About Me

I didn’t know I was a writer until I was almost thirty years old.

I began my career in the theater, first as a teen actor, then as Artistic Director of the undergraduate theater company at Cornell University, then as a grad student at the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University. At 24, I moved to NY and co-founded a theater company. At 26, I directed an independent feature film. I thought I had arrived.

And then it all fell apart. Actually, I fell apart, and when I got put back together on the other side, I began to write.

Before I knew it, I was accepted into the Warner Bros Writers Workshop in LA. Far from home and out of my element, I did my best imitation of a Hollywood writer. I assisted several executive producers, wrote a lot of spec scripts, and had a few projects in development, I was a semi-finalist in the Chesterfield and Nicholls Fellowships. I was the classic struggling writer in LA—learning my craft, drinking a lot of coffee at Insomnia Cafe, and trying to write like Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez.

Then my life fell apart. Again. (Let me tell you, this falling apart thing is overrated.) So I escaped to Tokyo, Japan. You know, like people do.

Lost and alone in a Shibuya Starbucks, I wrote a little essay about myself and my experience. No studios and no agents were involved. That essay became a column called Hollywood Letters that ran in Tokyo for two years. I think it was read by three people, but it was the beginning of everything.

Because when I returned to LA, my voice had changed. I got more vulnerable in my writing and my life. Suddenly I had a New York publishing agent, and I wrote a memoir called Hungry. I’d come to Hollywood to be a star, and ended up an east coast author. Who knew?

Ten books followed—contemporary realistic YA novels inspired by my heavy childhood, then a breakthrough called Boy Nobody, a thriller which ultimately became The Unknown Assassin Trilogy. It was action-packed, but the themes were similar. Hurt kids trying to find a safe place to call home.

My newest book is a YA rom/com, The Donut Prince of New York, that returns to my themes of finding your way as a large kid in a small world.

As the world evolved and technology became more intertwined with the creative process, I found myself intrigued by the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in storytelling. So I dove into research and exploration and I wrote The AI Revolution for Writers, a book to help the creative community understand the nuances of AI and its implications on writing. Today, I develop creative AI products and help writers and creative executives ethically integrate AI into their workflow.

That’s the real Allen Zadoff bio. The one you won’t see on the back cover of a book. Mostly because it won’t fit.

So if you’ve been struggling for a long time to find your creative voice and you’re still dreaming of a career in the arts, take heart. It’s possible. And if you’re a student just starting out, and you’re wondering if the creative life is for you—it might be. But be forewarned. It’s unlikely to be a straight line.

My story is one of continuing passion and persistence with a fair share of ups and downs. If there is one enduring image, it would be this: Allen Zadoff, sitting in front of a notebook or a laptop, writing a story—and having the time of his life.