Juan Avella is a professional screenwriter, producer and director. He was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, where he began his career as a filmmaker. To this date, his work has played in film festivals from around the world, gathered millions of views online and been broadcasted in primetime television in over 25 countries in South America.
Even though story telling was always his true passion, Juan earned BA in Business Administration. He intended to combine the organization skills learned at college with his creative mind. Upon graduation, Juan acted as a Senior Producer for E! Entertainment Television Latin America, where he wrote and produced over 50 episodes of various shows. His credits include E! LATIN NEWS and E! VIP CARACAS. Since then, Juan has also worked as a Promo Writer/Producer for the Discovery Channel in Los Angeles and Discovery Communications Latam in Miami, where he wrote and produced promos for the 6 brands’s primetime programming (Discovery, Animal Planet, TLC and ID).
Juan relocated to Los Angeles to pursue a MFA in Screenwriting from the AFI Conservatory, where his crime-thriller feature script ALEJO was awarded the prestigious 2014 William J. Fadiman award for best screenplay and top achievement in screenwriting. Upon graduation, Juan wrote interactive stories for a Pocket Gems’ app titled EPISODE, which have been downloaded over 150 million times on iTunes.
During his time as a 2016 Film Independent Project Involve fellow, Juan wrote and directed HIJO POR HIJO. The 11 minute short film premiered in competition at the Oscar qualifying Guadalajara International Film Festival in 2017, and had a 5-week theatrical run in Venezuela, where it played in over 170 screens nationwide before films such as “La La Land,” “Hidden Figures” and “Split.”
Juan is currently prepping to direct his first feature script: ALEJO.