Interview (Part 1): Brent Delaney

My interview with the 2023 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner.

Brent Delaney wrote the original screenplay “Brownie Mary” which won a 2023 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Brent about his creative background, his award-winning script, the craft of screenwriting, and what winning the Nicholl Award has meant to him.

Today in Part 1 of a 6-part series to run each day through Saturday, Brent discusses his educational background which includes three academic degrees and his history with the Nicholl Fellowships program.

Scott: I believe you’re from Canada. Are you originally from Toronto?

Brent: Yeah, but I grew up mostly in Aurora, which is the next town over from where Jim Carrey was born.

Scott: You’ve got quite an educational background. You’ve got a BA, an MFA, and a PhD. Could you walk us through that academic journey?

Brent: Sure. When I was a teenager, I wrote my first feature script. At age 17. It was a pastiche of A Beautiful Mind. And, from that point on, I knew I wanted to go into creative writing.

I thought Michael Ondaatje taught at Glendon College at York University, so I went there for my undergrad in English Literature. Much to my dismay, I soon discovered that Michael Ondaatje was only a professor emeritus, who didn’t actively teach anymore. So, I was on my own.

During that time, though, I wrote and directed several plays in this little black box theater, which was a great experience. Then, after that, I completed my MFA in screenwriting.

At the end of my MFA, I started working and trying to get into the Canadian film industry. But I was struggling with my writing because I realized — after a decade of learning the craft — I didn’t know what to write. I thought that writers were supposed to have some kind of wisdom to share. I was like, “I know a lot about the craft, but I don’t know anything about life.”

So, I developed this autodidactic curriculum around 2011 or so, and I just started reading from the beginning, starting with every one of Plato’s dialogues. That lasted for a few years, and then I enrolled in a PhD program, which I completed after five years.

And when I was finishing up my doctoral dissertation, it was finally time to merge what I learned in the program with my broader screenwriting ambitions, which is what I always wanted to do.

Scott: Yeah, I think you hit on a really important point. People can spend all this time on these how‑to screenwriting books, but ultimately you really do have to have life experience. You have your own process of learning. You were reading all this stuff. You figured this thing out. You wanted to immerse yourself and learn as much as you could.

Brent: Yeah, and I had been interested in philosophical questions for a long time. I had this epiphany when I was 16 or 17 years old after watching Richard Linklater’s Waking Life that, in retrospect, led me toward both film and philosophy. And so, I spent a decade on screenwriting and a decade on philosophy.

Scott: Before you went into the doctoral program, you did have some professional experience. There was three episodes of a 2012 TV series called “In Counseling.” You made a short film that then later on went into development. Maybe you could talk a bit about that experience.

Brent: “In Counseling” was just a small web series. It was pretty much self‑funded and produced with other people I had met in film school. The short film was produced with a director I met through a friend. He was great to work with. And, eventually, I wrote a feature based on the short film that was optioned by a producer in Toronto.

The producer and I developed the script for a bit, but it got stuck in development hell. After that, a few different Canadian companies picked up some of my other scripts, but they were just free shopping agreements which didn’t result in anything tangible.

Scott: But you did then have some measurable success. There was a Page Screenwriting Award‑winning script. Then you were working the whole Nicholl thing. You had a semifinalist script, “Perfect Flower,” and the top 50 finalist, “We Are Living Graves.” Maybe you could talk a little bit about that journey of doing the whole screenwriting competition angle of things.

Brent: Well, after I finished my PhD, I came back to screenwriting with a much more mature mindset, with things I really wanted to say with my work. And so, I revised “Perfect Flower” which was a script I wrote in my MFA. And it placed as a 2020 Nicholl quarterfinalist and then as a semifinalist in the 2021. That same year, my first new script I wrote, “We Are Living Graves” — which was informed by my study of animal ethics — placed as a top 50 finalist. So, the results were much better after I gave myself a chance to mature as a writer.

Scott: That’s impressive. You’re repped by Range Media, is that right?

Brent: Yeah.

Scott: How’d that happen?

Brent: I had sent the script to my manager last spring. And he was open to staying in touch as the Nicholl results unfolded. And when I won, we decided to work together. Over the year, he had read a few other samples of mine and we developed a relationship. He’s incredibly smart and open and supportive, and so I feel very lucky.

Scott: That script you sent him was, was that “Brownie Mary”?

Brent: Yeah.

Tomorrow in Part 2, Brent talks about the real-life inspiration for his Nicholl-winning screenplay “Brownie Mary.”

Brent is repped by Range Media Partners.

Twitter / X: @Brent__Delaney

For my interviews with every Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner since 2012, go here.