Colette Phair
- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Colette Phair is a nonbinary writer, author, director, producer, video editor, and content creator.
Colette’s first published science fiction novel Nightmare in Silicon won the 2006 First Book Competition put on by Lidia Yuknavitch's publishing venture Chiasmus Press and was published by Chiasmus in 2007. Colette had already written a dystopian sci-fi novel Purgatory prior, which was self-published on Amazon Kindle years later, alongside her identity-themed story collection You Are Not What You Seem and a literary novel with sci-fi elements titled In Your Shadow. Colette’s prose and articles have been printed in Bitch Magazine, The Apocalypse Reader, Women's Studies Quarterly, Bare Bone, 3:AM, and more.
Colette became involved with video content creation and video editing in 2016 as a marketer and enjoyed the process of storytelling and narrative development through video editing itself. She was inspired to make her first short horror film Like Old Times with her highschool friend and her partner while living in an isolated rural area during the 2020 pandemic. This era also inspired her paranormal pandemic horror concept As One. Discovering the L.A. Collaboration Filmmakers Challenge in 2022, as part of the 2-week filmmaking challenge, Colette directed Way Out, a horror found footage microshort. She went on to write, produce, and direct both horror and other genres of film.
In 2025, Colette began experimenting with AI filmmaking tools when she was inspired by an idea for that year’s Collaboration Filmmakers Challenge but was outside of the L.A. area. My Choice was the result, a short film using AI visuals alongside human voiceover acting from a talented cast as well as human-made music and Colette's own writing. My Choice received Honorable Mention at the AI International Film Festival Japan in 2026, inspiring Colette to produce a second film in the same vein, called All Your Lives. As a science fiction author, Colette remains in the abyss between technology adoption and suspicion. In 2026, Colette wrote the feature script Lullaby, a live action script that shines a lens on the darker side of human-AI relationships and is based on true events.
Colette has worked in marketing and as a content writer and copy editor. Originally from a small town outside of Cleveland, Ohio, as a young adult Colette started a new life in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she graduated from the University of California Santa Cruz with a bachelor's in political science, worked for several nonprofit groups, and engaged in activist actions. She also earned her master's in market research and consumer behavior from the business school IE Madrid. Spending several years as a digital nomad in Europe, South America, and North America, and documenting parts of it in the YouTube series The Slow Travel Channel, Colette came to Los Angeles during the 2020s in search of creative community and a place for her visual storytelling to connect with new audiences.
Colette’s first published science fiction novel Nightmare in Silicon won the 2006 First Book Competition put on by Lidia Yuknavitch's publishing venture Chiasmus Press and was published by Chiasmus in 2007. Colette had already written a dystopian sci-fi novel Purgatory prior, which was self-published on Amazon Kindle years later, alongside her identity-themed story collection You Are Not What You Seem and a literary novel with sci-fi elements titled In Your Shadow. Colette’s prose and articles have been printed in Bitch Magazine, The Apocalypse Reader, Women's Studies Quarterly, Bare Bone, 3:AM, and more.
Colette became involved with video content creation and video editing in 2016 as a marketer and enjoyed the process of storytelling and narrative development through video editing itself. She was inspired to make her first short horror film Like Old Times with her highschool friend and her partner while living in an isolated rural area during the 2020 pandemic. This era also inspired her paranormal pandemic horror concept As One. Discovering the L.A. Collaboration Filmmakers Challenge in 2022, as part of the 2-week filmmaking challenge, Colette directed Way Out, a horror found footage microshort. She went on to write, produce, and direct both horror and other genres of film.
In 2025, Colette began experimenting with AI filmmaking tools when she was inspired by an idea for that year’s Collaboration Filmmakers Challenge but was outside of the L.A. area. My Choice was the result, a short film using AI visuals alongside human voiceover acting from a talented cast as well as human-made music and Colette's own writing. My Choice received Honorable Mention at the AI International Film Festival Japan in 2026, inspiring Colette to produce a second film in the same vein, called All Your Lives. As a science fiction author, Colette remains in the abyss between technology adoption and suspicion. In 2026, Colette wrote the feature script Lullaby, a live action script that shines a lens on the darker side of human-AI relationships and is based on true events.
Colette has worked in marketing and as a content writer and copy editor. Originally from a small town outside of Cleveland, Ohio, as a young adult Colette started a new life in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she graduated from the University of California Santa Cruz with a bachelor's in political science, worked for several nonprofit groups, and engaged in activist actions. She also earned her master's in market research and consumer behavior from the business school IE Madrid. Spending several years as a digital nomad in Europe, South America, and North America, and documenting parts of it in the YouTube series The Slow Travel Channel, Colette came to Los Angeles during the 2020s in search of creative community and a place for her visual storytelling to connect with new audiences.
