Nick "Rocket" Rodriguez // screenwriter
Nick Rodriguez grew up as the youngest child in a very loud Puerto Rican family from Staten Island -- the Florida Man of NYC boroughs. He spent much of his life between the diversity of the world’s greatest city and the “Blue Lives Matter” signs you now see in his neighborhood.
Nick’s mission is to make television more colorful. That means he tells stories about and for queer people of color, just like himself. He tells stories about people who become their own heroes, despite what others want or expect from them. Stories about people who don’t fit in -- and often in ways we can’t predict. His work explores characters who find their inner strength and use it to help the next generation.
Currently, Nick is a staff writer on the recently-announced MESSI AND THE GIANTS for Sony. Previously, he was a staff writer on JURASSIC WORLD: CHAOS THEORY for DreamWorks Animation/Netflix. (Nick wrote the Season 02 premiere that was screened for a panel at San Diego ComicCon 2024!) In all, he has written over 30 episodes of television for Disney, Nickelodeon, Netflix, and PBS. Nick is an alum of the FAME high school in NYC, and USC’s School of Cinematic Arts' screenwriting program -- where he co-created the university’s longest-running scripted TV show. Nick has been a Walt Disney Television Writing Program Finalist and a Universal Animation Writers Program semi-finalist. His work has made it to the second round of the WB Writers’ Workshop, the Austin Film Festival screenwriting competition, and the inaugural MACRO Episodic Lab.
Nick aims to be the hero he always needed growing up, and to give a sounding board to the voices that need it most. He will always do so in a way that’s respectful, intriguing… and really kicks ass.
He is repped for live-action and animation by Gotham Group and the Annette van Duren Agency.
Showrunner Javier Grillo-Marxuach gave Nick’s pilot, FIREBRAND, a shout out here: “I've read a lot of exorcist scripts for the #WGASolidarityChallenge, but Nick Rodriguez's spec pilot FIREBRAND is a real standout — formally daring, extremely inclusive diversity-wise, and creepy as all get out. Good work!”