I've written seven published novels - four mysteries and three thrillers. I've also written for TV - Law and Order, House, Pretty Little Liars, Supernatural, and other shows. In addition, I've written several produced and published stage plays and a movie. I've taught writing at UCLA Extension for twenty years, and people tend to enjoy hearing my experience, advice, and hopefully wisdom.

People will also enjoy hearing about my speculative thriller 51% that comes out on April 28, 2026; it presents an intriguing view of the future. Here's a synopsis:

In a future where corporations own everything—including people—one murder could ignite a revolution.

Twenty years from now, the United States is completely privatized. The Big Six syndicates own schools, roads, police departments… even human beings.

When a young immigrant woman—51% owned by the syndicates—is brutally murdered, NYPD, Inc. detective Juke O'Keefe and his partner, crime marketing consultant Haylee Navarro, catch the case. Pregnant and broke, Haylee knows they can't crowdfund enough from a dead immigrant to pay for basic forensics, let alone their paychecks. But Juke, with his old-school sense of justice, is determined to find the killer.

Their search for the truth leads them to Juke's ex, a Resistance leader on the syndicates' most wanted list. As the three join forces, they stumble onto a conspiracy designed to destroy the last shreds of American freedom. To rescue fifty-one percenters—and everyone else—from syndicate control, they'll have to defeat the Red Queen, the most ruthless, powerful AI in the world.

51% is a gritty, fast-paced thriller about power, justice, and what happens when everything—even people—can be owned.

Website, Facebook, (X), Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads

David Nevins, Producer, Executive CBS

NBC, Television Network

Charlie Craig, Matt's writing partner

Dick Wolf, Producer, Writer

William Goldman, Screenwriter, novelist, non-fiction writer

Toronto Anti-Capitalist Book Fair

PodMatch, a dating service for podcasters

Jimmy Vines, Literary Agent

Bill Crider, Author

William F. Fitzhugh, Author

Don Winslow, Author

Stacy Willingham, Author

Jennifer Hillier, Author

The Space Between Time, Lucinda Sage-Midgorden

Penguin, Carroll & Graf. Dell Publishers

Rex Stout, Author

Nathan Cody graduated in 2023 with a B.S. in Digital Film. He is currently living in Savannah as an up-and-coming filmmaker working on his craft, specializing in screenwriting and directing his own films. Nathan is a firm believer in the transformative power of storytelling; he loves how a well-crafted film can deeply impact an audience, sparking new perspectives or providing a much-needed emotional connection. His favorite films include anything from Pixar, Good Will Hunting, and Jaws.

LinkedIn, YouTube

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet, Bradley Whitford, Steven Webber

Eli Wallach, Actor

Charlie Chaplin, Writer, Actor, Director of Classic Films

City Lights, The Kid, The Great Dictator

TCM (Turner Classic Movies)

MGM+ on Amazon

Tubi, Pluto, Max

Samuel Garza Bernstein's life and writing reflect the wild intersections of modern life. He was born to an undocumented Mexican mother who everyone assumed was a white Texan, and a Jewish father who passionately supported the Palestinian cause in Egypt, where the family lived for a year when he was a kid. "I was six-years old in Cairo," Garza Bernstein says, "Surrounded by hot Egyptians, spinning fantasies and inventing myself." The family traveled all over the world—occasionally on the lam—and lived in Cairo, Honolulu, Austin, Phoenix, New York, Los Angeles, and Ft. Collins, Colorado.

His newest book Roddy McDowall: An Actor's Life has drawn raves from Carol Burnett, Julie Andrews, and Emma Thompson, among many others, and is in bookstores now. He is gearing up for the fourth season of 6-time Emmy Award-winning After Forever, after serving as co-showrunner and co-executive producer of the third season, now streaming on Amazon. His 2025 book, Cesar Romero: The Joker Is Wild, is a Foreword Magazine award-winner for Biography, and his non-fiction anthology Uncommon Heroes won a Stonewall Book Award from the American Library Association. His pilot for The Secret World of Danny Lopez was named a Writers Guild of America television comedy access project honoree but was also a drama winner at the New York Film Awards and a Content London International Drama Summit nominee for Best Pilot Script. He is also a well-regarded story consultant, working with clients in the United States, the U.K., and Europe.

He won Best Screenplay at the London Independent Film Awards for Elephant & Castle and a G.L.A.A.D. nomination for the Showtime film Bobbie's Girl, which also garnered its star Bernadette Peters an Emmy nomination. Episodic credits range from the CBS drama Judging Amy to Nickelodeon's Shimmer and Shine. With composer David Snyder he first adapted his non-fiction book Mr. Confidential as a stage musical, developing it at the New York Musical Theatre Festival, and then directing its world premiere at Actors Theatre of Indiana.

Garza Bernstein started his career as an actor and singer, most notably performing in several productions of Evita as Eva's first conquest, the tango singer "Magaldi." He also served as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for trans foster children in Los Angeles County for five years, created and co-chaired a writing mentorship program for public high school students for twelve years, and served as a youth facilitator for the Los Angeles LGBT Center for eight years. He and husband Ronald Shore have been together for over thirty years and split their time between LA and Porto, Portugal. They are currently the hostages of a pair of incorrigible dachshunds.

PRESS FOR RODDY McDOWALL: AN ACTOR'S LIFE:

Ann Pryor, Kensington Books (212) 407.1526 APryor@kensingtonbooks.com

Samuelgarzabernstein.com

samuel@samuelgarzabernstein.com

IMDb page

TCM