Katarina Hughes
Katarina is an LA-based writer, actor, and filmmaker originally from Cincinnati, Ohio. A graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts, her performance background spans film and TV roles including the SXSW Audience Award-winning Pretty Problems, Sony Pictures' Banking on Christmas, and Queen America opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones, though it was her time on Upright Citizens Brigade's house team, Character's Welcome, that ignited her passion for writing.Her award-winning short films Hippo and Golden Record Received, which she wrote, directed, and starred in, have screened at Malibu Film Festival, Just For Laughs, Brooklyn SciFi, Chicago Comedy Fest, and the United Nations Environmental Assembly, among others. Most recently, she wrote Desert Lights, a twelve-episode mockumentary series about a fictional UFO sighting, available now on YouTube.Beyond the screen, Katarina works as a video artist experimenting with performance capture and generative AI. Her upcoming installation, Ode to Flow State, is a deconstructed cinematic experience and love letter to creativity.Across all mediums, her work often weaves together comedy, idiosyncratic characters, Americana, and alternate dimensions to explore the persistent, existential question: "Why am I me, in this body, at this moment in time?"
scripts
The Vending Machine, Pilot, Sci-Fi Comedy
The Blacklist 8+ Score
Moonshot Initiative Semifinalist
Twenty years after her dad supposedly got beamed up by aliens, tiki bar owner Ashlyn Thomas finds a vending machine in the crater he left behind, fueling her cosmic quest for answers and a family feud over selling out to Margaritaville.
Guru, Pilot, Dark Comedy
A forgotten former child star trying to stay sober and reclaim her life gets an unexpected second chance at relevance when the guru of an eccentric celebrity spiritual community dies in her arms and is declared their new leader.
Wine Night, Scripted Fiction Podcast
co-written with Julia Hoff
Kelen Brooks is back in her Napa Valley hometown, following an embarrassing stint on The Bachelor (it was a bad edit!). At a weekly wine night, Kelen and her three besties stumble upon a murder mystery that leads them on a steamy, Chardonnay-soaked quest for answers, uncovering scandals of the town they thought they knew so well.
Influenced, Pilot, Dramedy
co-written with Julia Hoff
Austin Film Festival Second Rounder
Moonshot Initiative Quarterfinalist
Fallon Foley (35) is a mid-level lifestyle influencer, struggling to balance her online brand (flawless domestic goddess) with her real life persona (cynical messy mortal), as she experiences the societal nightmare of being a woman who gets older.
The Payload, Feature, Comedy Heist
co-written with Julia Hoff
Austin Film Festival Second Rounder
Two estranged daughters of a legendary conman reconnect at his funeral to discover he’s left them one final con -- to heist the most valuable liquid in the world: Triple Crown winning horse sperm.
Golden Record Received is an award winning short film that has screened on five continents and is currently on exhibit through October at FILE Festival in Sao Paolo, Brazil. It has screened at the UN Environmental Assembly, London AI Summit, Malibu Film Festival, Osaka Horizon, and Brooklyn SciFi Film Fest.
After receiving The Golden Record, a time capsule of sounds from planet Earth, space traveler IRIDIA addresses her fellow citizens as they finally approach this far away planet for the first time. But when she arrives on Earth, the truth about humanity is revealed...
Hippo is an official Selection of Just For Laughs Northwest, the Mastermind Panel at Chicago Comedy Film Festival, New York Short Comedy Festival, and Women's Comedy Film Festival Atlanta.
After their friend gets her arm ripped off while taking a selfie with a hippo at the zoo, three friends and her work crush await her fate in the hospital waiting room.
Desert Lights is a twelve episode mockumentary documenting the eye witness accounts of a mysterious UAP sighting in Chico Verde, New Mexico, eventually uncovering a love story that spans space, time, and parallel realities.
How to Change a Tire Like a Badass Bitch is a musical sketch Produced by Funny Or Die
