About C.J.

As a storyteller, C.J. Arellano plays in the sandboxes of horror, comedy, and fantasy to explore - and satirize - our darkest impulses.

His short film Dry January won Best Horror Comedy at the HollyShorts Comedy Film Festival. His short Griffica won the Audience Award for Best Horror Short at Out on Film: Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ Festival. He also won Best Director at the Artists’ Forum Festival of the Moving Image and the Rising Star Award at the British Horror Film Festival. C.J. won grand prizes in the 43rd Asian-American International Film Festival’s Screenplay Competition, the New York International Screenplay Awards, and the Chicago International Film Festival’s Pitch at Industry Days competition.

C.J. has also written and directed commercial projects for big names such as McDonald’s, Chef Boyardee, Motorola, Bob Dylan’s whiskey brand Heaven’s Door, and The Second City.

C.J. believes in the power of a heightened story to reveal universal truths about how humans delude themselves and reckon with each other. He is fueled by hope, fun facts, spreadsheets, snarky idealism, ube ice cream, his trusty asthma inhaler, and an unquenchable desire to post stupid bullshit on Instagram stories.

Get in touch! cj@cjarellano.com