Gustavo Barbur de Melo writes comedies about the upside of loss, a perspective shaped by a life that reads like a darkly comic screenplay. Growing up in Brazil with multi-millionaire parents who went bankrupt when he was a pre-teen, Gustavo's biggest fear shifted overnight from communist revolution to homelessness. A broken engagement at 17, followed by marriage and divorce by 24, taught him that struggle doesn't just build character, it builds better punchlines.

Armed with relentless optimism and an MFA in Writing for Screen & Television from USC (where he earned scholarships from both the George Lucas Family Foundation and the William Randolph Hearst Foundation), Gustavo has established himself as a versatile writer across multiple mediums. His feature screenplay Nice Girls Finish Eventually was optioned by Frank Freudberg Productions, while his pilot 1023 secured a writing agreement with Front Street Pictures.

Gustavo's work has earned recognition in prestigious competitions, including reaching the top 10 in Creative Screenwriting's TV Pilot Competition and advancing to the semifinals of Stage32's Comedy Feature Screenwriting Contest. As a quarterfinalist for The Academy Nicholl Fellowship, his writing demonstrates both commercial appeal and literary merit.

Beyond screenwriting, Gustavo's fiction has found homes in respected publications including The Bookends Review, Apricity Magazine, The Feminine Collective, and Kallisto Gaia Press. His stories blend humor with heartbreak, exploring themes of identity, relationships, and the absurdity of modern life.

When not writing, Gustavo serves as a judge for the Slamdance Screenplay Competition. Fluent in English and Portuguese with intermediate Spanish, he brings a multicultural perspective to his storytelling that resonates across borders.

Gustavo believes that the best stories come from the worst situations and he's gathered plenty of material along the way.