MICHAEL BUSZA is an LA-based, queer, disabled, Jewish comedy writer who used to work for a lumber company in Pennsylvania. Throughout his life, Michael has appeared in medical journals (like a celebrity) and injected 200,000+ needles (like a pincushion). He is also connected to enough medical devices to classify as part robot, and as a result, goes through life with a personal vendetta against TSA metal detectors.
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Most notably, Michael has worked as the showrunner for the college Emmy® Award-winning webseries One of the Guys (Best College Series, TV Academy® Foundation “College Television Awards”) and was nominated for the Oxford University Rhodes® Scholarship by Temple University, where he gave the commencement address for the Lew Klein School of Media & Communication alongside keynote speaker (and national treasure) Dan Rather.
Recently, Michael was featured as one of The Black List website’s Top 15 Half-hour Pilots, made the Coverfly Red List’s Top 20 with two different pilots (comedy and animation), made the Humanitas “New Voices” Top 25 scripts of the year, and has been selected as a Screenwriting Fellow for the 2023-24 RespectAbility Entertainment Fellowship.
Michael currently resides with his life partner in Los Angeles, California, where he spent a hot minute working in scripted development for Sony Pictures Television, a hot minute producing the Outfest official selection feature film From Zero to I Love You (now available on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video), and several hot minutes writing and performing for The Second City Hollywood comedy theatre. He was also a Finalist in the TV Academy’s Emmy® Directing Fellowship, a Diversity Scholar at the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch/improv theatre, studied at the iO West comedy theatre, and frequently volunteers for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the LA Jewish Federation (special shout-out to the Pilot Schmilots Jewish writers meet-up!).
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Prior to his pursuits as a screenwriter, Michael spent several years traveling the country for work as a judge for multiple film festivals, as a production assistant for CBS Studios (NCIS: New Orleans) and Paramount Pictures, and in various capacities as a marketing professional – which means yes, he has written puns about pizza, instructions for brewing coffee, flavor descriptions on chocolate wrappers, tweets about jewelry, and stiff editorials about the wood industry. In high school, he also worked for the best of his neighborhood’s three Blockbusters (and yes, the competition was fierce).
Michael’s most recent two scripts include a queer family mockumentary pilot titled The Village People and an adult animated sitcom about a diabetic barista and his annoying talking pancreas. Currently, he is also writing a comedy pilot about retired grandparents who start an OnlyFans (yes, that OnlyFans), a dramatic coming-of-age feature about gay rights in the country of Georgia, and a heartfelt sitcom about a wedding planner who switches to planning funerals. For professional inquiries, please contact Michael’s agent Lyra Tan at The Gersh Agency.
"My life is a poem, and I am just now learning to read."
- Michael Busza (he/him)