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Gabrielle Fulton Ponder is a produced playwright and indie filmmaker with television staff writer experience on the upcoming Paula Patton headlining soapy legal thriller Sacrifice, and the Will Packer produced OWN Network series, Ambitions.
Starring Jasmine Guy, Crystal Fox, Brandon Dirden, and Dick Gregory, Gabrielle’s directorial debut short film Ir/Reconcilable, which she also wrote and produced received an 18-month broadcast deal with HBO, was selected for the American Black Film Festival in New York City and the Atlanta Film Festival’s New Mavericks Showcase. She earned her stripes working in numerous capacities for entertainment outlets such as Warner Bros., Spike Lee’s 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, Cartoon Network, CBS News Productions, BET Networks, and Nickelodeon Animation Studios.
Gabrielle’s play Uprising had rolling world premiere productions in Atlanta, GA and Alexandria, VA. Her works have been produced, developed, or workshopped at the Alliance Theatre, The Lark Play Development Center, Chicago Dramatists, Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company, Out of Hand Theater, The Greenhouse Theatre Center, Horizon Theatre Company, MetroStage Theatre Company, Curious Theatre Company, the National New Play Network, the D.C. Women’s Voices Theatre Festival, Next Theatre Company, Atlanta Fringe Festival, The One Minute Play Festival, and the Emory University Center for Creativity & Arts. She was the 2011-2012 NNPN Playwright-in-Residence at Horizon Theatre Company and in 2014 was a winner of the Reiser Artists Lab at the Alliance Theatre.
Gabrielle also directed the documentary short If We So Choose, about the 1964 public accommodations protests to integrate The Varsity restaurant in Athens, GA. “Non-scripted” work includes The Center, a television pilot for an international singing competition show, and her Hip Hop Diaspora project, which was optioned by MTV Networks. Gabrielle is an Assistant Professor of Screenwriting at Kennesaw State University.
Gabrielle earned her BA in History-Sociology at Columbia University in the City of New York and her MFA in Writing for the Screen+Stage at Northwestern University. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild and the Writers Guild of America, East.