Michael A. Matteo, Neighbor

Teacher, screenwriter, author and playwright, Michael Matteo, grew up in Brooklyn, NY and moved to Tampa, Florida in 1983.  His writing career began in 1985 when he won several awards for essays.  One of his earliest efforts in playwrighting was a psychological thriller titled: "Paths," which was a semifinalist in the Henrico theater playwrighting competition.  "Paths" was selected for Patchett Kaufman Entertainment's reading series in 1992.

From 1985-1994 Michael taught a variety of subjects (American history, world history, law studies, psychology, economics and philosophy) in both private and public high schools.

Michael wrote and self published his book, How To Survive The Public School System" in 1990, and a few years later was a contributing author of two books titled: Romance Recipes For the Soul (Pisces Press) and The Politically Incorrect Jokebook (Push Pull Press).

In 2002, German production companies (Almedia and Filmpool) optioned two of his comedy screenplays.  In 2005 Michael co-wrote the dramatic screenplay, "Descansos," that featured the talents of Charles Durning, Gary Busey and Tom Nowicki.

Michael has won several awards for writing and directing, including a third place award for a short film, Shalom, at the 2009 Tampa Jewish Film Festival.  His script, "Dialing," was a 2008 semi-finalist Movie Script Contest, and a romantic comedy, "90 Days" won him a second place award for the Free Screenplay Contest sponsored by Cherub Productions.  His children's play: The Story of Y, was also published by Plays Magazine in 2010. 

In 2009 Michael did several works for hire including an animated script for EQUM Inc. as well as a teen comedy, 3 Times A Charm, for Daved Productions which is slated for production in June of 2010.  Currently Mike writes for the teen travel show: Passport to Explore and works as a freelancer for a variety of producers and media outlets.