t.j. peters is a screenwriter and humorist living in Los Angeles, CA. His feature length and television screenplays have advanced in competition at the Austin Film Festival, Final Draft's Big Break, Bluecat, Screencraft, WeScreenplay, and others. His prose, poetry, and essays have been published by UCLA's Journal of the Arts, Rattle, Anomalous Press, Those People, The Higgs Weldon, and his mother's refrigerator.
feature length screenplays
(all scripts below are available to read upon request)
Slush
Two marketing executives for the holiday movie industry find themselves lost in an endless loop of Christmas cliches and can only escape once they've “found true love.”
TONALLY AKIN TO: The time-looping comedy of Palm Springs, but set within the world of cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies.
GENESIS: This project was co-written with my good friend KayDee Kersten. We both share a veritable love/hate relationship with the literal hundreds of original holiday movies that crop up yearly on networks like Hallmark, Lifetime, and various streamers. With Slush, we wanted skewer the all-too-familiar tropes of this narrow genre, while also telling an original story that subverts expectations and ultimately delivers a message about friendship and looking beyond one’s self— things that rarely get addressed in these movies. It’s a wacky concept that certainly delivers from a jokes-per-page standpoint, and for what it’s worth, there’s a cameo where Rob Lowe gets heroically crushed to death.
Muddy
Muddy (late 70s, a worrier, suffering from dementia), goes on an epic adventure through her own delusions-- joining forces with the Aflac duck; doing battle on the set of the Hollywood Squares; escaping the clutches of the evil Nurse Louise-- in an effort to regain one last moment of lucidity. Meanwhile, her adult daughters deal with the real-life struggles of moving Muddy into an assisted living facility, which in its own way seems detached from reality.
TONALLY AKIN TO: The cerebral dramedy of Eternal Sunshine meets the surreal, silly adventure of The Goonies
GENESIS: When my maternal grandmother was suffering from dementia, she often saw things that weren't there. Sometimes she almost seemed to be living in a different place and time altogether, visiting old friends, having meaningful encounters with celebrity strangers, and the like. At one point my mother said to me, "I just hope she's having a good time in there." My goal with Muddy is to take the viewer on an adventure through the "good time"-- a surreal journey of self-reflection-- while simultaneously grounding the story in the real-life comedy and drama that is dealing with a loved one afflicted with this almost incomprehensible ailment.
Looking Up and Coming Down: The Legacy of Walter Strink
Walter “Wally” Strink, a conservative billionaire living on a massive estate in central Iowa, has his life rattled when an unexplainable beam of light from outer space descends on his property, drawing in government agencies, media, and vagabonds to his doorstep.
TONALLY AKIN TO: Birdman meets Up, but add a billionaire and an alien laser
GENESIS: For years, I've joked that if the big one was coming—the asteroid, the doomsday device, the world-ender—that I'd want to be right at the point of impact so I could throw a punch at it. When translating this idea into a character, I thought to myself, What kind of man would have this mindset? He'd have to be protective, stubborn, and a bit of an egotist. He'd have to have nothing to lose. He'd have to fear nothing. I ended up putting all these characteristics together, and then I gave him 30 billion dollars. I introduce you to Wally Strink.
To Elsewhere
Dave and Nelson, two friends drowning in their stagnant lives, decide to try and shake things up by attending Elsewhere, a four-day, off-the-grid festival in the northern Nevada desert.
TONALLY AKIN TO: Wedding Crashers meets The Hangover, at a rave in the desert
GENESIS: If it’s not obvious from the logline (or if you’re unfamiliar with the annual event) the setting of this script is inspired by Burning Man, which I have attended the last four years. This bizarre festival lends itself to a kind of self-exploration and vulnerability that has yet to be seen in a big screen comedy, and I think it’s time we take and audience there. As described by a character in the script, “It’s like Disney World for adults. Except all the rides are built in a week. And the attendees are also the employees. And instead of that big golf ball thing there’s an Orgy Dome.”
television screenplays
Welcome to 2025
Garrett Pock, a field agent for the newly-formed government bureau that monitors time travelers, finds himself entangled in the “era immigration crisis” of 2025 Los Angeles.
TONALLY AKIN TO: Somewhere between NBC's THE GOOD PLACE and USA’s MR. ROBOT
NETWORK/PLATFORM TARGETS: Premium and streaming
MATERIALS AVAILABLE: Visual pitch deck; Series outline; Pilot
It's Boring Being a Hitman
Gordy Orton, 29, is a socially inept, nearly friendless man living in folksy, suburban Hickory Hollow, Illinois. As if that wasn’t tough enough on his psyche, he hates his job. For nearly a decade, Gordy has been a professional assassin, covertly murdering people for a shadowy agency, and it’s time to move on. Easier said than done.
TONALLY AKIN TO: FX’s BASKETS and AMC’s BETTER CALL SAUL
NETWORK/PLATFORM TARGETS: Cable; premium; streaming platform
MATERIALS AVAILABLE: Pilot script; One sheet
Canvass
Tyler, 23, a college dropout with a chip on his shoulder, joins the street canvassing team for a small environmental advocacy startup, SoCalEco. Through strange interactions during daily canvassing, politics and romance at the office, and events/protests sponsored by the environmental group, Tyler and his co-workers struggle to find the greater good in society and in themselves. Got a minute to save the planet?
