Shauna Ray Ratapu, Screenwriter
About
"I was raised by a single, alcoholic-archaeologist mother and a gunslinging, bar-owning grandmother.
Make of that what you will. I did.
I make art that shines light and gallows humor in the darkest places."
Hey there. I'm Shauna Ray Ratapu (she/her)--GenX California-Kiwi, former Drama teacher, theater company owner, and playwright who writes about Women over 40, Trauma, and Radical Self-Acceptance because someone has to open these cans of worms, and that someone is me!
I spent nearly 20 years in Aotearoa/New Zealand, with my Māori husband of over 30 years, raised three exceptional grown-ass kids (two queer, two women, all Indigenous, one disabled--whose worldviews impact and challenge my own in the best way), staged The Vagina Monologues (twice), The Laramie Project, and created social justice theater about racism and classism. We moved back to Southern California in 2019 because, apparently, I hadn't suffered enough for my art. No, but seriously, my husband and I sold everything we owned and moved back to the US because my youngest daughter needed life-saving treatment for Spinal Muscular Atrophy, which wasn't (and still isn't) approved in NZ for people over the age of 18.
I write in the dark. Not metaphorically--I mean, I go looking for the darkest corners, the stuff people flinch from, the things we don't say at dinner, and then I turn the lights on. Not to be inspirational or to blow sunshine. But because the monsters that live in the dark are nothing. No Thing. Expose them, and they vanish--or, they scurry off to find a new hiding place, which means I just write again.
I will keep writing until every dark corner has been lit up. I've got time. I come from a long line of stubborn, unapologetic women.
Awards:
Semifinalist, The SF Indie Film Festival 2026
Second Rounder, Austin Film Festival 2025
Semifinalist, The Page Awards 2025
Quarterfinalist, The Writers Lab 2025
Quarterfinalist, Outstanding Screenplays - TV Pilot Competition, 2025
Second Rounder, Austin Film Festival 2024
Semifinalist, Stowe Story Labs Programs and Fellowships Application 2024
Quarterfinalist, Table Read My Screenplay - Park City 2024
Quarterfinalist, ScreenCraft Screenwriting Fellowship 2024
Quarterfinalist, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards Summer 2023
TopTier, Roadmap Writers, Since October 2023
Fellowships, Labs, Retreats and Development Programs:
The Writers Lab, Residency, Saugerties, NY, 2025
Stowe Story Labs, TV Writers Room 2025
Stowe Story Labs, Feature Campus 2024
Stowe Story Labs, Remote Writers Retreat, June-July 2024
Creative Integration for Professional Screenwriters, Corey Mandell, April-May 2024
Career Writers Program, Roadmap Writers, June-October 2023
Sundance Collab, Feb-May 2023