marisa

■ With a background in acting on Broadway and television, a Master of Arts in Social Justice & Community Organizing from Prescott College, a Master of Arts in Cinema & Media Studies from USC, and current studies toward an MFA in Writing for Screen & Television at USC, Marisa brings a deeply interdisciplinary perspective to her storytelling.

She writes elevated, character-driven stories about identity, belonging, and power—often centered on Black women navigating environments that reshape who they are. Drawn to the space where the intimate meets the unexpected, her work explores how people perform, adapt, and transform under pressure. Always grounded in reality but unafraid of the absurd, her stories are anchored by complex characters whose inner lives reveal larger truths about the worlds they inhabit.

Scripts ▼

01

■ RUBY JEAN

At its core, RUBY JEAN is about a young fat Black woman's journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance, catalyzed by her late-blooming queerness.

This story engages with the healing infrastructure of queer community—the chosen families and spaces of radical self-discovery that emerge when people are free to be fully themselves. Set against a world of queer nightlife, kink culture, and unapologetic sexual expression, the series embraces the messy, joyful, and sometimes chaotic ways people seek connection.

Raunchy, funny, and deeply human, RUBY JEAN treats queer sex parties and alternative spaces not as spectacle, but as sites of belonging, transformation, and collective care. A half hour dramedy that takes place in the overlapping worlds of Chicago's art scene and Black queer/kink/polyamorous scenes.

02

■ BIRDS OF PREY

A Black woman academic becomes entangled in a university surveillance system that begins to reshape her reality. As institutional scrutiny intensifies, she finds herself caught in a disturbing paradox: hypervisible to the mechanisms that track her, yet increasingly unseen by the students and colleagues around her.

Straddling the line between psychological thriller and speculative science fiction, the film explores the consequences of being watched, categorized, and controlled.

BIRDS OF PREY is a dark comedy that quickly transforms into a psychological thriller before revealing itself as horror. It’s currently written as a short film and serves as a proof of concept for a larger serialized project envisioned to span multiple seasons. The project is accompanied by a mood board, pitch deck, and series bible that outline its visual language, thematic scope, and long-term narrative arc.

03

BUNDLED

BUNDLED is a 60-min, serialized, post-apocalyptic spin on The Stepford Wives that narrows the older versions' themes of sexism and power down to power - via capitalism instead of gender.

Bundled is set in the very near future where the suburbs are in decay, the government is a threat to most citizens, and the only way to truly survive is to get recruited to a corporate-sponsored bundled community.

A woman living in a run-down suburb wins a lottery for her, her husband, and their two children to join a bundled community where they will get to live how the privileged live. But soon she will discover this new world she's trying to navigate might not be the dream she expected.

about

Marisa is a writer, an educator, and a consultant. She currently consults at various points of production to ensure retention of creative authenticity surrounding characters from marginalized identities and has been working with studios since February 2020.

Marisa leads undergraduate student discussions at USC for Race, Class, & Gender in American Film,Intro to Film, and History of American Television.

Prior to her work in television, Marisa performed on Broadway (MATILDA), she was seen on television (MR. ROBOT among others), and she is the voice of Olivia, the Kahuna of Akala Island on the popular animated series, POKÉMON. In May 2019, she was featured in Forbes for her work with Final Draft on their inclusion software launched in the same month. She’s also been a judge for Hip Hop Film Festival’s screenwriting competition multiple years in a row.

Drawn to the spaces where the familiar becomes strange and the absurd reveals something real.

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For inquiries and collaborations, please get in touch.

marisa@marisakennedy.com