WHO IS J. Anthony Roman?

Born In Puerto Rico, and then brought to New York City when he was months old, Anthony is the son of a Vietnam vet and a high school dropout. He spent his first 18 years in Ridgewood, Queens before migrating to Manhattan’s Upper West Side. As a single parent, Janthony's mom worked as a seamstress and maintenance worker in Manhattan, while Anthony became a latchkey kid and found a voice in theater.

By high school, Anthony was working in fast food and enrolled in youth theater companies, where he honed his ability to write. He cut class often to go to auditions, using his own written monologues as audition material. Directly after high school, Anthony skipped college and started his own theater company. He ran, wrote, and acted with the company for 5 years before they disbanded. Anthony would leave acting behind and focus solely on writing. As a playwright, three of his full-length plays were produced in New York City. Several of his one-act plays were staged mostly in New York, but also in Los Angeles and Bristol, England. Some of the companies and festivals that staged and workshopped Janthony’s work include The Hip Hop Theater Festival, Labyrinth Theater Company, and the Rebel Verses Theater Festival.  

To provide for himself, and fund his projects, Anthony kept day jobs which included educational theater artist, counter-terrorism supply salesman, marijuana delivery (way before it was the norm), bartender, retail, busboy, residential real estate assistant property manager, dog walker, and exterminator.

In 2016 he was accepted into Tisch's School of the Arts (Film and TV Program) and graduated with honors with a degree in writing and directing in 2019. Anthony interned for Martin Scorsese for a year and also was part of the first group of interns at Desus and Mero on Showtime. His intermediate short film, Scarfaced, was a finalist for NYU’s New Vision and Voices Festival 2018. It won Best Male Actor award for fellow CAT youth theater alumni, Victor Almanzar. Scarfaced was also accepted into the 2019 HBO New York Latino Film Festival, as well as the 2019 Dominican Film Festival in New York City, BLVD IV, The Latinx21 Festival, the Lift-Off Global Network Film Festival, and a Semi-Finalist in the 2019 Los Angeles CineFest. 

In November 2020, Evelyn Torres at the ICU was named a finalist in the 2nd Annual Ya Tu Sabes Monologue Slam, produced by Nosotros and sponsored by NBC. The 2nd Annual Ya Tu Sabes Monologue Slam streamed on Facebook Watch on December 9th, 2020.

In 2021, Anthony completed his thesis project, Burn, Baby, Burn which was the official selection of 20 film festivals!

2021 also saw Anthony become the editorial assistant on the film Killers of the Flower Moon, directed by Martin Scorsese. He would also become the personal assistant to Thelma Schoonmaker.

In July 2022, Anthony wrote and directed his next short, The Journey of Malcolm Miracle and Dave, produced by Josh Shull and his production company, Pentwater Productions, and Janthony’s production company, No Matinees Enterprises. The film premiered at the 2023 NY Latino Film Festival, sponsored by Warner. Next was the Katra Film Series, Fall 2023. Anthony won the Best Director prize at the International Puerto Rican Film Festival 2023 edition!

In September 2022, Anthony wrote and directed the short, Destiny, about a young girl confronting her father’s addiction issue. It is based on some of his childhood experiences and is his most personal film yet.

Anthony currently still works as Thelma Schoonmaker’s personal assistant, as he pursues a career as a writer and director for film and television. Anthony is also a published fiction writer.