Hi. I’m Laramie.

I’m a writer/director intent on deploying sly humor, deft subtext, and “a knack for lively, naturalistic dialogue” in my exploration of complex women and other underrepresented characters.

I recently completed WHERE IN THE HELL, an arthouse buddy comedy about a pair of defectors from the crumbling LA film industry who find themselves on an unlikely road trip. This marks my feature film debut.

Where in the Hell premiered at the St. Louis International Film Festival in November 2024. Since then we’ve played nine more festivals, and scooped up awards including Best Comedy Feature (Poppy Jasper), Best Screenplay and Best Narrative Feature (Queens World), and the She’s On Fire Award (Female Filmmakers Festival Berlin).

The critics proclaim “Dennis has done a masterful job,” “Where in the Hell is a gem of a film,” and “Laramie Dennis takes that classic idea of the road trip movie, shakes it up in a paper bag, and tosses it out the window.”

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In fall 2025, I was an artist in residence at Ucross.

GIRL PRETENDING TO READ RILKE, my adaptation of the offbeat coming-of-age novel by my mother, Barbara Riddle, was a finalist for Script Pipeline’s Screenwriting Contest, the 2025 Athena List, and the Alfred P. Sloan Athena List Development Grant.

LIFE ON sMARS, inspired by a controversial, real-life NASA experiment, earned me a spot at THROUGH HER LENS: The Tribeca Chanel Women’s Filmmaker Program, along with a development grant from The Tribeca Film Institute. I also made finalist for the TFI Sloan Filmmaker Fund, the SFFILM Sloan Fellowship, and the Women in Film Production Program.

I’ve built a supporting career as a script supervisor on features and scripted TV; I’m a member of IATSE Local 871. For eight seasons I was a casting director for the Emmy Award-winning Project Runway.

I have an MFA in Film & Television Production from USC. My thesis film, ALL AGES, a punk/funk homage to the John Hughes movies I watched over and over as a teenager, was shot on Super 16 with the help of grants from Panavision and Kodak, and premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival. I made GREASY HEART, another short, as a proof of concept for a biopic about Grace Slick that never saw the light.

As an undergrad at Wesleyan University, I majored in English and theater. I spent a decade in New York directing and developing Off-Off-Broadway plays, most notably at Jim Simpson and Sigourney Weaver’s Flea Theater, where I was a resident director, and at “the downtown powerhouse” Soho Rep. I co-founded and chaired, for six seasons, the Soho Rep Writer Director Lab.

Once a month, I send out The Laramie Report, an email newsletter with stuff about me and my creative projects, yes, but also recommends for tacos! lots of tacos (see map), women-driven movies, TV, and books, and the occasional link to an excellent pair of pants. My readers rave “I love love love this… My favorite thing on the interweb,” and “better than the NY Times.” Sign up below!