She has developed screenplays with New Line Cinema, Seven Bucks Productions, 3311 Productions, Dichotomy Creative Group, CrossCheck Studios, and Roth/Kirschenbaum Films. She is a member of the Writers Guild of America West.
As an artist, Ariel often asks: how does public perception impact self-worth? Are our personas our personalities? And are we made at our breaking points?
Ariel broke into the industry with her screenplay FRENEMY, which landed on the annual Black List, an industry insider poll of the best un-produced scripts currently floating around Hollywood. The potential of the script (and its comedic take on Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton's feud) drew solo coverage in W, Vice, Dazed, and PAPER Magazine, which dubbed it "one of the buzziest entries on the list."
Previously, Ariel won the $10,000 grand prize at the Bluecat Screenplay Competition. She's also been a finalist in Final Draft's Big Break Competition (top 3) and Script Pipeline (top 10.) Twice, her screenplays have advanced to the semifinals in the Academy Nicholl Fellowship. She also was a finalist for Film Independent's Project Involve.
As a director, Ariel has won multiple grants and awards, including funds to live and shoot a documentary in Beijing, which won a Chinese Academy Award.
Ariel graduated magna cum laude from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, which awarded her a full-tuition Trustee Scholarship. As the first student admitted to both their Writing for Screen & Television and Film Production programs, she won the Jeffrey Jones Scholarship for Excellence in Writing and the Marguerite Roberts Screenwriting Award. She also gave a TEDx talk on storytelling!
Today, that ambition drives Ariel to defy her wheat allergy and eat copious amounts of penne.
