Semifinalist, 45 Forward Screenwriting Fellowship (2026)
BIO
KT "Frances" Hartline is a screenwriter and playwright living in the Bay Area. Frances worked as a magazine editor and journalist before chucking her career to homeschool her neurodivergent son - defying both her early career as a New York City public school teacher and her feminist ideals. Now, Frances writes pilots, features and plays that fit into her signature genre "draMOMedy": female-driven stories about women pushing back against societal expectations to form a renewed sense of identity. Her pilot, THE 'PAUSE, recently scored an 8 on the Blacklist and her work has earned AFF Second Rounder, Launch Pad Top 75 and PAGE Award Finals. A member of the playwriting incubator Playground-SF, her plays have been performed in festivals around the country. Her play, A WAYWARD TALE was featured in the 2026 Best Of Playground show in San Francisco, where she was awarded the June Anne Baker Prize and now serves as a commissioned playwright in their residency program. But nothing makes her prouder than squeezing into a hardcore punk show to watch the son she homeschooled follow his dreams by absolutely shredding on drums.