New York City native Elise Shin grew up a grocer’s kid on the Upper East Side. She helped her parents bag fruits and veggies, noshed on buttered matzah, and chatted with countless visitors. On weeknights, she visited her grandmother in the outskirts of Queens, where she listened to lurid Korean folktales. The diverse, interactive theater that was her childhood sparked a curiosity and love of story that would take her across the globe and into the imagined worlds of books.

Her interest in storytelling solidified at Cornell University, where she studied allegorical works and mythologies. She studied the craft of fiction writing at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and creative producing at The Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema.

She went on to teach at Seoul National University and then worked with the NYC Mayor’s Office, serving as a Digital Director for Health and Housing before transitioning into film.

As a producer, her short films have won awards and screened at film festivals including the Berlin International Film Festival and MoMA New Directors | New Films (MoreHappiness), as well as the Maryland International Film Festival (Cousins).

Now in Venice, California, Elise writes dramas that lean into the speculative space. Her work explores mythology, identity, technology, and the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of an uncertain world.

She’s worked in development at Quinn’s House, Radical Media, Magnolia Pictures, FX Networks, and Lionsgate. She has also contributed research for Soo Hugh’s Pachinko.

Elise was a Finalist and First Alternate for the 2026 Disney TV Writing Program. Her work has also been recognized by the NBC TV Writing Programs, WIF | Black List Episodic Lab, Austin Film Festival, Final Draft Big Break, ScreenCraft, WeScreenplay, and ISA Fast Track.

Currently, she’s developing a series about immigration, identity, and the horrors of what is lost—and inherited—in pursuit of the American dream.

When she’s not writing and honing her craft, you can find Elise surfing her local break.