An Amazon and NY Times bestselling level author, Matteo Pizzolo was named Wired Magazine's World's Most Wired Comics Creator and has appeared on CNN, NPR, and FOX News. While living out of a backpack as a teenager in NYC's Lower East Side, Pizzolo got his start as a playwright in Hell's Kitchen's Ensemble Studio Theatre's Youngblood program. At 19 he wrote THREAT, an independent feature set in NYC's hardcore punk & underground hip hop scenes. He went on to direct the film, shooting it on 16mm discarded "short ends" using free equipment rentals earned by cleaning up after classes at non-profit co-op Film/Video Arts. THREAT was eventually distributed by Sony (after touring skateparks and hip hop clubs across the US and Europe), garnering a Best First Time Filmmaker award at the Rome Independent Film Festival, Grand Prize at the Lausanne International Film Festival, and a theatrical release following its US premiere at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. He then wrote and directed the animated feature GODKILLER, distributed by Warner Brothers, which led to writing the comic books YOUNG TERRORISTS and CALEXIT. Since then, THREAT enabled him to support emerging filmmakers with Halo-8, GODKILLER enabled him to focus on new creator development with Black Mask, and most recently CALEXIT made it possible for him to support first-time political candidates and also to bring new voices into TV. Pizzolo lives in Los Angeles writing and producing television, comics, and film.