CHRIS PARIZO
screenwriter, director, producer
BIOGRAPHY
Chris Parizo is a professional screenwriter managed by Bellevue Management, and programs the Breakouts competition for Slamdance Film Festival. His writing has been noted in such distinguished industry trades as Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and Vanity Fair. He is also a former high school English teacher and professional musician.
Parizo joined the alt-rock band Chin Ho! after high school. During his six year tenure, the band recorded three albums and opened/toured alongside Jewel, Counting Crows, Colin Hay, and The Tragically Hip. It was during this time that Parizo’s writing career began with the music magazine “Good Citizen."
He left the band in 2000 and relocated to Atlanta where he earned his bachelor’s degree in Literary Analysis and master’s degree in English Education from Georgia State University. After graduation Parizo found great joy teaching high school English in the metro Atlanta area.
During this time Parizo wrote for “Southeast Performer” and “PASTE Magazine," and later The Contrarian Media. His ode to the late rapper MCA was shared globally by the official Beastie Boys fan club and its members. Parizo moved to Boston in 2013 to continue teaching while writing a monthly education column for “Precis Magazine.”
The Boston Blizzard of 2015 locked him, his wife, and daughter in their apartment for nine straight days. That is when, inspired by fatherhood, Parizo wrote his first screenplay THE END OF THE STARS: the story of a young girl’s attempt to rebuild her dying father’s childhood rocket ship.
In 2016, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized THE END OF THE STARS in its prestigious and celebrated Nicholl's Fellowship; out of nearly 7,000 scripts, THE END OF THE STARS placed in the Top 50 and put him on the film industry’s radar.
In 2019, his spec script MUTT, the biopic of skateboarder Rodney Mullen, trended and received critical acclaim on the Hollywood industry website The Blacklist. In 2020 his script VICELAND made the annual Black List: the industry's top unproduced screenplays of the year.
Parizo has developed features alongside notable production companies and development execs, including Baha Productions, Jon Silk of Legendary/Silk Road, and also the iconic late Richard Donner. He recently co-wrote a feature alongside Oscar nominated screenwriting duo Hawk Ostby & Mark Fergus (IRON MAN, CHILDREN OF MEN, THE EXPANSE). In 2022 he launched his own production company Wolf Tree Films. In 2023, Wolf Tree Films optioned the rights to the seminal YA novel BONES ON BLACK SPRUCE MOUNTAIN by the late Vermont writer David Budbill.
He currently lives in his native Vermont with his wife and two kids.
CONTACT
