Tessa van der Bijl

Tessa Milou van der Bijl is a screenwriter and playwright, born near Amsterdam and currently based along the canals of Utrecht, The Netherlands. After earning a degree in Writing for Performance from the University of the Arts Utrecht, she has written for audiences of all ages. Tessa loves creating accessible yet mind-expanding stories with heartfelt and often playful narratives. Her recent work includes writing the interactive For the Win, a choose your own adventure style web series. She also wrote the theater production Doe ’s lief (translation: Be Nice), based on a children’s book, and previously wrote Tot op de bodem (translation: To the Bottom of It). Both productions continue to tour. Additionally, she contributed to the youth web series Broodje Aap, in which every episode explores an urban legend that is either true or fake news. Tessa wrote and directed the theatrical stunt show Face First in a Pool of Elephant Shit for the Over het IJ Festival in Amsterdam, which received an honorable mention in the Dutch press as one of the festival's three most entertaining shows of the program. Passionate about fostering growth for both youth and emerging talent, Tessa teaches masterclasses in dramatic writing for teens and young adults. She is an active member of the Dutch guild Vers Film & TV and has organized industry events including Unproduced at the Dutch Film Festival (NFF), a staged reading for writers with unproduced scripts.