Zoe Ward is a Michigan-born, LA-based writer-director with a passion for expansive world-building and high-stakes storytelling. She received her MFA in Directing from UCLA and has worked in writers’ rooms with Terence Winter, Larry Trilling, Michael Fuller, and Robin Veith. She recently staffed on a one-hour drama for Apple with David Matthews. Her short films have screened at Austin Film Festival and Outfest, her feature thesis script SOFT & PINK won the UCLA Producers’ Showcase, and her debut short fiction was published in Iowa Review.
She also packs an arsenal of offbeat anecdotes and niche know-how. After dropping out of high school (for the second time) on the morning of 9/11, Zoe toured with a punk band; studied economics in Cuba; ran a farm in Connecticut; got arrested at Occupy Wall Street; and hitchhiked across Mexico and New Zealand. Along the way, she’s worked in AIDS advocacy, book publishing, fashion, and as a dog walker in NYC. Her adventurous early years set the tone for a life grounded in compassion, curiosity, and devastating sarcasm. She has two children, two dogs, and one unflappable spouse.
