text. visuals. sound.

Lynea Diaz-Hagan is a writer, director, performer, and multimedia storyteller drawn to stories about culture clash, outsiders, and the parts of human nature we would rather ignore. At twelve, she witnessed her mother—a state-appointed victim advocate—counsel the families of young women killed by the “Roadside Strangler,” and, in the wake of the murder trial, develop severe PTSD and paranoia. Years later, while freelancing for a criminology practice, Lynea wrote personal histories for clients facing sentencing and saw even more clearly how an ordinary life could slip off the rails. That sense of “there but for the grace of God go I” drives the tensions in her characters’ lives and the worlds they inhabit.

Lynea began her career working in general management for Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, including CHICAGO—THE MUSICAL, before serving as a story analyst and production associate for Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme. As a playwright and producer, she has led her own work from page to production. Her play THE EDUCATION OF ADDY JIMÉNEZ, produced in 2018 with a CA$H Theatre Grant from Theatre Bay Area, was a finalist in the ScreenCraft Stage Play Competition. The screen adaptation of the play is currently a finalist for the Sundance Collab Cultural Impact Residency. Her second play, THE PAYMASTER’S DREAM, was developed with a Literary Artist Grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission and supported by a production grant from the Zellerbach Family Foundation. Having produced several shorts earlier in her career, Lynea is making her film debut as a writer-director with WATERVILLE, a psychological horror shooting in the fall of 2026.

Lynea holds a BA in English from Yale, an MA in Music (Jazz Studies) from San Jose State , and an MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA, where her script THINK PRETTY won the Carl David Memorial Award and later placed as a Nicholl Quarterfinalist.