Bio
Born in 1973, Tom Morgan is a native of Southern Illinois. He spent his childhood a short drive from the Mississippi River and a stone’s throw from the Ozark Shawnee Forest, in that sort of gray middle-ground between the Midwest and the South where fields of corn and soybeans give way to lush forestland. Fiction and Film were always his favorite pastimes, and after earning a Bachelor’s degree in English in 1995 from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Tom moved to Los Angeles and enrolled in the screenwriting program at California State University, Northridge. While there, he wrote several scripts and interned with Esparza/Katz Productions (makers of “Selena” and “Gettysburg”), where he picked up valuable experience writing coverage and learned how a production company works. During this time, Tom won the Kathy McWorter Screenplay Award for his feature script, “Corsair“. (Ms. McWorter penned “The War”starring Kevin Costner). “Corsair” was passed on to a couple of agents at ICM, but unfortunately, despite several weeks of their pitching the project, there were no takers for a lavish period piece focusing on 17th century Caribbean pirates. The writing continued, although after Tom earned his Master’s degree in 1998, he’s found that time has become a scarce commodity. Since 1998, Tom worked steadily as an adjunct instructor (freeway flyer) teaching screenwriting classes at Antelope Valley Community College and, later, at California State University, Fullerton. Most recently, Tom took a break to focus purely on his PhD in English Literature at Claremont Graduate University. He completed his dissertation, The Domesticated Con Man: Confidence Men and Sentimental Domesticity in Fiction and Film. He then graduated with his PhD in May of 2010. The creative writing continues, however. Tom currently resides in West Hills, CA, where he is working on his latest writing project. Tom has a wife, Ilene, and a son, Joseph. Tom Morgan can be contacted at starvingwriter@starvingwriter.com.