Taylor Gates (she/her)
Writer/Director
Born and raised in Indiana, Taylor Gates is a queer writer and filmmaker who loves crafting stories filled with complex female characters and pop culture references. In 2019, she made her debut as a writer/director in the OutSet Fellowship with a high school comedy short called ACADEMIC SUPER SQUAD, which premiered at Outfest later that year. The OutSet Fellowship also sparked her partnership with co-writer Sav Rodgers. Their co-written script, I LOVE YOU, MARGOT ROBBIE, was a finalist for the ScreenCraft Comedy Competition, accepted into the Outfest Screenwriting Lab, and selected for the 2022 GLAAD List. Another feature screenplay, a comedic coming-of-age murder mystery called BUMP, SET, KILL, was a quarter-finalist in Issa Rae and Paul Feig’s Teen Movie Contest. Her novel SUMMER AT CECE’S was a 2021 Pitch Wars selection. Her feature debut, a horror film called DRY SPELL, screened at several film festivals in 2025, including the Micheaux Film Festival, Cabin in the Woods Film Festival, Cinema Scares, and Toronto Indie Horror Festival. Gates currently works as a senior editor at Collider. UNBRIDLED is her theatre debut.
