Olga: The Series Pilot Script

A quirky young woman embarks on a self-esteem journey as she navigates life with her Greek immigrant family, their popular root beer stand, and her closeted boyfriend in 1980s New Jersey.

  • Nikki Melissa Scamuffo
    Writer
  • Logan Anthony Milot
    Writer
    Wet Dreams, Rattlesnake, Philadelphia My Love
  • Project Type:
    Television Script
  • Genres:
    comedy, campy, nostalgic, dramedy, heartwarming, true story, dreamy, immigrant, lgbt, women, women's stories, lgbt history, period piece, 1980s, greek
  • Number of Pages:
    39
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • First-time Screenwriter:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Fall 2024 ScreenCraft Film Fund Quarterfinalists
    Los Angeles, CA
    July 17, 2024
    Quarterfinalist
  • Gothamite Monthly Film Awards
    New York, NY
    January 1, 2025
    Best TV Pilot Script of the Month
  • Spring 2025 ScreenCraft Film Fund Quarterfinalists
    Los Angeles, CA
    January 15, 2025
    Quarterfinalist
Writer Biography - Nikki Melissa Scamuffo, Logan Anthony Milot

Nikki Scamuffo is an actor, singer and creator based in New York City. She is from a big, fat, New York area, Greek/Italian immigrant family who, of course, values love, passion, fun, and using your voice and body to tell a story. Despite Nikki being the first of her family to take on the entertainment industry, it seems like the basic skills have been pre-programmed.

Nikki is a vivacious artist who can't help but be cute and kooky. She received a BA in Musical Theatre with minors in Business & Entertainment and Entrepreneurship from American University in Washington, DC, earning “The Harold and Sylvia Greenberg Theatre Scholarship Award” for theatre performance. She has performed in countless theatrical productions and is a proud member of AEA. Notable theatre credits include Lindsay in Godspell, Eva Temple in Orpheus Descending (Theatre On Main Street), Dean in The Pliant Girls, Grusha in The Government Inspector, Emma Goldman/Ensemble in Assassins (American University), Rosemary Pilkington in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, Velma Kelly in Chicago (The Wilton Playshop), and Sally Bowles in Cabaret (The Manor Club Theater). Nikki also regularly performs with award-winning off-Broadway composer Seth Bisen-Hersh in his weekly concert series at midtown’s Don’t Tell Mama.

Nikki is a Co-Founder of the production collective Written House Productions, where she produced/acted in films such as Wet Dreams, Rattlesnake: The Series Pilot, and Philadelphia, My Love (Annalise Woolford, Written House Productions). Nikki wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the TV Pilot proof-of-concept for a series entitled Olga (Written House Productions, From The Heart Productions). The film had its first screening in New York City on April 5th, 2025, and it was later nominated for Best Episodic in the Spring 2025 Big Apple Film Festival (BAFF). The script was a finalist in the BAFF Screenplay Contest.

Written House Productions also produces the annual Graceland Benefit Concert where Nikki is the primary director and producer. This concert is a fundraiser for Graceland Needy Child Care Shelter in Awutu-Bawjiase, Ghana. It takes place at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church on Manhattan's Upper West Side and features professional vocalists and instrumentalists, as well as interviews with the founder of Graceland Shelter and its affiliated pastors.

Additional film credits include Malka (Stacey Maltin, Besties Make Movies) where Nikki was a lead stand-in for Tovah Feldshuh and had an acting role.

Nikki has an extensive arts administration background and currently works for Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. She has also worked in production/administration for arts organizations such as Amas Musical Theatre and Music Theatre of Connecticut.

Outside of the entertainment industry, Nikki has many passions. She speaks English, Spanish, Italian, and is proficient in modern Greek. She loves to travel, she has been to four out of the seven continents. She is a proud bisexual woman and a passionate progressive who is always up-to-date on politics, her main interests being human and workers' rights. She's also a big animal lover, she has never met a dog she didn't like.

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Writer Statement

I’m writing Olga for the quirky little girls who had to clear the table while the men sat, the little girls who watched their mothers and grandmothers uphold old world traditions that they didn’t understand, and for the little girls who were told that their value comes from their bodies and how good of a wife they can be. This story is for girls who dream of doing more than their mothers, grandmothers, and great grandmothers got to do, even though they still feel a twinge of guilt while they do so. It’s about my mother and the love of her life, two star crossed lovers that had to learn who they were through one another. This story is also about my grandparents and the complicated relationship they had, stuck somewhere between the old and new worlds. Finally, this story is about me.
I grew up in a Greek and Italian immigrant family in a small town. None of my grandparents graduated high school, and three out of the four did not make it past second grade due to war, famine, and poverty. They moved to the New York area in the mid twentieth century to raise their children with more opportunities and resources. Then, I was able to reap those benefits. However, even though you can leave your homeland, you can never forget where you come from. My body was different, my nose and face were different, my hair and where I grew hair was different from my peers. In a small, all-American town, I always felt undesirable and strange. In my family circles, I still felt different, but for other reasons. Learning that you are queer in Orthodox and Catholic immigrant families will hardly leave you unscathed. I felt like I didn’t fill any niche perfectly, and I constantly craved external validation throughout my young womanhood.
Releasing the desire for external validation is at the core of Olga. I want to create a story that celebrates tradition and heritage, but also modernity. Many children of immigrants, especially women, are stuck in a bittersweet limbo between their two cultures. In this story, I want to show that you can choose from both experiences. You can be a modern woman, but still value the women who came before you. You can love who you are completely, you just need to decenter external expectations to do so.