Janiya Cheyenne Burton

Janiya Cheyenne Burton is from South Jersey. Ever since Janiya was a kid, she’s always had a passion for creative writing and film. At home, she would make stop-motions with her toys, and at school, she would carry around her journal from class to class and write at any chance she could get.

When she was 15, she enrolled in a trade school so she could take the Entertainment Technology trade class. There, she learned a lot in both the entertainment and broadcasting side of film, from how to write her first script to working with a live broadcasting switcher. While keeping up with her classes, Janiya was still able to work on her creative writing in her school’s Teen Writing Guild club. In that club, she was able to write her short stories, along with the rest of the club members, in a collaborative book that was published every year.

Once her senior year rolled around, she felt herself stuck on what part of the entertainment industry she was going to pursue. A couple of days after University of the Arts flew on her radar, Janiya got a Pre-college Saturday class email. Curious about what the classes were like at UArts, she applied for the “Writing a TV Pilot” class. After she was accepted with a full scholarship, Janiya took the class and knew that screenwriting was for her. Two things she was wildly passionate about put together—that made sense to her.

In her first year at UArts, Janiya took on Honors classes, made the Dean’s List for both semesters and received the Crozier Prize Fund for Outstanding Achievement by a First-Year Student for Screenwriting.