Barbara Nicolosi

Barbara Nicolosi (born February 20, 1964) is an American screenwriter, script consultant and university professor of cinema and Great Books.
Early life and education.
Nicolosi was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, to Anthony and Hilda Nicolosi. She is the second of four daughters. Her youngest sister is the professional opera singer Valerie Nicolosi. When Barbara was five years old, the family moved to Newport, Rhode Island, where her father took a job as the archivist for the Naval War College. Anthony Nicolosi would go on to found the Naval War College Museum. She has a B.A. from the Great Books program at The College of Saint Mary Magdalen, a Master's degree in Radio/TV/Film from Northwestern University and a PhD in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University in Bath, UK.
Career.
Barbara Nicolosi began her career in Hollywood as the Director of Project Development for Paulist Productions in Pacific Palisades. She was hired by producer Fr. Ellwood "Bud" Kieser and worked with him for two years. She has produced five plays at the award-winning Actors Co-op Theater in Hollywood. She has worked unofficially as a script consultant for scores of feature and television projects. Officially, she was a theological consultant on "Saving Grace" and for "The Passion of the Christ".
Nicolosi began her professional writing career as a media columnist for the Catholic monthly magazine "Liguorian". In 2004, she moved her column to the "National Catholic Register" newspaper and the on-line site CatholicExchange.com. She won Catholic Press Awards for her media columns in 2002 and 2004. One of her columns was selected for the 2006 Loyola Press release, "The Best Catholic Writing of 2005". She is the co-editor of the 2006 Baker Books release, "Behind the Screen: Hollywood Insiders on Faith and Culture". She co-authored the 2016 book "Notes to Screenwriters" for Michael Wiese Books.
Nicolosi has served as a judge or jurist on many cinema and arts panels. She was a grants panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, on the film jury for the Catholics in Media Awards, a judge for the Catholic Academy's Gabriel Awards, a reader for the Humanitas Prize for screenwriting, and served for nearly ten years on the Blue Ribbon Jury of the Angelus Awards, student film festival. She won several awards for her work including the Legatus Outstanding Laity Award, the Spirit Award of the Windrider Forum at Sundance, the Act One Servant Faculty Award, and special awards for her contributions to cinema studies from the Catholic University of Valencia, Spain, and Santa Croce University (Rome). 
Nicolosi has taught screenwriting or cinema studies as an adjunct professor in the Seaver Graduate School at Pepperdine University, and also in undergraduate programs at Azusa Pacific University and the Los Angeles Film Study Center. She has been a guest lecturer on art and cinema at many other institutions of higher learning including Notre Dame University (South Bend, Indiana); Gonzaga University (Spokane, Washington), Biola University (La Mirada, California), Ave Maria University (Naples, Florida), Santa Croce University (Rome), the Catholic University (Milan) and the Catholic University of Valencia (Spain). She was also a featured speaker at events hosted by the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, and for the Pontifical Council for Culture at the Vatican. In 2015, Nicolosi accepted a position at Azusa Pacific University as an Associate Professor in the newly formed Honors College. In 2019 she started a position as associate professor and coordinator of script and screenwriting programs at Regent University in Virginia.
Nicolosi is President of Catharsis: The Story Lab, a mentorship and out-sourced development program for visual storytellers. She was founder and Chair Emeritus of Act One, Inc., a Christian organization for training aspiring scriptwriters and producers starting out in Hollywood. She was also a founding partner in Origin Entertainment. She is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West. She co-wrote "Mary Mother of the Christ" with Benedict Fitzgerald. She wrote "Fatima", for Origin Entertainment.
Controversy.
In September of 2018, Nicolosi sent a letter to the board of trustees at Azusa Pacific University calling for the "immediate suspension of the recent changes to the APU Student Handbook which now permits homosexual romantic relationships" on campus, pending "an extended consideration of the nature of authentic Christian teaching in the area of sexuality." On September 28th, four days after receiving the letter, the APU Board of Trustees publicly announced their decision to restore the code of conduct to its previous state, (i.e. reinstating the "ban" on same-sex relationships on campus). Today the school once again allows same-sex relationships on campus but Nicolosi remains a controversial figure in the eyes of many LGBTQ advocacy groups.