Screenwriter, teacher, and mediocre surfer based in Los Angeles
(BIO & PORTFOLIO BELOW)
BIO
BIO
Taylor Tejada is a Latine surfer and metalhead turned teacher. Raised on spooky Peruvian and Quechua folklore stories, Taylor witnessed his father's arrest and realized that the past is a monster no one can outrun. Now, Taylor writes horror and drama scripts about characters forced to confront their pasts by making the biggest mistake of their lives.
Most recently, Taylor is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s MFA Screenwriting program. Taylor’s script, Fantasma, a horror feature about immigration, migrant workers, and the spectacle of the American Dream, made it to the second round of the Sundance Writers’ Lab.
PORTFOLIO
PORTFOLIO
Cariño
Feature, Drama
Rigoberto, an angsty high schooler haunted by his father's abandonment, runs away from home and joins a touring death metal band. The band's lead singer indoctrinates and traps Rigoberto into a sadistic father-son relationship. Forced to accomplish increasingly violent acts for a chance to play in the band, Rigoberto must come to terms with his past and escape the toxic masculinity of the metal scene.
Fantasma
Feature, Horror
The weekend before an interview for his dream job at an agricultural company, former migrant worker Enoch Diaz arrives at a nearby motel with his family. They soon find themselves trapped by a racist receptionist desperate to send Enoch and his family back to where they "came from." Enoch's desperation to protect his family is complicated by the link between his job interview and his entrapment, forcing him to reckon with the cost of the American Dream.
Hail, Mary!
Feature, Horror
In this gory, lustful, psychedelic reimagining of Mary Shelley’s infamous vacation at Lake Geneva, Mary and a delusional group of writers, lock themselves in a manor, hoping to devour the mummified body of a South American demon and gain immortality. But after the writers all become possessed by the demon’s spirit, Mary must survive the night and if possible, finally find some inspiration for her next novel.
How to be Famous
Pilot, Hour Long Drama
Sofia Garcia, a washed-up child actress, exits rehab determined to get her life back on track. In a Hollywood that is equal parts Keeping Up With the Kardashians on acid and a highlight reel of TMZ from hell, Sofia discovers she can escape to an alternate reality based on the sitcom that brought her to fame. But much like Hollywood, this TV World is a place where everything is beautiful and nothing is safe.
There’s No Skating Here
Feature, Horror
In the era when Tony Hawk was god and Spitfire wheels were king, Luis and his fellow skateboarding burnouts decide that the only way to celebrate their imminent high school graduation is by breaking into the local mall and attempting to Ollie the marble twelve-stair. The only issue is that the after-hours mall cops have a pension for violence and will do anything to ensure that the only way Luis and his crew roll out of the mall is on stretchers.