When Riley Wurtz was in middle school she did community service work at the nursing home Ashlar, now Masonicare at Newtown.Shady Pines pilotTo view some of Wurtz's work, view the

Ms Wurtz, a 2012 Newtown High School graduate, had a strong interest in filmmaking from a young age, even recording video skits of her younger brother, Chase, for fun. She had no idea, back then, that her work at the nursing home and interest in recording skits would someday come together and, she hopes, catapult her into a career in television.

Having gone on to graduate from New York University in 2016 with a 3.9 GPA from the Tisch School of the Arts and with a Bachelor of Arts in film and television, Ms Wurtz had her comedic pilot about a nursing home, Shady Pines, screened at this year's Hoboken (N.J.) International Film Festival (HIFF) in late May.

Shady Pines was among more than 1,500 submissions to this year's HIFF from all over the world, of which only ten percent were selected. The idea and script were developed and written by Ms Wurtz, who incorporated some of her experiences from volunteering at Ashlar into her skit. Once through the writing process, Ms Wurtz turned the production of the pilot over to the actors and producers.

"It was a very big team effort by everyone," said Ms Wurtz, whose pilot was directed by Daniel Sorochkin.

There was a process for Ms Wurtz's pilot to get this far. Shady Pines won the student pilot competition for original script at Tisch in 2015, and was then selected for production in 2016 where Ms Wurtz was the showrunner for the semester-long project.

Finalizing the script took a lot of work, and some sacrifice both in terms of time and with Ms Wurtz's original ideas.

"It's very hard to rewrite because you start losing scenes you really like, but they don't help the script move forward," Ms Wurtz said of generating the finished product.

Seeing her words come to life on the screen is one of the most rewarding parts of this endeavor for Ms Wurtz.

In addition to the Hoboken Festival, Shady Pines has been shown at The First Run Festival in New York City and New Hope Film Festival in Bucks County, Penn.

Ms Wurtz was part of two state championship teams - basketball and volleyball - during her senior year at Newtown High School. She also played lacrosse at NHS. She played baseball with the boys her first two years of high school.

She went on to become a four-year team member and senior captain of the basketball team at NYU and, in 2016, was the first student-athlete from the Film and Television Department to receive the NYU Student-Athlete Academic Award.

Depending on the pilot teaser's success on the internet, Ms Wurtz plans to post more examples of her work. Ultimately, she said, if they draw enough attention and catch the eye of a television show producer, the pilot could lead to something big for Ms Wurtz.

"My dream job would be to write for Saturday Night Live or have my own late-night TV show," Ms Wurtz said.

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