Faculty Faculty

Irving Belateche


Irving Belateche is a screenwriter, award-winning author, and speaker. He's written screenplays for Paramount Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Warner Bros., and other studios as well as for TV networks HBO and SyFy. Among the nineteen feature scripts he's sold are Combustion, Time Killer, Testament, Expecting and The Veil. He’s also the author of the bestselling novels Einstein’s Secret and The Origin of Dracula, and he adapted the first Hugo award winner, The Demolished Man, by Alfred Bester, for Paramount Pictures and producer Robert Evans (Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby).

Belateche has worked with producers Lawrence Bender (Pulp Fiction), Joel Silver (The Matrix), Gavin Polone (Gilmore Girls, Curb Your Enthusiasm), and Jason Blum (Paranormal Activity, Whiplash) as well as directors Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump) and Roland Emmerich (Independence Day).

In addition to his work as a screenwriter and author, Belateche is a speaker and seminar leader, who’s both lectured and given screenwriting workshops in China and Malaysia. He lectures on the elements and techniques of storytelling with an emphasis on the intersection between story and character.

Belateche is a graduate of Columbia University, where he received a B.A. in English, and a graduate of the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, where he received an M.A. in Film Production with a focus on screenwriting. He's a member of the Writers Guild of America.