Hilary Van Hoose Screenwriter

Hilary is passionate about writing aspirational, optimistic genre stories featuring outsiders and fish-out-of-water who discover their true selves by helping other people. She received her first on-screen credit as a staff writer for season one of Nickelodeon’s YouTube/Paramount+ series "Blue's Clues & You Nursery Rhymes." Since then, she's sold an outline for a kids animated sci-fi comedy series at TeamTO, wrote freelance for an animated YouTube series aimed at the teenage girl audience, and recently wrapped as a staff writer on season one of the Nick Jr. Digital series "Barnyard Daycare." She's currently looking for her next freelance or staff writing position.

A 2022 semifinalist in both the NBC Launch TV Writers Program and the Inevitable Foundation Screenwriters Program, she is also a 2021 RespectAbility Entertainment Lab Fellow, a 2024 Disability Belongs Children's Content Lab selectee, and winner of the Stage 32 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Screenwriting Contest, whose screenplays have placed in such notable competitions as Sundance Episodic Lab, Austin Film Festival, and are ranked on the Coverfly Red List. In the last year, Hilary has been a Women in Animation mentee, Children's Media Association mentee, 1IN4 Writers' Program selectee, and a participant in Nicky Weinstock's Craft Services screenwriting initiative.

Many of her stories draw from previous experiences working as a calculus tutor, assistant event coordinator, university librarian, radio station volunteer, TV station volunteer, college TV reporter, freelance copywriter for an advertising company, production intern/assistant, development intern, archivist/tape librarian, comedy club live stage production staff, teaching assistant for film/TV classes, video editor, and print journalist.

Hilary grew up a homeschool kid and a PWD in a multi-heritage family, primarily in Northern California and Hawaii. There, she developed a love of outdoor activities and her skills as a culinary artist won her more than 160 awards in local competitions. Turning her creativity towards filmmaking, she earned her B.A. in Film and Digital Media Production from UC Santa Cruz (go banana slugs!). Entering as a Regent's Scholar, she won the film department’s Porter College fellowship for two consecutive quarters and gained certification in Leadership Training and Development from the UCSC Experiential Leadership Program, then graduating Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude after returning from the UCEAP French Language & Culture program in Paris, France.

Finally settling in Los Angeles to earn her M.F.A. in Film and Television Production from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Hilary won the first ever Jack Oakie and Dale C. Olson “You Heard it Here First” Award for Excellence in Entertainment Communication in Honor of Victoria Oakie. She chose an emphasis in comedy television because USC was the first university in the nation to offer a program dedicated to training filmmakers in the art of comedy. She not only took on a position as a member of the USC Comedy student board but also earned approval for her graduate thesis to be comprised of two half-hour pilots produced for the school’s flagship television production class (as an editor for the first, and as a director for the next year’s pilot episode). Hilary found her voice as a screenwriter when she began writing genre scripts featuring comedic influences and underrepresented identities.