Monica Sender is a writer/director from South Brooklyn’s Russian-Jewish community. She attended a Yeshiva for 12 years and grew up in an environment where religious customs, family values, and American identity were principles often in conflict. Her individualism and contemplative nature developed early and guides her work.
She moved to Los Angeles to attend University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, and has worked professionally since graduating; dividing her time between post production, writing, and directing. She’s supported some of Hollywood’s most challenging films through Post Production: The Great Gatsby, Mad Max: Fury Road, Suicide Squad, and The 33, and is an experienced leader as a Director and Post Production Supervisor.
Sender is known for creating a number of successful music videos since receiving her MFA. While at USC, faculty nominated her and classmate Ryan Coogler to direct the advanced “CTPR 546” projects of their year. Soon after, DirecTV selected her to create a short film in 3D.
She was a finalist for the 2016 Sundance Writing Lab, 2017 Sundance Episodic Lab, and the 2016 Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition, with her screenplays Personal Influence and Swans of Sheepshead Bay. And in 2017 she was hired to write a screenplay based on the life of Emma Goldman, recently completed and presently known as Riot Girl: The United States of America vs. Emma Goldman. She is currently preparing for her directorial debut, Troublesome Creek.
Monica looks for narratives that embrace the human condition; the fragile balance between ideas of self and the circumstantial challenges of being.