Ashton Avila
- Writer
- Director
Ashton Avila (she/her) is a Mexican American writer-director who grew up in Los Angeles, California. After falling in love with filmmaking as a child, she went on to receive her BA in Film Media and Gender & Women's Studies at the University of Rhode Island and her MFA in Directing at Chapman University. Ashton is also a certified Consent Forward Artist through the Intimacy Directors & Coordinators Professional Program.
Since graduation, Ashton has shadowed directors David O. Russell, Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum and Martha Coolidge. She has been mentored by David S. Ward, Anne Betts, Colleen Camp, Carl Ellsworth and many others.
Ashton has directed for Sony PlayStation and many independent award winning short films. In addition, she has second unit directed for AwesomenessTV, BratTV and Shadow Lion. Ashton is a NALIP Emerging Creator, has placed as a quarter-finalist for NBC's Emerging Director Program, Final Draft's Big Break Competition, The Script Lab's Screenwriting Competition, Stage 32's Television Writing Contest, ScreenCraft's Pilot Launch, was selected for NHMC's Latinx Stream Showcase and was welcomed into Ron Howard and Brian Grazer's Imagine Impact Community. Recently, her feature film screenplay All Your'n (co-written with Lesette Maxwell) spent a month trending on The Black List.
In her spare time she enjoys teaching, watching sappy romantic comedies, greeting pit bulls during their walks, autumn in New England, listening to Taylor Swift break up songs, Halloween, musicals and making tamales with her family at Christmas.
Since graduation, Ashton has shadowed directors David O. Russell, Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum and Martha Coolidge. She has been mentored by David S. Ward, Anne Betts, Colleen Camp, Carl Ellsworth and many others.
Ashton has directed for Sony PlayStation and many independent award winning short films. In addition, she has second unit directed for AwesomenessTV, BratTV and Shadow Lion. Ashton is a NALIP Emerging Creator, has placed as a quarter-finalist for NBC's Emerging Director Program, Final Draft's Big Break Competition, The Script Lab's Screenwriting Competition, Stage 32's Television Writing Contest, ScreenCraft's Pilot Launch, was selected for NHMC's Latinx Stream Showcase and was welcomed into Ron Howard and Brian Grazer's Imagine Impact Community. Recently, her feature film screenplay All Your'n (co-written with Lesette Maxwell) spent a month trending on The Black List.
In her spare time she enjoys teaching, watching sappy romantic comedies, greeting pit bulls during their walks, autumn in New England, listening to Taylor Swift break up songs, Halloween, musicals and making tamales with her family at Christmas.
