Semifinalist, 2026/2027 Top Tier Competition
Winner, 2024 GPS Fellowship
BIO
Aadrise Johnson was raised between the Bronx and Irving, Texas. She tried to reject the Southern lifestyle, but it melded into her New York grit. She would say her two most significant achievements would be surviving an African-Jamaican household as the oldest daughter and making Issa Rae laugh once. Storytelling is her passion, whether joking with her family or regaling her students with random diatribes during theatre lessons. A lot of her comedic and dramatic writing style stems from real-life situations mixed with the crippling anxiety that Aadrise might have peaked early. For example, putting herself in the hallway when her teacher told students they needed to step outside. Mind you, she was not a student. She was a teacher working in the school district from which she graduated. She explores Black Women in her work to celebrate, explore, and challenge the stereotypes we are taught about them, along with offering her unique perspective on mental health, classism, and the fear of being disconnected from one's community. Aadrise has received her Master of Fine Arts in Screenwriting from Florida State University. She has received several accolades, including being selected as a 2026 Unlock Her Potential Mentee to Nahnatchka Khan, winning the 2024 Roadmap Writers GPS fellowship, and being a semifinalist for the 2026 Hillman Grad Lab and the 2023 Humanitas College Comedy Award. She is also a co-founding member of BWIFT (Black Women in Film and Television).