Rylend Grant is a screenwriter, author, comic book creator, Soto Zen Buddhist monk, former professional poker player, and one-time American Ninja Warrior contestant from Detroit, MI.
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Education
Rylend graduated with high honors from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in film and art history and then earned his master's degree from the American Film Institute Conservatory.
Film/TV
Rylend worked briefly in development for Oliver Stone and Hal Hartley before embarking on a writing career of his own.
Rylend was twice a finalist for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting (2003 & 2004) and he won the Final Draft Big Break Competition in 2004. His scripts have twice appeared on Franklin Leonard's Black List (2005 & 2009), an annual list of Hollywood's best screenplays as voted by top studio and film executives. In 2009, Total Film called his script The Ghost and the Wolf one of the top 50 unproduced scripts in Hollywood.
Grant has been a working Guild screenwriter for over a decade, developing film and television projects with Ridley Scott, Howard Gordon, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Johnny Depp, John Woo, Adam Wingard, Dean Devlin, Luc Besson, and Penélope Cruz, among others. His newest endeavor, a collaboration with Academy Award winning director Fernando Trueba is set to begin production in 2017.
Rylend often writes with Dikran Ornekian.
Fiction
Rylend has published several short stories, many of which are being developed for film/TV. His latest effort, Thief Coach, was published by Mulholland Books and popcornfiction.com. The film rights were quickly sold to Fast & Furious director Justin Lin's Perfect Storm Entertainment in a competitive situation. Rylend recently finished writing the filmic adaptation for Lin to direct. His last science fiction story, Botany Bay, was set up with F. Gary Gray attached to direct in the wake of his Straight Outta Compton success. And his story Smugglers is being developed for television by Game of Thrones & Fargo director/producer Matt Shakman. His first full-length novel, Bobbi, is currently with agents.
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Comics
Rylend is a prolific comic book creator, writer, and editor. His latest title, a high octane political action thriller titled Aberrant, was just picked up for a ten issue run by Action Lab Comics.
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Poker
Before making a steady living as a writer, Rylend exclusively made his money playing poker online and in card rooms in and around Los Angeles, CA. He cashed in over a dozen high profile tournaments at the Bicycle and Commerce Casinos in the mid '00s, most notably winning the $200 buy-in No Limit Hold'em event at the California Poker Open and placing third at the $300 buy-in No Limit Hold'em event at the Heavenly Hold'em tournament. He's also won or cashed in hundreds of tournaments online.
Zen
Rylend is an ordained Soto Zen Buddhist monk in the lineage of Gudo Nishijima and Brad Warner and the President of Dogen Sangha Los Angeles, where he and a few others often lead classes in Warner's stead.
Grant was featured prominently in director Pirooz Kalayeh's documentary about Warner and Dogen Sangha Los Angeles titled Brad Warner's Hardcore Zen.
American Ninja Warrior
Rylend was a contestant on season 2 (2010) of the sports entertainment television series American Ninja Warrior, a spin-off of the Japanese television series Sasuke, in which competitors try to complete a series of obstacle courses of increasing difficulty. Grant breezed through the course, but ultimately failed to surmount the final and most difficult obstacle, the warped wall.
Categories
American Screenwriters, American Authors, American Comics Writers, Poker Players, Zen Buddhist Monks & Priests, Soto Zen Buddhists