected in every scene—whether in moments of triumph or tragedy. Writing allowed me to become a creator of the worlds I had cherished my entire life.
The Screenplays
My first screenplay, LA Woman—a coming-of-age rock ’n’ roll drama—was my test of resilience. Pushing through crippling doubt and convincing myself, time and again, that I was a writer, I completed it.
My next screenplay, Tax Day, an epic sci-fi adventure about two adolescent girls determined to expose the malevolent plot of an alien race, was a collaboration with two friends. Finding my voice, I ventured into adapting the novel 2150 A.D., a time-bending story exploring the philosophy and principles of a future Macro society.
More than anything, I love the journey—discovering what might come out of me next. I thrive on surprising myself. Writing is something I will continue doing for the rest of my life because, in doing so, I find myself.
Personal Journey
On a more personal note, writing led me to my wife—and eventually, to my son, who just turned one. While working on Tax Day in January 2023, my collaborators and I traveled to White Sands National Park in New Mexico for inspiration. Deep in the heart of the desert, I crossed paths with one of the few other humans in that vast ocean of sand dunes. She would just so happen to become my wife.
That divine crossing sent me on an unforeseen journey around the world with the love of my life and our growing family. Together, we traveled the world, moved to Turkey (where our son was born in Istanbul), explored Europe and Central America, and eventually bought land in an eco-community in Costa Rica, where we plan to build our family home in 2025.
I don’t know where our adventures will take us next, but I trust that wherever I am is exactly where I need to be—learning, growing, and experiencing life as it unfolds. I have complete faith that each moment happens for me. And I am determined to capture those moments through writing.
Ready to create?
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© 2025 ANDREW JENKIN