Sarah Jane Murray

Sarah Jane Murray is an Irish-born academic and EMMY-nominated and award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker who works in the United States. She is also known for applying story design principles to corporate and not-for-profit brand and impact strategy, and has won numerous creative awards for story-driven branded content and video-based impact campaigns, including bronze and silver TELLY awards, communicator awards of excellence, and the communicator award of distinction. She is a member of the WGA, West non fiction caucus.

Born in Ireland, she graduated from Auburn University with a BA in French and Philosophy, and studied at the École normale supérieure de lettres et sciences humaines in Lyon before getting her MA and PhD from Princeton University. Murray is also a graduate of the UCLA professional program in screenwriting, where she studied under Chairman Richard Walter. She is the author of From Plato to Lancelot: A Preface to Chretien de Troyes (Syracuse UP, 2008). and "Basics of Story Design" to be published in 2017. She teaches great texts and film making at Baylor University as an "Associate Professor of Great Texts and Creative Writing."

In recent years, Murray's research has focused on the art of storytelling and the importance of story in shaping culture. This led to her 2014 TEDx on insanely great storytelling in San Antonio and a second TEDx in Santa Cruz on storytelling ethics, entitled "Write and Wrong." Murray's interest in storytelling spans from the films and VR experiences of the 21st century all the way back to the origins. In 2011, she was awarded a major grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) to translate the Ovide moralisé, an important cultural story of the Middle Ages (first volume in press, expected publication Spring 2018). Murray is also the co-chair of the Working group on Film, Media & Storytelling for the Nexus Global Youth Summit and a member of Summit Series.