The Department of English welcomes Atlanta Screenplay founder and screenwriter, Oreathia Smith for the 2023 Dabney Adams Hart Lecture entitled, “Finding Happiness in Horror: Why We Love Being Scared (Sometimes)”. Oreathia Smith is a screenwriter and screenwriting instructor. She graduated from Millsaps College with a BA in English. She received her MFA in Writing for the Screen and Television from the University of Southern California. While in graduate school, she worked as DeVon Franklin’s intern at Sony Pictures Studios. Through a chance encounter with then producer Tracy Oliver, Oreathia joined the writing team of Issa Rae’s hit web-comedy series The MisAdventures of an Awkward Black Girl. In 2016, she won the BlueCat Screenplay Writing Contest. In 2018, her dramedy screenplay The Battle of Midnight Pony-Glo made it to the semifinalist round of Austin Film Festival’s Enderby Division. In 2021, Oreathia launched Screenplay Heard, a narrative podcast. She is currently filming Auntie, a comedy web-series about an unemployed aunt who avoids adulting. In April, she will begin filming Oak County High, a comedy web-series about the real-life woes of teaching in a public high school. Oreathia is honored and grateful to have been selected as a lecturer for the Dabney Hart Lecture Series at Agnes Scott College. She is currently teaching the course Exploring Black Cinema at the college.