Christina Ham
- Stage & Screen Mentor
- MFA in Writing
Additional Information
Biography
CHRISTINA HAM was named one of “The Top 20 Most-Produced Playwrights of the 2018-19 Season” by American Theatre magazine. Her plays have been produced both nationally and internationally at the Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Seattle Rep, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Tokyo International Arts Festival, and The Market Theatre in South Africa to name a few. She is a member of the Playwrights Union and The Kilroys. A graduate of the University of Southern California and an MFA in Playwriting from The UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television, she was most recently a writer/producer on HBO’s Emmy-Award winning series Westworld. She currently has an overall deal with Universal Content Productions and has been tapped by Blumhouse to write a paranormal thriller directed by Academy Award winner John Ridley.
Teaching Philosophy
“My teaching philosophy has been to meet the students where they're at. In a creative field such as writing that means looking at where the students are starting from and nurturing those skills that they have in order to encourage them to get their projects completed. That's my goal. There are way too many artists that are swimming with ideas but a lot of times they don't have the motivation or gumption to see the projects through to the end. I want to make sure that doesn't happen. I've always leaned into the mentorship aspect of teaching. I started my career as a mentor and have integrated that style into my work with students in the classroom. I feel like the classroom is not a dictatorship as I've said to many classes before but it's an opportunity for a conversation and that I can learn as much from the students as they can learn from me. At the end of the day, I have over 30 years of writing experience in a variety of mediums: fiction, journalism, publishing, public relations, a playwright, t.v. writer, and screenwriter. I'd like to share that experience with my students to help give them the kind of leg up that will make them competitive in their chosen field.”
