Leon Masters is a gay transgender man whose writing fuses the othering of supernatural creatures and real-world horrors to explore issues facing transgender and other marginalized folks. Raised in the proudly weird, small central coast hippie-town and former Murder Capital of the World, Santa Cruz, California, he developed an off-beat sense of humor when it comes to tackling serious issues, and is heavily influenced by his background where cults, ghost-hunts and séances felt like the norm.
Leon has a background in fine arts, photography, and design. After undergrad, he worked for on several short videos, live events, and film volunteer projects in multiple capacities in the Bay Area. He also independently created a short film and an experimental no-budget feature as director, co-writer, producer, and actor.
He earned an MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA. Leon’s writing has placed in a handful of festivals in winner, finalist, and semi-finalist positions. He writes crime thriller, supernatural horror, and science fiction features, teleplays, and shorts.
He and his co-writer recently won in the Roadmap Writers Podcasting Competition for their LGBT+ supernatural crime drama. Leon was also a Roadmap Writers Diversity Fellowship Runner-Up. He has won at Script Summit multiple years, won the Creative Screenwriting Unique Voices Screenplay Competition, and was a short screenplay finalist with Hollyshorts. He also was a Transgender Film Center Fellowship finalist.
He was a Pre-Rainbow Pages Mentorship Program Mentee and now is a lead team member of the Pre-Rainbow Pages where he works to help build community with and uplift fellow queer writers.
Currently, Leon works as freelance filmmaker, a professional coverage writer, and a fine arts substitute teacher. He enjoys practicing banjo, pole-fitness/dancing, and still participating in seemingly successful seances and unsuccessful ghost-hunts with his black cat in tow.