I am a storyteller, and writing is my craft. For the last several years, I’ve been on a journey to learn every way I can to use that craft to bring stories to life – to find the right medium for each story, and to create an incredible experience for my audience and my co-creators.

This journey has taken me from community theatres to university publications, from novel-writing challenges to podcasts, and from a kingdom of animals to a galaxy far, far away.

Thank you for coming here today and allowing me to share my journey with you! Please feel free to use the above menu to view samples of my work, or continue to scroll down this page to learn about my past and current creative endeavors! You can always return to this page or view my resume using the links in the header.

I honed my lifelong love of stories into a career at the University of Iowa, where I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, Creative Writing, and Psychology, with a minor in Theatre Arts. More recently, I earned a Master of Arts degree in Professional Creative Writing through the University of Denver.

Over the course of my education, I’ve published short stories and essays in university journals, served as playwright and stage manager for live productions, and crafted a creative honors thesis, a screenplay adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Wild Swans.”

After earning my bachelor’s degree, my journey brought me to Walt Disney World, where I had the incredible opportunity to bring the stories of my favorite Disney and Pixar characters to life as the Disney Live Entertainment Show Writer Intern. This experience introduced me to the wondrous world of themed entertainment.

At the end of my internship, I stayed in Orlando, operating an attraction at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. There, I continued to immerse myself in the themed entertainment industry, learning how to communicate with diverse audiences and discovering ways to share the story of both the real and science-fictional worlds around us through scenic details and themed interactions. As a facilitator of the Traditions, DAKlimation, and Passage to Pandora orientation courses and as a one-on-one on-the-job trainer, I shared my love for stories and the skills I had learned with my coworkers.

Even when writing was not my day job, I remained an active creative writer. Outlets for my passion for storytelling have included copywriting projects for multiple community organizations; a podcast called “I Love This Thing So Fricking Much;” weekly poems posted to Instagram and blog posts posted to Tumblr; and repeated participation in the National Novel Writing Month challenge.

My journey recently brought me aboard the Starcruiser Halcyon, as a show writer for Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser! During the creation of this two-day, two-night immersive experience, I developed and documented non-scripted scenes for every story track in the show. After the Halcyon opened its doors to the public, I created contingency scripts and additional documentation which will allow the production team to train new performers in the innovative immersive techniques used in this unprecedented performance.

Working with Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser opened my eyes to a whole new world of possibilities for bringing stories to life. Immersive experiences invite people to step into a story, not only to play together but to create genuine connections with each other. My whole life, I have believed in the power of stories to create those connections, and it’s truly wonderful to have seen it happen in real time.

I like to say that writing is a person put on paper. Every world I build, every character I create, and every plot I piece together has a little bit of me in it. Someone on the other side of the planet, someone I will never meet, could read one of my poems and think, “Hello, Sophie – I know you!” Likewise, every story I read, watch, or listen to introduces me to the inside of someone else’s mind and heart.

There is a kind of magical connection forged not only between reader and writer, but between any two or more people who share a story. Stories are how we learn, how we find joy, and how we bring the world together. I hope that while exploring my portfolio today, you will experience this magic for yourself.