Mixing Greek Mythology and Horror with Tim O’Leary
Tim O’Leary
In this profile series, Revry is highlighting authentic contributors to the LGBTQ media and entertainment community. We ask questions to find out who they are and where they are going in the future. The questions remain the same but the answers tell their unique story. It’s time to explore and celebrate true representation beyond the limits of Hollywood.
Tim O'Leary began his writing career as a New York playwright, and his works have premiered in the New York International Fringe Festival and Gay Fest NYC. While in New York, he taught playwriting at the Harvey Milk High School, a school designed as a haven for LGBT youth. He also trained in fight choreography and performance with the Vampire Cowboys, a theater company created by Qui Nguyen (RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON.)
Following a SAG-produced reading of his pilot WOLF ISLAND, Tim moved to Los Angeles. There he wrote and co-produced a pilot for the series AL MALONE, PRIVATE EYE, which starred Angela Lewis (SNOWFALL) and was directed by Q Allan Brocka (the EATING OUT series, BOY CULTURE.)
Tim is a graduate of the UCLA Professional Program in Television Writing, and was one of the co-creators of the comedy series MOMS ANONYMOUS (now on Amazon Prime) featuring the late, great 80s video vixen Tawny Kitaen.
When not writing or directing, he works as a fight coordinator for film and theater, and his fights have appeared in such films as DISCIPLE (by HUSTLING creator Sebastian La Cause) and THE ZOO (Denim Richards), as well as his own action-horror-comedy series, DEMONHUNTR.
Tim is the founder of the LGBTQIA TV Writers in LA, the only group for queer writers in Los Angeles. He is also the founder of Freaky Fighty Funny Films, a production company dedicated to queer genre projects.
What are you best known for?
Definitely DEMONHUNTR, my series currently on the festival circuit. It can best be described as a queer action horror erotic comedy, because I like to keep things simple and stay in one lane. It’s a loving homage to shows like BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and CHARMED, but very much set in the present day and boasting a diverse queer cast of characters.
Before this, I had a modest but loyal Internet following as a columnist for NewNowNext, which at the time was called AfterElton.
What is the first thing you wrote?
The first thing I wrote that was professionally produced was a play called THE WRATH OF APHRODITE. It’s a gay reimagining of Euripides’ Hippolytus, is set in ancient Greece, and is actually part of a play cycle I’ve written. It went up in 2008 as part of a theater festival in New York, and had a pretty good response from the crowds that came to see it. Following that experience I knew writing was what I wanted to fully commit my life to.
It also introduced me to my good friend and writing mentor Martin Casella (who directed the show), led to me co-teaching playwriting with Martin at the Harvey Milk High School for two years, and when I workshopped the next play in that cycle I met Robert Rice, a talented young actor whom I would go on to marry and move to Los Angeles with. So I have a lot of fond memories of that play!
What are you working on that no one knows about yet?
I’m always working on new scripts, and right now am prepping a horror feature about a gay man who places a curse on his ex-boyfriend. I’ve also begun a series of micro-short horror films loosely based on Greek mythology (I’m a big mythology nerd.) These are zero-budget shorts that I write, direct, shoot, edit, and sound design myself, basically to see how far I can push myself as a filmmaker. You can see the first in the series, Hylas.