Michael Angelella

Biography

Professor in the Electronic Media and Film Department at Towson University since 2005,  Angelella received his Master of Fine Arts in Professional Writing from the University of Southern California. He has worked as a screenwriter, documentary writer/producer, author, and print journalist. His feature film writing credits include Mother (1995), starring Olympia Dukakis and Diane Ladd, and Canes (2006), starring Michael Madsen. His unproduced screenplay for National Book Award Winner Ha Jin's short story "After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town" is among his personal favorites. And in 2012 his comedic screenplay I Should Have Stayed Home was selected as a Top 13 finalist in the Canadian Short Screenplay Competition. On the documentary side, his numerous broadcast credits include writing programs for The Discovery Channel, The Smithsonian Channel, The History Channel, and senior writer on The Science Channel's eight-part series "100 Greatest Discoveries." And in 2009 he served as producer of Bonecrusher, an award-winning documentary about Virginia coal miners. Angelella is also the author of Trail of Blood, a true crime book for which he won the Time Magazine fellowship to the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. He is chair of the University of Film and Video Association's Script Caucus.