Monica Lee Bellais

Monica Lee Bellais is a Screenwriter / Producer and a world-class media expert with experiences in Hollywood, Washington, D.C., and international markets. Monica has worked at James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment, DreamWorks, Warner Bros. Records, Discovery Communications, Smithsonian Networks, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and TeleProductions International (TPI).She collaborated with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Cottman in writing THE HENRIETTA MARIE, a prospective TV series that is based on his two books about slavery and discovery of the slave ship the Henrietta Marie. Monica is a Co-Executive Producer on the feature film WAKEFIELD, starring Academy Award nominee Bryan Cranston and Golden Globe recipient Jennifer Garner, which will be released in May 2017. In 2016 she was a producer on the pilot BENNIE'S starring TV icon Ed Asner, Joe Estevez, and Academy Award-nominee Cathy Moriarty. In 2016, she won several screenwriting awards for the feature film TRI, which was shot in Washington, D.C., and now available on Amazon.com.As an Executive Producer at TPI Monica cultivated a worldwide network of multimedia professionals, leveraged knowledge of local cultures to develop authentic international programming, and conducted international business development. She navigated interactions with local fixers and foreign officials, as well as filmmakers and production companies in Egypt, Pakistan, Lebanon, France, Monaco, Italy, and Thailand. She managed the development and production of programming in the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates of non-fiction programming initiatives for broadcast via film, television, and the web for audiences in the Middle East, Europe, North Africa and Asia.While at Discovery, she was an Associate Producer of the Emmy Award-winning series, DISCOVERY ATLAS, which aired on the Discovery Channel.Monica served on the Board of Directors for Women in Film & Video (WIFV) in Washington, D.C. for four years and is now on the Advisory Board. She is also on the Advisory Board for the Council on International Non-Theatrical Events (CINE).She founded and created Spotlight on Screenwriters, now in its fourth year of publication. Spotlight on Screenwriters is sponsored by the D.C. Office of Cable Television, Film, Music & Entertainment, the Maryland Film Office, and the Virginia Film Office. Screenplays featured in Spotlight have received over 70 film festival awards and screenwriting competition awards, including the Academy Nicholl Fellowships and the Sundance Screenwriters Lab. Monica is also a facilitator of the screenwriting competition program for the Female Eye Film Festival in Toronto, Canada and plans to expand Spotlight on Screenwriters in Iceland.Monica holds a Bachelor of Individualized Studies in Journalism and Mass Communications from New Mexico State University. Monica's professional membership includes the Producers Guild of America, the Writers Guild of America, SAG-AFTRA, National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences - Documentary Programming Peer Group, and The National Press Club. Show less «