Penelope Misceo 2025

Abstract

My thesis project is titled The Hollywood Cowgirl, and comes in the form of a feature-length screenplay and accompanying teaser/music video.

Los Angeles is at the heart of almost everything I write. This thesis project is a love letter to the city that raised me and the writing form that has always seemed to click for me.

This story is something of a feminist farce about celebrity culture, Hollywood, and the internet. Alana Adams is a tenacious B-List actress who just wrapped a western revival film. She is first dragged into the press over false nepotism allegations, and then again after punching a slimy pedestrian on Sunset Boulevard. As Alana method acts around town and is thrust even further into the public eye, she must navigate hedonistic parties, cutthroat PR agents, and the realization that her celebrity may not be all it seems. I like to think of it as Barbie meets Babylon meets Once Upon A Time in Hollywood.

The video teaser for The Hollywood Cowgirl is a little romp set to music, introducing some of Alana’s adventurous life, the story’s mood, and how I might imagine an adaptation of the script to look. I make use of poppy, saturated visuals and a punchy punk song: all characteristics I would love the full feature film to have.