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NOPE Breakdown: How to Watch a Movie Like a Screenwriter

Have you ever wanted to learn screenwriting structure? In continuing to honor Horror Noire, we're screening and breaking down Jordan Peele's NOPE. You'll learn 3-act structure and other writing tools.

Oreathia Smith received her BA in English Literature from Millsaps College (Jackson, MS) and her MFA in Writing for the Screen and Television from the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA). After graduating from USC, Oreathia was hired by Issa Rae to write on the hit web-series Mis-Adventures of an Awkward Black Girl. In 2016, Oreathia’s feature screenplay Mona. Richy. Robby. And Ray was the 2016 BlueCat Screenplay Contest Winner. In 2018, her screenplay The Battle of Midnight Pony Glow (a dramedy about a father trying to rescue his son in the midst of white supremacist trying to take over a small Southern town) advanced to the finalist round of Austin Film Festival-Enderby Division. In 2020, Oreathia produced her award-winning feature Mona... as a podcast. From 2023 to 2025, Oreathia taught screenwriting and the popular film studies course Exploring Black Horror Cinema.

In 2024, Oreathia launched the web-series Reel Teachers, a comedy sketch show based on her experiences as a public high school teacher. She also wrote and produced Teddy’s Service, a dramedy-short about a family attending the funeral of their beloved pet. 

Oreathia lives in Atlanta where she writes, produces, teaches, and braves riding the MARTA train at least once a week.

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