ABOUT

Sonja Perryman-Vinal is an award-winning screenwriter and producer dedicated to telling female-driven, diverse stories that affirm our shared humanity. Raised between Los Angeles and Atlanta by a family with deep Southern roots, Sonja is drawn to stories that explore identity, culture, and community.

Sonja graduated with honors from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Drama and went on to perform in numerous critically acclaimed theater productions throughout the country. Drawn to community health and advocacy, she later worked as a health educator throughout South Los Angeles before earning her Master's in Public Health from UCLA.

After graduation, Sonja combined her passions for research and storytelling as Director of Research & Development at Wise Entertainment, where she oversaw numerous television projects and served as associate producer on Hulu's Emmy-nominated series East Los High.

She went on to write for Season Two of the Kerry Washington-produced Facebook Watch series Five Points and served as a story consultant on the Audible original podcast Loops. Sonja has since written on all three seasons of the hit Amazon Prime drama Cross, rising through the ranks to most recently serve as Executive Story Editor. She has also developed projects with BET Studios, Gabrielle Union's I'll Have Another Productions, and Entertainment One.

Inspired by her mother Sharon Bridgforth's award-winning play con flama, Sonja's debut feature script, The 84, earned Best Screenplay at the Urbanworld Film Festival and received top honors from ScreenCraft, WeScreenplay, and the Nantucket Film Festival's Tony Cox Screenplay Competition. Sonja is an alum of the Hedgebrook Screenwriters Lab and the Almanack Screenwriters Colony.

When not writing, Sonja can be found cooking her dad’s top-secret gumbo recipe, tending the garden with her husband, or chasing after her energetic toddler.