Sam Dunnewold

Sam Dunnewold is a writer of goofy and dark comedy from small-town Minnesota. Sam has no colon, having had it surgically removed due to Crohn’s disease. His gastroenterologist at the world-renowned Mayo Clinic called his colon “the worst colon I’ve ever seen.”

His work is often high-concept, usually dark, and always nerdy. He writes about nostalgia, emotional repression, and arrogant people who try their absolute best but fail terribly. He was a finalist for the Austin Television Festival’s pitch contest with his script The Dumps, and is a Inevitable Foundation Spring 2022 Screenwriting Fellow.

Sam began a career in digital media editing videos and podcasts, working at The Onion (2016 Election Special, A Very Fatal Murder) where he also helped unionize the company. After leaving The Onion, Sam has continued cutting fiction podcasts for companies like Team Coco (Self Center) and Funny or Die (The Last Degree of Kevin Bacon).

Sam is also a huge nerd. He’s played Magic cards for over 25 years and runs two weekly Dungeons & Dragons games (though personally finds D&D a bit dull, and games like Scum & Villainy or Thirsty Sword Lesbians to be more fun). He received his film degree from Carleton College and has written nearly a dozen short films which have played at midwestern festivals. 

In the future Sam wants to be a showrunner, not just because he loves storytelling in teams and wants to lead them, but to change how those teams are run. He believes this industry has a bad habit of overworking sets and writing rooms past the point where you can get good work out of people, and he wants to change that. He is represented by Brandon Stein at Brillstein Entertainment Partners.