EXTRA-OFFICIAL BIO
Rodrigo is a London-based Latinx Lebanese-German Sephardic-Jewish-Italian writer-director born in Brazil. He graduated Magma Cum Latte at Hardvard University with a thesis on the Subtextual Hero's Journey in Heron's Matting Calls.
He writes deeply disturbed characters who don't take themselves seriously and is particularly interested in the plight of the white-presenting-multiracial immigrant in a Brexit-rattled Britain.
As a director, his distinctive visual style can only be described as Glossy-Grunge and his signature shot is the close-up with feet.
me
(SIDE NOTE)
If you did not laugh at all at any of the above, I might not be the writer for you.
Now, on to the usual stuff:
WRITING ACCOLADES
Nominated for the Popcorn Award (Popcorn Group & BBC Writers) as TOP-20 new writing plays at Edinburgh Fringe 2024
Finalist (Top 16), Canneseries 2022
Semifinalist, Cinequest Screenwriting Competition 2023-2024
Semifinalist, Filmmatic TV Pilot Awards 2022
Quarterfinalist, The Script Lab - TSL Free Screenplay Contest 2024
Top 100 (Feature or TV Pilot), Table Read My Screenplay Competition Austin 2021
SCRIPTS
COUNT TO FIVE (solo play, comedy/drama)
written by Zamalisa Mdoda and Rodrigo Jorge
written by Zamalisa Mdoda and Rodrigo Jorge
Premiered at EdFringe 2024
Anger is a perfectly normal emotion, but when Rage, Anger’s bitchier sister, enters the chat, suddenly everyone becomes a Buddhist monk. Which raises the question: when is it reasonable to lose your sh*t?
In her somewhat-biographical Fringe debut, decorated writer-performer Zamalisa personifies her own memories (be them real, lyrical, or hyperbolic) to embark on an unhinged and laugh-packed exploration of the absurdities and rationales of her innermost rage. Through five characters and much delusion at hand, Zamalisa loses the plot with the flair and righteous, senseless indignant fury of an infant who lost their dummy.
[SCRIPT UPON REQUEST]
[SCRIPT UPON REQUEST]
Nominated for the Popcorn Award (Popcorn Group & BBC Writers) as TOP-20 new writing plays at EdFringe.
GLITTER BEACH (solo play, drama)
in development
[more details soon]
WORKING IT OUT (feature script, rom-com)
written by Sabrina Semidei
developed and script edited by Rodrigo Jorge
written by Sabrina Semidei
developed and script edited by Rodrigo Jorge
Optioned by Aston Productions & Troy TV
After being sacked from her unchallenging yet well-paying marketing job, a complacent 30-year-old embarks on a Herculean journey of 12 jobs in 12 months in the hopes of finding her dream career.
COCKLEBERRY BAY (pilot script, romantic drama)
Optioned by Can Can Productions
A sassy London orphan in her thirties disrupts a closed-off community in Devon when she mysteriously inherits both the local corner shop and, inadvertently, the secrets of the family that abandoned her as a baby.
STATELESS (graphic novel, sci-fi eco-mystery)
in partnership with renowned comics artist Andrew Griffith
An optimistic green-tech entrepreneur with world-saving delusions is dragged into a war over the spoils of the Climate Catastrophe, where he must confront the very company he founded — now led by his Machiavellian protégé.
VEGAN ZOMBIES (tv series, thriller-comedy)
A disillusioned journalist quits her job at BBC Newsnight to join a group of Vegan activists only to discover that her former boss is aiding Big Meat's plot to turn Vegans into flesh-eating Zombies (it's a comedy, I swear).
HARMONY (feature film, romcom sci-fi)
An affable rule-follower breaks the law and crosses dimensions to retrieve his soulmate who has been incorrectly relocated by the NeuroNet tasked with keeping the balance in the multiverse.
ANIMAMINDED (short film, 2009)
writer/director/animator
writer/director/animator
A day in the life of an imaginative 10 year-old boy, who in his mind can turn even the most boring aspects of his daily school routine into an adventure.
THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE (podcast/audio play, 2021)
writer/songwriter
writer/songwriter
Produced at London Film School
COW-PILOT (drama, micro-budget feature)
After ChatGPT disrupted her entire industry, a promising stand-up comedian must trick her estranged best friend (a software engineer) into enacting an unlikely plan to turn A.I. against itself.
JUXTAPOSED (anthology sci-fi drama, tv series)
A closed-book, hard-line detective is brought to assist a seemingly well-meaning psychologist in the interrogation of people who have been detained at the Juxtaposed Border Control in Calais, France, unaware that she is being used to triage new victims for a mysterious cult that has infiltrated the UK Border Agency.
THE PEBBLE (low fantasy, short film)
A deep dive into the history of British Sign Language to explore the roots of today’s lingering denial of sign-based education in the UK.
CHIPS AND VINEGAR (drama, short film)
In the months following the dissolution of the United Kingdom (a.k.a. The Break Up), an immigrant theatre actress is pressured to change her accent to comply with a newly implemented government program to “take back our language”.
TUNED OUT (fantasy drama, short film)
A meditation teacher skips forward in time whenever he goes into a deep meditative state and is forced to reevaluate how he deals with the conflicts in his life before he completely loses control and ends up in a future he no longer recognises.
THE DAY THAT ELON MUSK DIED (sci-fi drama, play)
In a strictly resource-controlled human colony on the Moon, a zealous obstetrician has to question her faith and circumvent the very rules she’s sworn by in order to become a mother.
EDUCATION
Master of Arts in Screenwriting — London Film School, UK
Visiting Graduate Student, Television Writing Intensive — Columbia University, NYC
Postbaccalaureate in Writing for Film and Television — FAAP, Brazil
Filmmaking Diploma — International Academy of Cinema, Brazil
INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE
Rodrigo's work as director and producer can be found at dreamatorium.uk.
His productions have been awarded grants from National Theatre Studio, Arts Council England and the Weiner Foundation (NYC), as well as the Utah Film Center’s Documentary Fiscal Sponsorship; and have been performed at The National Theatre Studio, Bush Theatre, EdFringe, Camden Fringe, Fringe NYC, Hollywood Fringe and Emerging Artists Theatre.
He directed and produced Clerc's Inferno: From page to Sign, which received several international accolades — including Best Short Documentary at the New York Short Film Festival in 2021.
He also directed the award-winning short animation Animaminded, the mini-documentary [Des]Dobrar, and produced Rosana van der Meer’s Old Lady and the Sea, a stop-motion short that premiered at the prestigious Anima Mundi International Film Festival.
