Meet Chynna Williams | Screenwriter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Chynna Williams and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Chynna, why did you pursue a creative career?
Screenwriting appealed to me because I have always enjoyed reading since I was a child. Reading was my safety-net whenever I didn’t feel seen. Reading Fantasy stories allowed me to be my ultimate self because there were no rules for the reader. I would also watch a lot of movies and television shows to help me block out the anxiety-inducing noise around me. But, while watching these shows and reading these books, I realized that there weren’t a lot of bi-racial characters as leads. It was through writing my own stories when I decided that I wanted to help change that. I had a deep desire to create more characters who looked like me in the stories I grew up loving. Later, during the pandemic, I realized I wasn’t happy with where I was and decided to change careers and go back to school. 

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

I create Fantastical and Sci-Fi stories with multi-dimensional worlds and characters, mainly writing in the urban or high fantasy genres. I create these stories because they are what I grew up reading. As someone who is half-Black and half-White with many different cultural backgrounds, I create characters from these backgrounds because it’s what I know. I create diverse characters and non-white female leads, because growing up I never saw people who looked like me in the stories that I love. I think this is what sets me apart from other writers because I am not afraid to push the boundaries of “Fantasy Norms.”

Currently, I am most proud of my thesis project “Blood Bond,” it is a historical fantasy that involves White vampires and Black witches surviving the 1950s Jim Crow South. This is probably the best story I’ve ever written, a story that I poured my heart and soul into and applied a lot of research to make it historically accurate. It is currently in the competition circuit and is a Quarter Finalist in the 2023 ShoreScripts TV pilot competition.

Getting to where I am today wasn’t easy, I knew before going into graduate school I was not happy with where I was. I worked a lot of mindless, odd jobs but knew I deserved more because of my work ethic. I faced a lot of challenges working with companies that had a lot of different beliefs than I did and it was hard to voice my opinions, but I did anyway so that I could be heard. Through my struggles professionally I knew I wanted to reach a greater audience to share my struggles in a new and unique lens.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?

Currently, I live in the Bay Area and I definitely want to move back to Los Angeles as it’s always a fun time with many places to see. I am a huge K-pop fan and have been to so many K-pop concerts in LA, I would definitely recommend seeing a concert in LA. But, if you can’t afford a concert I would recommend Korea-Town, also known as K-Town. I would probably take my friends or other visitors to a few different K-pop stores such as K-Pop NationLA to purchase K-pop albums and photo-cards. For lunch, I would take them to the H-Mart KoreaTown Plaza, and after eating a Korean Corn Dog or Tteokbokki I would just walk around the area as there are a lot of cute shops to pop into. Then for dinner, I would take them to MDK Noodles which serves a really tasty traditional noodle and dumpling soup. There is an original restaurant in Seoul, South Korea which I recently visited in June.

Another place I often go to in LA is West Hollywood, the night-life is a lot of fun there. I would probably take my friends here for dancing, a drink or two, and a specialty Margarita from Fiesta Cantina. There are a lot more places I could recommend but the list would be extremely long so these are my top recommendations that I always go to!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?

Family is huge to me because they have always supported me and my desire to fulfill my dreams so I would like to shout-out to them and my mom. My mom was always supportive of my dreams even if it was going to be difficult. It was because of her advice that I ultimately decided to change my career path and pursue my dream of becoming a screenwriter.

I would also like to shout-out my instructors, advisors, and friends at my graduate school– New York Film Academy in Burbank, CA. Graduate school was incredibly hard, especially after taking a long break from graduating with a completely different undergraduate degree. I knew I didn’t really need a Master’s degree to get into this field but I decided to go back to school so that I could improve my craft. I wanted feedback from other people who knew all the in’s and out’s of the industry. I want to thank all of my closest instructors, advisors, and friends who helped me create my best stories. You know who you are so thank you very much!

Website: https://chynnaw16.wixsite.com/chynna-williams

Instagram: @chynna.writes94

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chynna-williams-802413a9/

Youtube: @chynnawilliams1233

Other: Tik Tok – @chynnawilliams94