Sign in Subscribe

Interview (Part 1): Kristen Tepper

My interview with 2022 Black List writer for her script Better Luck Next Time.

Scott Myers

• 5 min read
Interview (Part 1): Kristen Tepper

My interview with 2022 Black List writer for her script Better Luck Next Time.

Kristen Tepper wrote the screenplay Better Luck Next Time which landed on the 2022 Black List. Remarkably, Kristen’s script made the Black List before she had signed with a manager.

I had the opportunity to chat with Kristen about her creative background, writing a Black List script, and the craft of screenwriting.

Today in Part 1 of a 6-part series to run each day through Sunday, Kristen talks about her lifelong desire to live and work in Hollywood, and how she went from being a “pretty bad student” to taking classes at The Second City to making her way to Los Angeles.

Scott: Congratulations getting on the Black List in 2022.
Kristen: Thank you.
Scott: Kristen, I’d like to learn a little bit more about your background. First of all, I think you’re from the Chicago area. Is that right?
Kristen: I am, yes. I’m very proud of being from Chicago. I grew up in the south suburbs, Oak Forest, Orland Park area. I go back a lot whenever I can. I think the city is just one of the best set‑up cities in the country, so I’m very like ride or die.
I’m in LA now. I don’t know if it’s cold in Chicago right now, but it’s nice here today.
Scott: Were you always interested in movies and television?
Kristen: I think I was always interested. I feel like my mom says this to me all time. She’s like, “Ever since you were really little, you were like, ‘I’m just going to go work and live in Hollywood.’” She was like, “I never brought you to California. There was no reason for you to want to go to that place.” But I really love movies.
I think I saw, I feel like it was probably “The Goonies” or one of those adventure movies that I saw. I was like, “Oh, I want to make that. I want to do that. I want to be a part of all of that.” I still need to go to the rocks that are up in Oregon from “The Goonies.” I think it was one of those. I was just like, “Yeah, that just seems like a better job than a nurse or a teacher.”
I was terrible to my teachers. Those poor, poor people, so I couldn’t imagine being them. From there, I think I was writing a lot of fanfiction online. I was really into reading “Nancy Drew.” I was always a big book person. I think that’s what kind of gave me an idea that this was a career option, at least reading books and then seeing shows like that and movies.
Scott: There was a “Nancy Drew” series on for a while. Were you a fan of that?
Kristen: I never actually watched it. I get really weird about once something of mine, like something that I loved, comes to fruition. I’m scared to watch it because I don’t want to not like it. I have not yet, but I should. I think that one’s not too bad.
Scott: I notice in your script, of course, you mentioned “The Hardy Boys” is a pretty important element in the script. I actually remember reading “The Hardy Boys” when I was a kid.
Kristen: They’re really good. They’re all really good. There was even Nancy Drew computer games that I was really into. Mysteries are big on my vibe.
Scott: You did some fan fiction. I suppose that’s probably floating around somewhere.
Kristen: It is. I don’t know where. There were Nancy Drew fan websites. I don’t remember what my username was, but there’s definitely…I should find it, but it exists somewhere. It’s not good. I don’t know what I was writing about. I don’t think I had any love interest either. I think it was just murder and mayhem.
Scott: Murder and mayhem. Were you doing any of this in high school at all? Were you doing creative writing, taking any classes there?
Kristen: I wasn’t. I was a pretty bad student. I was just interested in my friends. I did gymnastics and cheerleading, so I was doing those. I really wanted to be cool.
I was like, “I don’t think the theater kids are considered cool. I don’t think the kids that are in their writing class are considered cool,” and so I missed out on a bunch of stuff, I think, that I would’ve really, really loved for the sake of thinking that I was too cool.
Now I have nieces and nephews, and I’m like, “Do all of the things that you want to do. You’ll be much happier in life.”
I think I took two classes in college for screenwriting, and that was at Mizzou, or University of Missouri. Then I went to Second City in Chicago after college, and I took some sketch writing classes there.
Scott: University Missouri, Brad Pit attended there, I think.
Kristen: He did. He was a Sigma Chi. He’s on the wall. He looked just as good back then, too.
Scott: Here in Chicago, DePaul University, the film program where I teach, has a joint program with the Second City. A comedy writing program, so students can come and get a BFA or an MFA.
Kristen: That is amazing.
Scott: They get all the sketch writing and improv at Second City in Lincoln Park. Then at DePaul, we teach them screenwriting, theory, the business of screenwriting, and so on.
Kristen: That’s really, really smart because that’s like you took screenwriting or film theory classes, but then you knew all of the information and you were like, I don’t know how to implement yet though. I know all this stuff. Where do I go next? That’s really smart of you guys to do that together.
Scott: So you took a couple of screenwriting classes in college. How did you wind your way to Hollywood?
Kristen: I came home because my parents were not psyched. They thought this idea was going to go away. I got a communications degree, and they were like, she’ll work in marketing or do something. I was like, I’m going to save money and then I’m going to go and, in that meantime though, I’m in Chicago, I’m living at home with my parents because they were nice enough to let me come back.
I was like, I might as well go to Second City and take classes. When I get out there, I’m completely in shock about what’s going on, so yes. Then I moved out. I think, two years later, maybe a year later, I moved out.

Tomorrow in Part 2, Kristen discusses how she worked her way into the business by developing a niche creating lookbooks and a social media presence on Tiktok.

Kristen is repped by Agents First.

Note: Kristen has 18.7K followers on Tiktok and 1M+ likes.

For my interviews with dozens of other Black List writers, go here.

Sign up for more like this.

Enter your email
Subscribe