TONALLY AKIN TO: HBO’s SILICON VALLEY with a lil’ HIGH MAINTENANCE
NETWORK/PLATFORM TARGETS: Cable; streaming platforms
MATERIALS AVAILABLE: Pilot script; 10 page dev packet; One sheet
(I apologize if a bunch of these links are broken. The internet keeps changing and dying and getting reborn. It’s hard to keep up with.)
humor
“You Will Never Learn French” // The Bigger Picture
"How to Land an Incel" // Lady Pieces
“National Exit Polls” // Medium
"7 Deadly Sins Only 90s Kids Will Be Smote by God for Committing" // The Higgs Weldon
"An Honest Thanksgiving Prayer" // The Bigger Picture
"The Journals of Old Man Marley, The South Bend Shovel Slayer" // Pickle Fork
prose & poetry
"Gnat Slayer" // Trop Magazine
“A Postcard from Omaha” // The Junction
"The Blue Border" // Anomalous Press (Come As You Are Anthology)
“The Tunnel” // The Junction
"Bomb Cyclone" // Poets Reading the News
"A Pop Song by Justin Bieber" // Festival Peak
"Baskets" // Poets Unlimited
"Two Poems" // The Blackstone Review
"HotelReview.com - Stay Where You Are, Which Is Here" // Rattle
"Transplanting" // Westwind, UCLA's Journal of the Arts
"Keel Day" // No Extra Words
"Ghosts Don't Answer the Phone" // Unbroken Journal
essays
“Chavez Ravine” // NOlympics L.A. (Democratic Socialists of America)
"I hate being a white guy" // Those People
“Respect is a Dangerous Word” // Medium
"Black Pete: A Holiday Miracle" // Those People
More of t.j.'s work can be found on his Medium account.
(I apologize if a bunch of these links are broken. The internet keeps changing and dying and getting reborn. It’s hard to keep up with.)
videos
Branded Content
“Talk Like The Animals” Series - Mashable / Nat Geo
“Nature Tech” Series - Nesting Birds, Dolphins, Sea Otters, Beavers - Mashable / Nat Geo
Live Storytelling
"Rory Cleveland Does Not Exist" @ The Pack Theater
"The Groin Routine" @ The Comedy Central Stage
Shorts & Sketch Comedy
"It's Only Temporary" // Writer/Director
"The Night of Joe" // Writer/Director
"Passed Out" // Writer/Director
"Uhmaway" // Writer/Director
"Grandsons of Anarchy" // Writer
"Inside the Screenplay - JAWS" // Writer/Director
"Broz Icing Bros Icing Bros" // Writer
"My Finest Piece" // Director/DP
"CJSB" // Writer/Director
"Zooey's NoPhone" // Writer
"The Other Guy" // Director
"When the Fuck Is Easter" // Writer
about me
Regarding writing, I’ve received Finalist, Semi-finalist, and Quarter-finalist honors from WeScreenplay, Final Draft, the Austin Film Fest, ScreenCraft and others, both for the concepts featured on this site and a couple others that are not. I’ve sold a show about street canvassers to the now-defunct ABCd. I’ve been a creative producer for an interactive experience at Eko (formerly Interlude). I was a writers’ assistant for a show on Go90 (also RIP). If you’re noticing a trend with many of my former employers, you’re right. I’m starting to think I have the death touch. Oh, I also once wrote a feature for R&B singer Brian McKnight, who scrapped the project after he (you guessed it!) had to file for bankruptcy.
I’m a Midwesty guy with Chicago roots. I order a sidecar with my beer while listening to Fiona Apple or speed metal. Activism and volunteerism keep me sane, but sometimes get me into trouble. (I’ve only been arrested the one time for breaking into a paper manufacturers’ corporate office.) I’m probably a socialist, but I’m not a big fan of labels. Working with kids at 826LA and Camp del Corazon fuels my spirit and imagination-- some of the wackier ideas I conceive originate from the minds of ten-year olds. My entire life I’ve been an A/V/jock, so I’m equally fluent in Adobe Premiere export settings as I am the rosters of the 1990s Chicago Bulls championship teams. I swear I used to be able to dunk. I kind of have a lot of tattoos, but I don’t really consider myself a “tattoo guy.” I’m one of those degenerates that goes to Burning Man pretty much every year, but more in the Max Max survivalist sense than the party drugs and sequins stereotype.
I currently work full-time as a writer/editor for Ranker.com, and have previously held down freelance positions with Coverfly, Coverage Ink, Mashable, and the Comedy Central Stage. I’m a humorist. I’m a student and teacher of screenwriting craft. My hope is that my brand of surreal, meta storytelling can separate me from the pack. The best advice I’ve ever gotten is to “Write what inspires you, not what you think will sell.” That’s what I’m doing, and it’s what I intend to keep doing.