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About

Justine Grace Ceniza Rivero is a sci-fi/fantasy screenwriter centering strong women of color breaking free from cultural, social, and familial expectations to discover their own (often fantastical or futuristic) powers. Formerly an investigative journalist and technologist, Justine aspires to be the first Filipina-American showrunner.

Justine was born in Cebu, Philippines to teachers, farmers, and an alleged World War II spy. She immigrated to California at age six, and later graduated from UC Berkeley with a triple major in Ethnic Studies, Mass Communications, and Rhetoric to become an investigative journalist. She returned to Cebu as a journalist tackling human trafficking rings, and the experience shook her to her core. She took a break from journalism and fell in love with the energy of the Tech startup industry. Justine worked in Tech for 15 years across the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, and London, focusing on artificial intelligence, social impact, and innovation incubators. Highlights of her Tech career include founding an anti-human trafficking nonprofit, joining an anti-human trafficking hackathon in Nepal, traveling to Morocco to support free speech through anti-censorship technology, and advocating for diversity and inclusion doing 30+ speaking engagements in Tech organizations across the US and UK.

In 2021, Justine realized her daughter would one day ask about her dreams, and she’d fess up to pushing them to the margins and writing stories between meetings and commuting. So Justine retired from Tech to pursue screenwriting full-time. She considers this in the top 3 best and hardest things she’s ever done (want to know the other 2? Just ask her!). Between writing, traveling, and being a bread aficionado, Justine lives between London and the San Francisco Bay Area with her family.

NOTABLES

Fellow, WeScreenplay Diverse Voices Screenwriting Lab [2024]
Fellow, Moonshot Initiative Pilot Accelerator [2024]
Fellow, ISA Fast Track Fellowship [2024]

Fellow, Stowe Story Labs [2024]
Coverfly’s The Red List [2024]; Top 1% of Coverfly [2024]
Sci-Fi/Fantasy Category Winner, ISA Fast Track Fellowship [2024]

Placed in:

Mentorship Matters Fellowship [2024]
Austin Film Festival [2024]
Final Draft’s Big Break Screenwriting Contest [2024]
Santa Barbara International Screenplay Awards [2024]
HollyShorts Screenplay Competition [2024]
Outstanding Screenplays Shorts Competition [2024]
Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards [2024]
Finish Line Script Competition [2024]
Roadmap's 2024 GPS Fellowship [2024]
Emerging Screenwriters Sci-Fi & Fantasy Screenplay Competition [2024]
Emerging Screenwriters Drama Screenplay Competition [2024]
Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition [2024]
Filmmatic - Inroads Fellowship [2024]
Netflix & Sky Screenwriters’ Fellowship [2021]

Portfolio

GOOD BONES

1-hour original TV pilot
A reluctant necromancer’s unfinished business pulls her into a wave of grisly murders in New Orleans, America’s most haunted city. She must rely on the local, colorful denizens (both living and dead) surrounding the city’s infamous necropolis and uncover the truth before a dark, deadly power is unleashed.
script available on request
ANAMNESIA

1-hour original TV pilot
Disillusioned with her modern life, Paz discovers she’s a descendant of legendary warriors. To defeat the rampaging Goddess of Chaos, Paz must venture into her past lifetimes, unlock forgotten skills, and embrace the power she never knew she had.
script available on request
LOVE CUTS

short film
A seductive, enigmatic sirena (siren/mermaid) settles down to fairytale-like domesticity in a modern world. But can she survive the most treacherous thing of all: a lover’s spat?
script available on request
HUNGRY GHOSTS

short film
Eccentric Lola Rita’s house-for-sale is currently haunted by a mischievous ghost, and it’s up to her no-nonsense grandson Rocco to help her get rid of it before it runs off the next prospective buyer.
script available on request
image courtesy of Vogue
THE POND

short film
A Chinese-American woman dreams of belonging and celebration when she attempts to fulfill a lifelong wish to swim the women’s pond at Hampstead Heath, only to be forced headlong into surreal waters of exclusion and minor feelings.
TAHO / DOUHUA

short film
Lola (of Project Lola) and the Mother (of The Pond) sit down for a lively and surreal conversation about their portrayal in the films over a feast of food shared by both of their cultures.
FORMER FAT KIDS CLUB [FFKC]

1 hour original TV pilot
On the brink of bankruptcy, a family-owned cafe recruits their volatile sister to bake pastries as a last-ditch effort to save the business. When weird things happen to their customers and the cafe gains notoriety, they discover the sister has the ability to impart her emotions to whoever eats her pastries.
DIASPORA

1 hour original TV pilot
Three best friends across timezones, all 1st generation immigrants, realize their parents’ old school American dreams have landed them in millenial mediocrity, and will abandon their own comfort zone -- a stable job, a solid relationship, a carefree lifestyle -- to make their wildest dreams come true.