Missy’s Biography

Missy Hernandez is an award-winning screenwriter, filmmaker, and arts educator based in Chicago, Illinois. The daughter of first-generation Puerto Rican migrants and a first-generation graduate, she writes about the experiences of Latiné women in the US and Caribbean, exploring issues related to colonialism, neo-colonialism, assimilation, female bodily autonomy, and intergenerational inheritance. Her work is intersectional, feminist, often political, and unapologetically fantastical as suits the genre or her whims. Missy’s feature script, I DON’T DREAM IN SPANISH ANYMORE, won the Nashville Film Festival Screenplay Competition for Best Horror Script, the Nantucket Film Festival's Tony Cox Screenplay Competition, and the Athena List. Missy’s short script, FAR FROM HERE, was a winner of the Outstanding Screenplays Shorts Competition and a finalist for the Shore Scripts Short Film Fund. Missy was a Writer and Co-Producer of AMERICAN THIEF, the co-writer and producer of THE LAST ELECTION AND OTHER LOVE STORIES, and the Writer’s Assistant and Associate Producer for the HBO/A24 series RANDOM ACTS OF FLYNESS. Missy and her partner, Miguel Silveira, founded Neither Nor Studios, a Chicago-based company focused on the development of original IP, film and storytelling education, and the production of non-dependent film, stage, and new media projects. As an actor, Missy studied Meisner Technique at William Esper Studios in NYC under William Esper. While living in New York she performed in numerous short films, independent features, and stage productions. Missy is currently represented by Lily’s Talent in Chicago for acting and performance. Missy graduated from Columbia University in New York with a BA in Cinema Studies and an MFA in Screenwriting. She is an Associate Professor in the School of Film and Television at Columbia College Chicago.

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Artist Statement

I have lost a language that flowed in and out of my dreams as a child. I don't dream in Spanish anymore. A story of cultural assimilation in six words. More than that, this melancholic statement suggests the issues of identity, loss of identity, and a desperate desire to reconnect and reclaim a part of my soul that was forced to feel foreign. This thread runs through all my personal work, but none more so than this project. I am the daughter of first-generation Puerto Rican migrants who settled in Illinois, the granddaughter of men who worked the sugarcane fields on the island, and the granddaughter of women who taught themselves to read and write in both Spanish and English. Their struggles, sacrifice, and determination course through my veins and are the soul of the projects I write. I am the first in my family to go to college, the first to earn an advanced degree, and the only to pursue a career in the arts. I am a screenwriter who reclaims classic film genres and reimagines story worlds from the perspectives of the characters most often sidelined or excluded: women and people of color. My work explores intergenerational stories that speak to lineage, legacy, and cultural inheritance. My dedication to the arts of screenwriting and filmmaking is related to a mission of cultivating authentic and nuanced representation of folks whose identities are historically marginalized, misrepresented, or excluded. The stories I craft, the perspectives of my characters, and the form in which my scripts unfold serve to challenge and broaden the norm.