The 2026 Wisconsin Screenwriters’ Symposium will feature presentations and panels with the following industry experts:
Jason Rothenberg is a writer, producer, director and proud graduate of The University of Wisconsin – he is the creator and showrunner of The 100, which garnered a cult following and aggregate score of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes during its seven-season, one hundred episode run. He has developed shows for Netflix, HBOMax, Amazon, Paramount +, Fox, and the CW. He is also a prolific film writer, having written 20 unproduced (mostly not his fault) studio feature films, including Colossus for Universal with Ron Howard producing and Will Smith starring, as well as Twilight Zone for WB and Appian Way.
Nikki Schiefelbein is a TV writer living in Los Angeles. She served as a Co-Executive Producer on Hulu’s Dollface (2020-2021). She also served as Consulting Producer on Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy (2019-20). Before that, Schiefelbein was Co-Executive Producer on the Ashton Kutcher Netflix series The Ranch (2015-20). Previously, she was staffed on the Netflix series Flaked (2015-16) and the award-winning Amazon series Mozart in the Jungle (2014-15). Nikki started her career by rising through the ranks on One Tree Hill (2008-12) and The Client List (2013-14), where she wrote multiple episodes of each show. Her poetry is published in “Side-Eye on the Apocalypse” and multiple issues of the acclaimed L.A. literary journal “On the Bus.”
Kyle Hausmann-Stokes is a Los Angeles-based, award-winning director and writer from Verona, Wisconsin. Kyle is a US Army veteran who served 5 years as a paratrooper, receiving the Bronze Star in Iraq. He used the G.I. Bill to graduate from USC film, after which he spent a decade directing commercials, PSAs, and narratives for brands like Google, IBM, US Air Force and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Kyle’s feature film debut, My Dead Friend Zoe (2025), starring Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, and Sonequa Martin-Green, won the 2024 SXSW Audience Award and was one of the highest rated films released in 2025 (95% Rotten Tomatoes)..
Deirdre Brenner grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, and headed straight for Los Angeles after graduating from Northwestern University. She’s worked in the animation industry for over twenty-five years, producing hundreds of hours of animated entertainment for studios such as The Walt Disney Company, Nickelodeon and Six Point Harness. She was the creative producer on two Curious George films (2019-20) for Universal Animation Studios and is currently a producer on the popular adult animated series Rick and Morty (2022-25).
Michael Graf is a working member of the DGA and Emmy Award winner who has directed two Super Bowl commercial campaigns. Michael’s screenwriting work has been shortlisted for the Academy’s prestigious Nicholl Fellowship and won screenwriting honors at festivals in Paris, LA, Nassau and Park City. He was the inaugural Writer In Residence at the UW Institute For Discovery, and was named a “Top 25 Screenwriter To Watch” by the International Screenwriters Association. His produced screenplays are the Austin Film Festival Audience Award winner Green and Gold (2025) starring Craig T. Nelson, and Winter of Frozen Dreams (2009) starring Thora Birch and Keith Carradine.
Ken Miyamoto has worked in the film industry for over two decades, most notably as a studio liaison for Sony Studios, script reader/story analyst for Sony Pictures, and currently as a professional and produced screenwriter. His screenwriting career began in 2007 with a development deal with Lionsgate, followed by writing assignments for projects like the 2012 miniseries Blackout and the 2020 feature indie thriller Hunter’s Creed. Ken has also written ten produced Lifetime feature thrillers distributed on Lifetime, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Netflix, one of which, Taken In Plain Sight, made it to #2 on Netflix’s Top 10 Movies in the U.S.
Jeffrey Kurz is a producer, writer, educator and former studio executive. During his eight-year tenure at Miramax Films, he was involved in Neil Jordan’s Academy Award-winning The Crying Game, Wes Craven’s Scream, Alex Proyas’s The Crow, Guillermo del Toro’s Mimic, Chris Eyre’s Smoke Signals, and John Carpenter’s Halloween series. His recently produced films include: The Vivian Maier Mystery (2013) for the BBC, and Deep Woods (2022). A graduate of the UW-Madison, Kurz also teaches courses in screenwriting and film producing at the UW-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts.
Andrew Hinderaker was an Executive Producer and Co-Showrunner of Black Rabbit (2025), a Netflix Limited Series starring Jason Bateman and Jude Law. Prior to that, Hinderaker was the Creator, Showrunner and EP of the Showtime series, Let the Right One In (2022), starring Oscar Nominee Demián Bichir, and Creator and EP of the Netflix series, Away (2020), starring Hilary Swank. Additional TV writing credits include Penny Dreadful (2016) and The Path (2018). The Wisconsin-based Hinderaker is also an award-winning playwright whose work has been produced on stages worldwide. Hinderaker holds an MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin.
Noah Jones began his career as a development executive adapting literary works by authors ranging from August Wilson to Pat Conroy. After a foray into unscripted work, Noah moved into drama development at Sony where he was a part of the team behind iconic series Breaking Bad, Damages, Rescue Me, Justified, Outlander, and Bloodline. After leaving Sony to help launch Denis Leary’s Apostle Pictures, Noah moved briefly into consulting at Fox International Studios (The Walking Dead) before pivoting into representation as a TV Lit agent at The Gersh Agency. As a rep, Noah brokered deals for projects like The Watch, Good Omens, and The Cleaning Lady. After 8 years at Gersh, Noah moved into management, launching FWRD MGMT where his focus is on finding opportunities to promote and support creative talent from the Midwest.
Veronica Pope is an Emmy Award-winning producer from Mequon, Wisconsin, bringing nearly two decades of experience in the film and television industry. As a showrunner and executive producer, she has worked with leading cable channels such as HGTV, Magnolia, DIY, and the Travel Channel, as well as major networks including Warner Brothers, Discovery, Scripps, A&E, and Fox. She has developed shows for the streamers, directed industry announcements for tech companies, produced entertainment-first travel series. Veronica is the inaugural Director of Film Wisconsin, overseeing the State’s new film office and tax incentives.
Max Timm is the President of The Story Farm Coaching & Development service, and was previously the VP of Development for Creative Screenwriter Prods. With nearly 20 years of experience in the entertainment industry, his focus is to educate and shepherd writers toward industry success, including serving as an in-house consultant for the International Screenwriters’ Association. Max is also a screenwriter and author himself. His debut novel, a young adult fantasy adventure titled The WishKeeper, won the YA category of the Los Angeles Book Festival.
Aaron Greer is a Milwaukee-born and raised independent filmmaker, whose work includes award-winning, festival favorite films Gettin’ Grown (2004) and Service to Man (2016), featuring Keith David and Lamman Rucker. Aaron is also a screenwriter, whose script Fruit of the Tree was chosen for the prestigious Tribeca All-Access program, and whose current project Morning Moon is slated for production later in 2026. Aaron currently serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at UW-Madison, where he teaches courses in screenwriting, film and media production.