StokerCon 2025

Hi! My name's Kristen, and I'm excited to be a finalist in this year's FINAL FRAME short film competition, with my short film Vermin. I wrote, directed, and produced it, but a team of incredible people helped me carry it over the finish line. Also, I'm at least 12% less sane now.

I'm an Arizona State University alumnus with a BA in Film and Media. In addition to the aforementioned, I am an editor for The NoSleep Podcast and an affiliate writer with the HWA. I'm based in Los Angeles, but I dream of moving to the PNW—a much more apt setting for this line of work, I think.

My short screenplay, Deadlock, was recently named an official Filmquest '24 Top 10 Short Screenplay Finalist. My love of horror is the cornerstone of my filmography. Since childhood, I've been obsessed with the entire genre across all media formats, from haunted house novels to high-brow arthouse films. My writing most often centralizes themes of gender, despair, rage, and family. By filtering fear through such lenses, my stories move beyond the usual tropes of trauma and grief and speak more to nuance.

If the whole writer thing doesn't pan out, I'll settle for owning and operating a haunted bookstore and cafe with my black cat, Pixel.