Elie El Choufany

Instructor Bio:

M.F.A., screenwriter and recipient of the 2026 Academy Nicholl Fellowship. Mr. Choufany's credits include The Pout-Pout Fish, Norm of the North: Family Vacation, Arabs in Space, Bornstars, and Al Jazeera Untangles. 

Instructor Statement:

Writing begins with the process of finding out who you are as a writer. I am here to help you develop your voice on the page as you learn how to instill your unique perspective into your stories. Together, we will focus on coming up with the right story, but more importantly, hone in on how you would like to tell it. This will require an open and safe space for discussion as will be debating creative bodies of work and our subjective interpretations of them. As a class, we will examine the stories that inspire us, explore the fundamentals of storytelling and embrace each other's point of views and experiences without judgment. Stories are meant to help us understand ourselves and the world around us. And to tell a story, we must always start with empathy.