Rich Figel

Born in Japan, Rich Figel grew up in New Jersey where he began his writing career as an award-winning journalist. After graduating from Montclair State College, he moved to New York City. In Manhattan, he hung out at jazz clubs with famous musicians such as the late Jaco Pastorius (bass player for Weather Report and other well known recording artists) while working in the publishing business during the heavy partying, cocaine-fueled Go-Go '80s. Following his near-death experiences and accidents related to his drinking and drug use, Figel pulled a geographic and landed in Hawaii, where he tried his hand at real estate sales, then commodity options sales. On his first day of training as an options broker, the stock market crashed in what became known as Black Monday. A few months later he crashed, and at the behest of his wife, entered a 28-day program for his alcoholism. That led to his lifelong interest in the study of addictions and recovery. It also led to him writing his first feature movie screenplay -- a dark comedy/drama about rehab, which was later adapted into a TV pilot for a drama/comedy series called "Triggers." Since starting his second life as a screenwriter, Figel's scripts have won awards and placed in a number of highly-regarded screenwriting competitions, including the Academy Foundation Nicholl Fellowships (three different scripts have been Nicholl Quarter-Finalists); Top 10 Finalist in the Austin Film Festival; Top 10 Finalist, Industry Insider contest (Sheldon Turner round); and finalist in many other contests. He also won an American Film Institute scholarship to attend the AFI Television Writers Workshop program. Figel's scripts range from low budget horror to medium budget thrillers and big budget action comedies such as "Stunt Guys." Other scripts of his that have been optioned, but not produced yet, include "Stinky Feet and the Menehunes" (family adventure about the mythical little people of Hawaii) and "Pet Lab Freaks" (animation feature about a mad scientist/fashion designer who creates genetically-engineered pets for wealthy celebs). He is also developing a TV series called "Kahuna" which is about a clan of Hawaiian sorcerers who are trained in "lua" (native martial arts) and use their ancient knowledge of spells to cast deadly curses at the request of harmed individuals seeking revenge or justice. Figel resides in Kailua,Hawaii not far from where President Obama and his family spent their Christmas vacations while he was in office. He remains clean and sober to this day.