bio

Tamar Halpern received her BA in Journalism and her MFA in Film from USC.  While in graduate school, she won a screenwriting fellowship from Paramount Pictures and the Jack Oakie Comedy Screenwriting Award.  She wrote the award-winning USC short film Never Come Back, starring Lucy Liu.  Tamar has twice been awarded a writing residency at Hedgebrook and currently has a feature-length script in development called "Nellie Bly" (aka "Blackwell") with Sobini Films.

She has directed three feature films, including Shelf Life, starring Betsy Brandt which Variety called a “whip smart” film that “taps into a fresh source for American comedy.” After artist Llyn Foulkes starred in her film Your Name Here, Tamar was allowed access to his studio.  She and filmmaking partner Chris Quilty directed the film Llyn Foulkes: The Lost Frontier, which has been incorporated in the teaching curriculum of universities across the country.

Her script Ezzy Fish was a semifinalist for the 2005 Nicholl's Fellowship, the 2005 Big Bear International Screenplay Award and the 2005 Cynosure Screenwriting Competition. Ezzy Fish was nominated as a finalist at the 2005 IFP Film Market and was included in the 2005 Blacklist of the Best Unproduced Scripts of the Year. In 2006, she was accepted into the FIND (formerly IFP LA) Directors Lab with Ezzy Fish. In 2007, Ezzy Fish placed second in the Slamdance Screenplay Competition. In 2008, Ezzy Fish won the writers Network/Fade In screenwriting competition.  See www.EzzyFish.com for more information.

Tamar has been chosen as one of ten international screenwriters to attend the 2010 Dreamago Plume et Pellicule in Sierre, Switzerland.  Her short story “The House Where The Grifters Squat” will be published in Joyland in April, 2010.