About Me

Using the pen name (Raffaele) of my paternal grandfather, I shifted my focus from poetry and short stories to filmmaking and screenwriting in 1994. That same year, I received certification from Dov S-S Simens' Hollywood Film Institute, joining such alumni as Queen Latifah, Will Smith, and Quentin Tarantino. Also that same year, I enrolled in the Hollywood Scriptwriting Institute, where I spent the next two years honing my craft under noted screenwriter Earl Blakesley, Jr., whose screen credits included the popular television series China Beach and Tour of Duty.

I completed creative writing training through the Christian Writer's Guild in 1995, the same year that I penned the Mars Hill anthology. I sold my first feature film, Willows Way, to York Entertainment International in 2007, and my second feature film, Back to the Beyond, to Maxim Media International in 2011. I have consulted on a plethora of film projects, including Dark Minds, which was acquired by R-Squared Films in 2014.

Between 2013 and 2020 I taught aspiring screenwriters through the renowned Screenwriters University, and in 2017 I received my Master of Fine Arts in Cinema-Television: Script & Screenwriting from Regent University. I followed this degree with a Master of Divinity in Biblical Studies from Liberty University in 2019.

Currently, I am editing an original, faith-based production entitled One - The Motion Picture, which has been pre-sold to Adler & Associates Entertainment Inc. of West Hollywood, and which stars famed character actors Lance Henriksen (The Terminator, Aliens) and Ian Ziering (Sharknado, Beverly Hills 90210).