Emma
Zetterberg
Screenwriter - Playwright
Emma Zetterberg is an American-Swedish writer and loose-leaf tea fanatic based in London and New York.
About
Emma Zetterberg writes plays, tv, and features in all genres, but they all tend to be very heart-forward and research-based. Her passion for storytelling ignited at Middlebury College, where she graduated summa cum laude with a BA in Theatre and Art History.
Shortly after graduating, Emma was diagnosed with endometriosis. Inspired by her experiences with the disease, she wrote the short play “9.5,” which was selected for the Theatre Master’s Take Ten Festival and subsequently published by Samuel French. Other plays have also been selected for the Bespoke Play Festival and the Festival of Short Works.
Transitioning from stage to screen, Emma collaborated with Some Nerve Productions, writing a thriller feature while teaching art and grammar at a Montessori school in her hometown of Princeton, New Jersey.
Emma then pursued her MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU. While at Tisch, Emma received the Tisch Creative Research Grant, interned in TV Development at Playground Entertainment, and worked at Martin Scorsese’s production company, Sikelia Productions.
A fervent ice-hockey enthusiast, Emma penned THE THIRD PERIOD, a sports-drama pilot about the first female NHL coach, which earned a spot in the 2023 Athena Film Festival Episodic Writer’s Lab and is a current finalist for a writing fellowship with AMC Networks. A key theme in the script is the interplay between ambition and addiction, topics which influence a lot of Emma’s work.
Emma’s passion for research, writing, and her Swedish roots culminated in THE LIGHT IN YOUR EYES, a historical drama exploring the controversy and conspiracy behind Albert Einstein’s Nobel Prize. The script won a Sloan Prize and received an additional Honorable Mention from the Sloan Grand Jury.
In addition to writing, she has worked as a Researcher at Rogan Productions on the documentary ABBA: Against the Odds, as well as being a script reader for NYU’s Admissions Committee and Playground Entertainment.
Awards/Publications/Grants/Honors
2024
Finalist - AMC Networks Athena Emerging Writers Fellowship (The Third Period Pilot)
Finalist – Fusion Film Festival (There in Spirit)
2023
Honorable Mention – Sloan Grand Jury Prize (The Light in Your Eyes)
Winner – NYU Sloan Prize (The Light in Your Eyes)
Winner – Best Screenplay - Swedish International Film Festival (The Light in Your Eyes)
Selected – Athena Film Festival Writers Lab (The Third Period Pilot)
Selected – NYU Festival of Short Works (“Mary Newton and the Apple”)
Finalist – Woolly Mammoth x The Black List Playwriting Commission (ROMAN BUST)
2022
Publication – Samuel French/Concord Theatricals (“9.5,” Theatre Master’s Volume XIII)
Selected – Theatre Master’s Take Ten MFA Playwrights Festival (“9.5”)
Grant – Tisch Creative Research Grant (The Viewer - Pilot)
2019
Kellogg Fellowship – Middlebury College (August Strindberg project)
Selected works
Feature - The Light in Your Eyes (Ljuset i Dina Ögon)
Historical Drama
Logline: Allvar Gullstrand, a Swedish scientist who won the Nobel Prize in 1911 for his contributions to understanding eyesight, is blinded by his own grief over losing his legacy and decides to prevent Albert Einstein from winning a Nobel Prize.
Feature - There in Spirit
Romantic Dramedy
Logline: Desperate not to be forgotten, a ghost becomes dead set on sabotaging her ex-girlfriend's wedding in the land of the living.
Pilot - The Third Period
One-hour sports Drama
Logline: A woman maneuvers herself into becoming the NHL's first female coach, only to be faced with the prospect of losing herself in order to win games and a shot at the coveted position of head coach.
Play - ROMAN BUST
Dramedy
Logline: When an ambitious high school student, Lori, and her mother, Darcy, learn they accidentally sold an authentic Ancient Roman bust worth six hundred thousand dollars for only thirty four dollars and ninety-nine cents, they'll stop at nothing to try to get it back.
contact
ez5983@gmail.com
