Screenwriter & Playwright New York City
Award-winning writer of The Suicide Theory and Rage. Horror, dark thrillers, and the occasional joke that goes somewhere it shouldn't.
01 Feature Films
Feature / Thriller / 2014
A suicidal man hires a hitman to kill him. The hitman can't seem to get the job done.
World premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Released in U.S. and Canadian theaters by Freestyle Releasing in July 2015, followed by a three-year run on Netflix. Named by The Guardian one of the ten best Australian films of 2015.
View on IMDb
Feature / Revenge Thriller / 2021
A home invasion leaves a mild-mannered husband in a coma and his wife deeply traumatized. He wakes to find one of the attackers still out there. Then she spots him.
Released February 23, 2021 with worldwide distribution through Gravitas Ventures. Produced by Prima Lux Films and La Rosa Productions. “Love can make you do terrible things.”
View on IMDb02 Coming
Feature / Thriller / Pre-production
Co-written with Joseph Cahill. Directed by Oswaldo Martinez.
Feature / Horror-Dramedy / In development
A down-on-his-luck alcoholic moves into an unusually affordable NYC apartment and finds the previous tenant isn't ready to leave. He died three years ago.
Abandoned House Productions, NYC, with Clay von Carlowitz and Asta Paredes.
Feature / In development
Listed on IMDb as in development. Ask Mike for a logline.
03 Short Films
Produced shorts written by Michael, shot everywhere from Brooklyn to Melbourne to Mumbai.
The greatest kung fu master in the world faces his toughest opponent yet: cancel culture.
Co-written with G.T. Williamson.
A mother and daughter are woken in the night by a stranger laughing outside their home. A Lambent Entertainment production.
Kate leaves her NYC apartment for another workday and discovers everyone in the city has vanished. She isn't quite alone.
A Whistling Woods International production, Mumbai.
Dumped for drunkenness, Darwin must learn to share his convenient new NYC digs with the existing tenant: his dead roommate.
The tooth fairy isn't real. That's what Larry tells his ten-year-old. Then the boy wakes him in the middle of the night.
April fears her relationship is over when Marvin fails to come home for their anniversary dinner. Nominated for Best Short Screenplay, Macabre Faire Film Festival.
“A foul-mouthed marriage counselor uses unorthodox methods.”
“A game of Monopoly turns deadly on couples game night.”
Also: The Last Piano Man (2021), The Violinist (2018), and screenplay consultant on The Guard (2018) and The Music (2019). Michael also hosts the podcast Mikey's Discount Drive-In with Asta Paredes and Clay von Carlowitz.
Full filmography on IMDb04 Theater
Two produced plays in New York City.
Mike has two produced off-Broadway plays. Get the titles, theaters and years from him.
05 About
Michael J. Kospiah is an award-winning screenwriter and playwright based in New York City. He is mostly known for darker subject matter, though he got his start on the other side of the page as a sports columnist for newspapers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
He saw Psycho at twelve and never recovered. He wrote his first script at fourteen, a creature feature called Attack of the Killer Groundhogs, then studied at Gotham Writers Workshop and learned the rest the hard way: reading scripts and taking notes.
His first produced feature, The Suicide Theory, premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in 2014 and won the Grand Jury Prize at Dances With Films, the Audience Award at the Austin Film Festival, and a Special Jury Prize at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival. His second feature, Rage, was released worldwide by Gravitas Ventures in 2021.
He has written more than thirty features and twenty shorts, is head writer for Top Notch Cinema, a New York video production company, and has worked as a ghostwriter, script doctor and script consultant with filmmakers around the world.
Assembled from public bios and a 2016 SimplyScripts interview. Have Mike rewrite it in his own voice.
“Keep writing. Find your voice, find what you're great at, and stick with that.”
Michael J. Kospiah, SimplyScripts interview
06 Available
Unproduced features and shorts available for option. Producers and directors: get in touch.
| Title | Type | Genre |
|---|---|---|
| Honey Mustard | Feature | Horror / Thriller |
| Violent Kind | Feature | Drama / Horror / Thriller |
| Corpse Flower | Feature | Horror |
| Filthy Animal | Short | Horror / Sci-Fi |
| Shut Eye | Short | Horror / Thriller |
| The Soda Machine | Short | Horror |
| Live Love Eat Die | Short | Horror |
| Creeper | Short | Horror |
| Bastard Saint | Short | Horror |
| Gratuitous Violence | Short | Comedy / Horror / Sci-Fi |
| Great Again | Short | Thriller |
| Honey Mustard | Short | Horror |
Fade out Contact
Representation, production inquiries, and script consultation.
speshk20@gmail.com