Elliott Maya
"I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction." ---- Tahereh Mafi
Where I'm Going
My Background
As a natural born go-getter, my passion has continuously driven me to expand my knowledge, experience, and relationships. With a strong background and diverse skill set, I’m confident in the creative ideas and successful solutions I bring to the table. Keep exploring my site to learn more information about me, and reach out directly with any questions. Keep scrolling to see my skills, interests, and hobbies, or click the button to see my work experience.
Interests and Hobbies
life's best with something to geek about.
Storytelling
Stories are our finest tools, kindest gifts, and cruelest weapons
Storytelling is my first love and the core thread running through all my interests, be they professional or personal. Narrative is the life-blood of industry without the 'human it factor' of a damn good story, advertisement, fiction, entertainment, film and television - they all become hard to follow, boring, meaningless, vapid, and lifeless. As an aspiring storyteller, it is my life's goal to act as the sinew that connects audiences to the stories that matter, your stories, and transform them from abstract ideas to muscle and bone.
Worldbuilding
If every alternate universe looks like space Medieval Europe, you need me
From the original Startrek to Atlantis (2016), western writers continue to base their visions of future, past, and alien societies on rehashed European lore vapidly reupholstered in vinyl. In a post-Black Panther world such low caliber worldbuilding appeals less and less to diverse, cosmopolitan audiences seeking visual and cultural representation in all aspects of a production - not just the cast. Worldbuilding may be a hobby, but it is one I take seriously, in the hopes of some day turning it into a career.
Creative Development
Communal efforts reap great rewards
No matter how great the idea, every concept should undergo a refining stage. As a Creative Developer I work with you to take your initial idea from an immaterial concept and help you conceive, design, and produce it as reality.
Screen and Television writing
Turning text into suspended reality
I've always been a big believer in the power of a tangible, finished product, for it is only when you can hold your work in your hand that you are truly capable of sharing it. Storytelling is a gift that demands to be given, and my mediums of choice are the small- and silver-screen. My current projects include the drafting of a brown and queer television series, and a film involving aliens, passing, race, and plantation slavery.
Sensitivity Reading
Editing from the heart
It's a messy (and often thankless) job, but somebody has to do it, and luckily I love it. Between my education as an English and Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies scholar, my oral historian training at the New York City Trans Oral History Project, and my racial and personal identities, I am astutely qualified to pour over manuscripts with a fine-toothed comb and flag micro- and macroaggressions, racial stereotypes, caricatures, and more. If you're interested in this service, please visit the Contact page.
Creative Research
Every work needs a backbone
After four years of conducting rigorous academic research and combing through annals and archives, I now utilize my expert research toolkit to do dramaturgical work and assess the historical accuracy of films, television series, and literature on my upcoming blog.