Biography

Xanthe Pajarillo is a director-writer, podcaster and Air Force veteran from Germany and Virginia. Molded by her upbringing in the Brothers Grimm hometown of Hanau, Xanthe's work manifests as psychological horror paired with heightened visuals and splashes of humor.

In 2021, Xanthe directed the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards hosted by David Dastmalchian with presenters Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Smith, Doug Jones, Keith David, Biqtch Puddin' and more. It aired on AMC Networks/Shudder. Recently, she was a semifinalist in Issa Rae and HBO's Project Greenlight and a Guest Judge for the 2022 South Pasadena Library's Scary Story Contest for children.

At the height of the pandemic, she directed Thrall, a found footage exorcism short that was filmed remotely with an all-female on set crew. It won Best Student Short Horror at Hot Springs International Horror Film Festival and was featured in American Cinematographer magazine in an article about remote production. In 2018, her team raised over 30K via Seed&Spark for production of the military horror rom-com, An Officer and an Airman, formerly titled Airmen. The concept received an Honorable Mention from the Tim Disney Prize for Excellence in the Storytelling Arts and was an Official Selection for Best Screenplay at Scream Queen Film Festival.

In addition to directing and screenwriting, she co-hosts the Kindergeist Podcast, a children's horror podcast, with her 14-year-old niece. It was featured at Ax Wound Film Festival and hailed as a "must-listen podcast" by Morbidly Beautiful. Xanthe also has bylines at Bloody Disgusting, Fangoria, Certified Forgotten and Ghouls Magazine, focusing on write-ups surrounding international, military and children's horror.

In fall 2023, she will embark to the University of Birmingham in the UK to pursue a PhD in the studies of Children's Horror and Children as Horror Filmmakers, where she will direct and produce a 1-hour documentary on the subject for her thesis. She holds an MFA from USC's School of Cinematic Arts, BFA from CalArts and is an intern alum of Fangoria, HBO, Will and Jada Smith's Overbrook Entertainment, and Michel Gondry's Partizan Entertainment.

In all of her creative outputs, Xanthe is driven to tell stories that aim to expand people's empathy towards one another.
- IMDb mini biography by: XP