Runner-Up, Screenwriters of Color Retreat Scholarship: Spring 2026 Sicily
BIO
Helena Cho is a writer and cinematographer whose work spans television, film, podcast, and long-form fiction. Her career began in animation on The Ren and Stimpy Show. She then moved to live action and worked extensively in the camera department and as a location scout on projects for HBO, Netflix, Amazon, and other major studios. She is a member of IATSE Locals 600 and 399. That production background continues to shape her storytelling with an understanding of how scripts translate to the screen.
She attended the UCLA Professional Program for TV Writing, and was a 2023 fellow of The Writers Lab US, sponsored by Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman. Her debut novel, The Last Buddha (Book One of a series), is based on an original pilot developed during the UCLA program. Across her work, Helena is drawn to stories that explore identity, faith, mortality, and power, often through the lives of BIPOC characters. She is currently developing new projects across television, film, publishing, and other multimedia platforms.
