Zoje Stage

Zoje started Master Builder in 2002 to give herself the opportunity to put her storytelling skills into motion. As an alternative to film school, she wrote-produced-directed numerous zero-budget films including the $5 documentary short "Best of Luck" ("an amusing take on the travails of aspiring writers" - The New York Times) and the mockumentary feature "Happy Walter" ("witty" - Pittsburgh City Paper). Zoje was a 2012 participant in IFP's Emerging Narrative program with her script "Hands and Knees". In 2008 she was awarded a Fellowship in Screenwriting from the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), joining the ranks of previous NYFA Fellows including Spike Lee, Todd Haynes, Tamara Jenkins, Julie Taymor and Tony Kushner. In 2009 she won the first Screenplay Live! screenwriting competition, which afforded her the opportunity to direct a staged reading of her winning script "The Machine Who Loved" for The High Falls Film Festival (Rochester, NY). She is also a two-time semifinalist for the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, the industry's largest and most prestigious competition, sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her storytelling and directing skills were also enhanced by her experiences as a theatrically-trained and former professional actor. Originally from Pittsburgh, she currently lives in Rochester, NY.