THOMAS RONCA is an Ojai-based screenwriter and actor. Raised in a Buddhist community, he imbues his work with themes of spirituality, death, and transformation. A child of divorce, one of his best friends from college also died from a fentanyl overdose. With these influences, he writes coming-of-age drama, mystery, and horror driven by young adult protagonists confronted by harrowing trauma. SOPHIE AND THE BLUEBIRD, his feature about an alienated teenager grieving the death of her brother, placed in the Academy Nicholl Fellowship, PAGE Awards, and Final Draft’s Big Break in 2024. His other work has appeared at film festivals in Los Angeles, Austin, Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Portland, Omaha, and Baja, Mexico. He can also be found acting across Zac Efron in multiple scenes in Peter Farrelly’s THE GREATEST BEER RUN EVER (2022) on Apple TV+.

Currently at Roadmap Writers, he also trained in the top acting schools of Los Angeles (Stella Adler, Lesly Kahn, Howard Fine, Anthony Meindl, and Villar-Hauser). He began acting at The Thacher School, and graduated from Wesleyan University with a dual degree in Government and Religious Studies.