Biography
J. Penberth Rabold
Writer. Director. Storyteller.
I moved to Los Angeles in 2000 because I wanted to make movies. That was the whole plan. The problem was, I had nothing to say yet. No real voice, no story that was mine. So I learned how movies get made. For fifteen years I worked as a unit production manager and first assistant director, with some editing along the way, on music videos, shorts and features. I learned what a story actually costs once it has to stand up on a set.
Writing never went away. In 2015 I stopped doing it on the side and made it the job. Since then I've written series bibles, pilots and features that have landed on desks at Netflix, Apple, Starz and HBO. I've come close, and I've come close a lot: a show that went down to the wire, a film that stalled at the finish line. I know exactly what “almost” feels like. I also know it isn't the end of the story.
Along the way I directed Connected, a short about a young woman struggling to find an authentic connection with her father in a technologically connected world. It was a Runner-Up for both the Jury Prize and Best Visuals at the 2019 Filmmakers Collaboration Challenge. I developed the series Ghosts of War, a second-round selection at the Austin Film Festival, and I've directed music videos for my friend Jacob Luttrell, including Way Too Soon and Familiar Faces.
I believe storytelling is about human connection. I'm drawn to stories about the human experience, in worlds far beyond our own or the past, where characters are put in situations that force them to discover their own self-empowerment. Stories that start a conversation about emotion and truth, and the love that makes us want to survive.
Right now that story is Dallas & Allegra, a Rust Belt Romeo and Juliet, and the first film I'm making by asking the people who believe in it to help get it made. No gatekeeper, no executive across the table. I'm also studying Film & TV Writing at LA Film School and writing The Writer's Table, a newsletter for screenwriters who are trying to finish what they start.
Write truth... inspire love.