Devin Githara-Pipkin – 2026 Feature Screenplay Finalist
Monochrome
A biracial foster teen desperate to reunite with his mother falls under the influence of a charismatic history teacher whose secret movement reframes identity as power and demands a violent cost.
Devin Githara-Pipkin is a first-generation Kenyan-American screenwriter, originally born in Baltimore, Maryland. Raised by his mother, a Kenyan immigrant, and his older sister who taught him how to read and write, his early love of storytelling was shaped by intimate family dynamics.
As children, Devin and his sister would craft stories together, often dreaming about the future while watching The Prince of Egypt and contemplating their destinies. In 2018, Devin’s sister Mary tragically passed away at just 24 years old, one week before his 20th birthday. Her loss had a profound impact on him and deepened his commitment to honoring her memory through storytelling. That same year, he discovered screenwriting as a way to process grief, celebrate life, and explore the complexity of human identity, especially through the lens of being both Kenyan and Black American.
Monochrome was born from that in-between space.
Growing up Kenyan in America meant constantly negotiating identity—being Black but not always understood as Black in the same way, being African yet shaped by American culture, belonging everywhere and nowhere at once. The title reflects that tension: the pressure to flatten complex identities into something singular, legible, and acceptable.
Monochrome explores the emotional reality of the Black diaspora, including the quiet divisions that often exist between Black Americans and Africans despite shared history. That distance, sometimes cultural and internal, is the central question of the story. What does it mean to inherit a history you were not fully taught, and how do you claim an identity that others attempt to define for you?
In 2022, Devin earned a full scholarship to the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University, where he refined his voice and graduated in 2024 with a master’s degree in screenwriting. He is currently a mentee in the 2025 Blackboy Writes & Black Girl Writes Mentorship Initiative, a program designed to eliminate barriers to entry for pre-WGA Black writers. Alongside his creative work, he serves as a dementia coordinator at an assisted living facility in California while providing story services to production companies in Baltimore.
Devin’s short-term goal is to secure representation this year. His long-term dream is simple: to write feature films for the rest of his life and be able to sustain himself through that work. More than anything, he aims to ensure that the stories of those who came before him — and those yet to come — are told with honesty, care, and intention.
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