Draft:Christine Conradt

Christine Conradt (born October 7, 1973) is an American screenwriter, director, film producer and author. After lettering in academics in high school, she graduated from high school in Lincoln, Nebraska and was accepted to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles where she obtained a BFA in Screenwriting. She worked briefly in development and at other short-term jobs including multiple roles at a Los Angeles-based YMCA until she launched her career as a screenwriter.

Early in her career, Conradt wrote TV movies primarily for Lifetime Network, USA, and Showtime. Later on, she also began directing and producing.

In 2013, Conradt obtained a master’s degree in Criminal Justice from Boston University and went on to novelize three of her Lifetime movies into YA novels (Missing at 17, Pregnant at 17, and Murdered at 17) after securing a contract with HarperCollins. The books were released in 2018, one month apart, with Missing at 17’s release aligning with the release of the film.

The same year, Conradt was hired to write her first screenplay for Hallmark. Based on the success of that film, Conradt continued to write several romantic comedies and Christmas-themed movies for Hallmark and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, and in 2020 and 2021, produced and directed two additional romcoms. The Nature of Romance was shot on location in Oklahoma. The film initially premiered on UPtv. Their second film, Love, Game, Match, starring Dale Moss and Cristine Prosperi was shot in Louisiana and premiered on Pureflix.

Early Life and Education
Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Conradt moved frequently due to her father’s job as an insurance salesman, and her family lived in Omaha, Auburn, Columbus, and Fremont before eventually settling in Lincoln where she attended Lincoln East Jr./Sr. High School and lettered in academics.

Already interested in writing at a young age, she won the Nebraska Young Author’s Award in the fourth grade and placed third in the state-wide competition in the fifth grade. In junior high, her writing was published in a variety of magazines and poetry anthologies. In high school, she focused primarily on academics and took AP classes, making the Dean's List all four years before graduating Magna Cum Laude in 1992.

The following year, she moved to Los Angeles to study Screenwriting at the University of Southern California, the same school attended by acclaimed filmmakers George Lucas, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Robert Zemeckis, John Carpenter, Judd Apatow, John Singleton, Nahnatchka Kahn and Shonda Rhimes. There, she studied under successful screenwriters John Furia Jr. and Stanley Ralph Ross. She also interned at Paramount Pictures, received a partial academic scholarship, and was the recipient of the Fox 2000 Fellowship and Marguerite Roberts Screenwriting Award. She graduated with honors from USC in 1996.

In 2011, Conradt was accepted to graduate school at Boston University and earned her master’s degree in Criminal Justice in order to, in her own words, “be the best crime writer I could be.” There she took classes in white-collar crime, victimology, and juvenile delinquency. Her academic paper titled Theoretical Analysis of Online Auction Fraud: The Adrian Ghighina Case applied criminological theories including rational choice theory, routine activities theory, social learning theory, and differential reinforcement theory, to a case involving a cybercrime ring from Romania that was victimizing users of eBay and was published in volume 6 issue 1 of the International Journal of Cyber Criminology.

1990s
In high school, Conradt worked as a cashier at Long John Silver’s, Wilson’s Leather, and sold Cutco knives to earn extra money.

While at USC, Conradt worked at the YMCA as a lifeguard, swim instructor, and fitness instructor while also waiting tables at the popular Polynesian-themed The Warehouse restaurant in Marina del Rey. A few months after graduating, she left her job at The Warehouse and worked as an assistant in Facilities Management at Twentieth Century Fox lot. Wanting a more creative role, she left after one year and took a position as assistant to producer Clark Peterson at Image Organization, the now-defunct production and distribution company formed by Pierre David and Rene Malo. The company was subsequently sold and Conradt moved with Peterson to MDP Worldwide, owned by Mark Damon. After a brief stint, she left when she was offered a full-time position as Healthy Lifestyles Director at the YMCA. During this time, she was also hired to rewrite The Perfect Nanny a TV movie starring Bruce Boxleitner and Tracy Nelson.

2000s
A few years passed before Conradt was hired to write any more screenplays. Aside from providing script coverage part-time on weekends to a few production and distribution companies, Conradt continued to work at the YMCA and was subsequently promoted to Senior Program Director. She worked there until she was offered a full-time position as a writer/editor for EEC International, writing English foreign language books for children and adults in South Korea.

While at EEC International, Conradt was hired to rewrite several more TV movies for Lifetime Network and within two years, left EEC International to write screenplays full time including Summer’s Moon, a horror film starring Ashley Greene distributed by Lionsgate, Hotel California starring Tyson Beckford and Erik Palladino, and Accused at 17 starring Nicole Gale Anderson in which Conradt also served as Associate Producer.

In 2007, Christine wrote the screenplay for Hotel California which was an Official Selection at the 2008 of the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival and the 2008 Kansas International Film Festival even though the official theatrical release wasn't until 2010.

2010s
Conradt continued to write TV movies, most of which premiered on Lifetime Network. In 2015, she made her directorial debut on Flirting with Madness, a film starring Travis Hammer, Anne Winters, and Annalise Cochran which Conradt both wrote and directed for Lifetime.

In 2017, she directed Killer Mom for Lifetime, shot in Ottawa, Canada, and 12 Days of Giving, a holiday-themed romcom she also wrote and produced, starring David Blue and Ashley Jones which she convinced the executive producer to shoot in Fremont, Nebraska.

In 2018, Conradt wrote her first romcom for Hallmark titled Pearl in Paradise. The film shot in Fiji and starred Jill Wagner and Kristoffer Polaha.

The previous year, Conradt pitched the idea of turning some of the Lifetime movies she’d written into books to producers Pierre David and Tom Berry, who were amenable to the idea. Conradt wrote a spec manuscript for Missing at 17 and submitted it to literary agent Ken Sherman whom she met at a writer’s conference in Los Angeles where they had both signed on as speakers. Sherman partnered with literary agent Katie Shea Boutillier at the Donald Maas Agency in Brooklyn, New York, and secured a publishing deal with HarperCollins to publish three YA novels based on three movies: Missing at 17, Pregnant at 17, and Murdered at 17. All three books were released one month apart in 2018.

In 2018, her screenplay for the film Killer Island was nominated for Best Original Feature Film Screenplay at the Madrid International Film Festival. That same year, Killer Island was also announced winner of Best Feature Film by the Fort Myers Beach Film Festival.

2020 - Present
By 2020, Conradt had amassed 67 produced writing credits and 19 credits as Co-Producer or Executive Producer. In 2020, she wrote two more Christmas romcoms for Hallmark titled On the 12th Date of Christmas and A Little Christmas Charm.

In 2021, she wrote As Luck Would Have It, filmed in Ireland and another Christmas TV movie titled Open By Christmas starring Alison Sweeney, both for Hallmark.

In 2019, she produced The Nature of Romance and Love, Game, Match, both of which were licensed to Reel One Entertainment. Conradt directed both films.

In 2023, Conradt directed her third movie for Lifetime Network, titled Rooming with Danger, which was filmed in Los Angeles. She was also tapped to write Tipline Murders: Dial 1 for Murder for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, which filmed in Vancouver in January the following year.

Personal Life
Conradt was born to Jerome and Mary Conradt. She has one younger sister, author and artist Jennifer D. James. In 2013, Conradt met her husband, David Baker, and the couple wed in 2018 in Discovery Bay, Jamaica.

Affiliations
Conradt is a member of the Alpha Phi Sigma (National Criminal Justice Honor Society) and the WGA.