Writing

Produced & Published

Damned If You Do

Feature Film

Co-written with Eric Gilde

A group of friends who sold their souls to the devil at graduation---now a pop star, a social media mogul, and a high-profile activist----reconvene at their 25th high school reunion to escape Hell's grasp before the contract's deadline expires.

Filmed in summer 2024, starring Kate Siegel, Harvey Guillen, Paulo Costanzo, Ginger Gonzaga, Beth Dover, Ed Weeks, Molly Bernard, Liza Treyger, Matthew Steven Smith, and others, and directed by Jake Rubin & Evan Metzold.

Deadline article: Kate Siegel to topline DAMNED IF YOU DO
Deadline article: Harvey Guillen and nine others join DAMNED IF YOU DO

Coming Out Polyamorous for Thanksgiving

Short Film

Adapted with Alex Alberto from a chapter of their book Entwined: Essays on Polyamory and Creating Home

When polyamorous spouses Alex and Don introduce Don's partner Aly to his Southern parents on Thanksgiving, they must weigh biological family against their chosen one.

Curtain Speech

Poetry Book

Subtitled "An Actor's Poems About the Theater," Curtain Speech delves into the relationship between an actor and their character, and a life straddling parallel realities. Some poems are written from the perspective of the characters, and some from the actor, but all expand the playwrights' original creation.

"“Ellen Adair defies the description ‘actor-turned-poet’—she is a poet, full stop; and a glorious poet at that. With far more delicate precision than any memoir or how-to handbook on performance technique could hope to attain, she illuminates and records the intensely intimate, bone-deep process of embodying a character. With virtuosic simplicity and attention to detail, she masterfully uses language to capture what is, paradoxically, beyond the verbal. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand what it’s like, on a metabolic level, to inhabit a role." - Brennan Brown

In Process

Four Eyes

Novel

Screenshot 2025-01-31 at 23-23-02 Glasses Painting by Roman K Saatchi Art.png

Roman K, Glasses Painting

The morning after a turbulent party in Brooklyn, Con Mulcahy stumbles out of their Astoria apartment building only to find their eyeglasses sitting on the doorstep. Convenient! But also: mysterious. The last time they had those glasses was at the party, right before they ran into their ex-girlfriend Jessie and then into the arms of a bottle of bourbon. Through the ensuing blackout, one memory emerges: they distinctly remember not having the glasses on the train ride home.

Since the breakup, Con has been a mess, and this new memory lapse makes getting it together feel impossible. What happened last night? And how did their glasses get from Brooklyn all the way to Queens?

As Con crawls through their hungover workday at an auction house, possible scenarios play out in parallel. Alex, an actor with a crush on Con, finds the glasses but is dogged by misadventures as he tries to return them. Jessie, the embittered ex, steals the glasses and abandons them—but they’re saved by Azra, a young Muslim woman who hears angels, with her own mystery to unravel. In one scenario, all glasses are sentient, but Con’s glasses face a difficult choice on their journey home. In another, interdimensional beings harvest energy from human objects for the creation of new universes, and having taken the glasses by mistake, learn about humans’ purpose as meaning-makers. Finally, perhaps most fantastical of all, what if Jessie really was responsible, with an act of service that could rewrite Con's understanding of the person who broke their heart?

At once a satisfying journey and a collection of fully realized narratives, Four Eyes celebrates possibility. It culminates with Con, guided by energies either angelic, artistic, or inebriant, to finally consider how the stories we tell ourselves stitch together our understanding of the universe(s) around us.

Complete at 98,000 words, this accessible literary novel with speculative elements is currently being queried.

The Universe of the Gods

Novel

A god from an ancient society, Wick, is having a mid-life crisis. Oh, and he's aware that it's absurd to have a mid-life crisis when he doesn't technically have a life.

It's the current arrangement for communication between gods and mortals----with gods confined to their own universe----that upsets him. It doesn't seem to be leading to much more growth for humans than the old way, when gods could walk freely on the mortal earths.

When one of his bonded mortals is reassigned, he has to figure out how to make his point----even if it means overturning everything.

This novel is currently in process on its first draft.

Remedios Varo, "La Llamada"

The Importance of Being

Novel

Rachael is heartbroken when her unexpected dream girl breaks off their showmance just before the invited dress of a production of The Importance of Being Earnest. But then, during the performance, she notices something odd about her costar. Getting to the bottom of this mystery sends her through twists and turns that reveal new, bizarre truths about her profession, her industry, privilege, nepotism, and ultimately, the human relationship to the otherworldly.

This novel is currently in outline phase, in expansion from a completed novelette that is "Act I" of the story.

Hilma af Klint, The Swan - No. 1

Screenplays in Process

Ellen Adair and Eric Gilde are currently working on another high-school-based horror comedy, along with a wedding-based horror comedy and a Christmas movie.

Ellen is also working on another screenplay, approximately Sliding Doors meets Being John Malkovich, with Paulo Costanzo.

Look at these goofs.

Balls and Strikes

TV Pilot/Series

Finalist, Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition
Semifinalist, Screencraft Comedy Competition
Semifinalist, Orlando Film Festival
Quarterfinalist, GEMFest International Screenplay Competition
Selection, Austin Under the Stars Film Festival

Co-written with Chris Carfizzi

Erin’s career as a sports writer is the love of her life, but the hyper-masculine environment where she works is constantly cockblocking her----sometimes literally.

Erin is on the lowest non-intern rung at the National Sports Network, working the 'Rumor Hub' baseball blog for NSN'S website that synthesizes other reporting to create content. It's not so bad, though, because she gets to work with her best friend in the world, Cary Martino. But with cable revenues down, the Network is tightening the belt. Will the careers they dreamt of growing up continue to exist?

When they mistakenly switch email addresses and Cary learns how much harder Erin has to work as a woman in the field, he proposes that they switch online work identities. Secretly, he’s hoping to save both of their jobs. Publicly, the identity swap causes mayhem, both comical and serious, some of which threaten to drive our heroes apart.