We’re pleased to announce Jenny Taylor-Whitehorn as the winner of the 2024 Beacon Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Jenny Taylor-Whitehorn is an author and screenwriter who is still paying for her MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA, where she was awarded the James Pendleton Award, the Larry Thor Memorial Award, Oliver’s Prize, and was listed in the 2016 UCLA Screenwriter’s Showcase. Jenny has developed content with Sony Crackle, NBC Universal, and Dreamworks TV. She’s been a finalist in contests such as Screencraft Pilot Launch, Final Draft’s Big Break, and recently, her comedy feature, EVERY LITTLE THING I WISHED I SAID TO YOU, was a finalist at the 2021 Austin Film Festival and, is now being produced by Ian Bryce Productions. Her country music-inspired feature, THE LOW PLACE, is also being produced by Ian Bryce Productions with Kathryn Newton attached to star. Her fiction is represented by Olga Filina at Five Otter Literary in Toronto. She’s a sucker for inappropriate things people say in times of mourning, rom-com banter, and all the kissing parts.
The Beacon Award was established over fifteen years ago by writers in our community to honor a Lighthouse faculty member for teaching excellence, commitment to students, and dedication to the craft of writing. This annual celebration of an exemplary Lighthouse teacher is made all the more special by the fact that this is a community-driven award—the nominations, deliberations, and ultimate decisions are made by the community, not Lighthouse staff.
We’ll be officially celebrating Jenny at our Holiday Party on December 7, but in the meantime, we’ve solicited a few testimonials from her fans below. Congratulations, Jenny!
Testimonials
Jenny is the epitome of what a teacher should be. She is incredibly knowledgeable yet never makes anyone feel less-than or like they couldn’t achieve their goals.
She is quick to praise your successes and is fair, but kind, with her critiques. She is not afraid to tell you when something could be better but she does so in a way that makes you feel encouraged, not shamed. The feedback you get from Jenny is actionable. And she has gone above and beyond to provide me with resources and examples to answer my many questions.
The amount of material she has prepared for this class is outstanding. Her detail with every single student's piece of work is a marvel. She remembers not only your name, but the name of all your characters. She knows the stories you're working on in-depth and has read every single word of them.
Her lectures are tailored to the classes specific needs and everyone is welcome in Jenny's writers room.
I feel incredibly lucky to have stumbled into her class. With her encouragement and amazing teaching, maybe I'll have a career in this field after all.
—Savannah Mallory (Intermediate/Advanced Screenwriting Workshop)
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Over the years, I’ve taken multiple workshops with a variety of instructors through Lighthouse, but it wasn’t until I stumbled across Jenny that I thought I had finally found my teacher. I honestly can’t express enough how much I respect her as both an instructor and a human being.
I’ve never encountered a teacher so rooted in a genuine desire to not only help you grow into a better writer, but to see you succeed and achieve. It’s this desire that drives her to not only go the extra mile but travel light years to help you in any way she can. Sending paragraphs of thoughtful and well-analyzed notes at 4:30 in the morning? Patiently answering email after email full of questions? Tracking down hard-to-find scripts and resources outside of class? Stalking producers, managers, and working writers to join our workshops and provide valuable insight? All just par for the course for Jenny. Things that happen weekly if not daily. Her commitment is second to none.
I remember that I wrote her the night of our first workshop. I explained to her that I worked as a creative and was used to tough feedback—I had very thick skin—and asked her to please rip me to shreds to make me a better writer. Her response made me laugh. “Yeah, I’m not going to do that.” And she didn’t. But what she did do was make me a better writer. Kindly, patiently, generously, baby step by baby step, she helped me down the path. Whatever level of skill I have achieved, I owe that to her. And I know that I’m not alone in that experience.
—Kevin Elkmann (Intermediate/Advanced Screenwriting—Full Script)
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Jenny goes beyond the classroom to create a community of screenwriters and help us all network, which is so fundamental to success in the screenwriting industry and so hard to achieve on our own. Jenny has managed to foster not only a love for screenwriting in her students but also skills in it, not to mention helping to connect us to valuable resources to take our work to the right people. She attracts high caliber presenters to work with us, including nominees and producers. But she also brings herself and her heart to the table. At Lighthouse, she has arranged wonderful reading parties with excellent mulled wine and a sense of camaraderie that makes the writing process less stressful and keeps her students coming back for more. Without Jenny, I’m not sure if I would have finished my feature script. Her classes taught me what I need to know and her community building has brought me some great friends.
—Cristen Phipps (Screenwriting Staycation)
Curious what a class with Jenny Taylor-Whitehorn is like? Good news! She’s teaching a one-day class, The Dreaded Middle (And How to Get Through It), coming up in the winter session, plus running both the weekday and weekend sessions of Productivity Club. Click each link to learn more!
