Francisco Avilés Pino is a Mexican writer and producer based in Los Angeles, whose work spans journalism, film, and fine art, exploring how power, identity, and culture shape immigrant and Latino/a life in America. Their work has appeared in the Museum of Contemporary Art-LA, HarperCollins, NPR, Vogue, The Nation, and The Intercept.

 

Francisco previously taught creative writing and theatre as a lecturer at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. In addition, Francisco is developing a slate of Film and TV screenplays inspired by their family’s migration story and their nonfiction reporting. Several original and adapted IPs have been pitched to Netflix, Peacock and FX.

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A former Senior Fellow with UCLA’s Art and Global Health Center, their short film created through the fellowship continues to screen in juvenile halls across California as part of arts-based rehabilitation programming.

Francisco’s path to storytelling began through organizing.

 

Before turning to film and journalism, they spent five years as a Staff Community Organizer with the Orange County Congregation Community Organization (OCCCO), supporting local and statewide campaigns on immigration, housing, and education justice.

 

Their commitment to participatory storytelling and advocacy traces back to their own journey—having immigrated alone as a child to Los Angeles, where they learned English through bilingual theatre with the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts. They went on to perform on stages such as the Los Angeles Theatre and the Million Dollar Theatre, and more recently facilitated Theatre of the Oppressed workshops at the Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar with Bryonn Bain.

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Born in Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico, and raised between Los Angeles and Anaheim, Francisco’s work is guided by a lifelong curiosity about how creative forms can move culture and policy alike. Their practice bridges narrative film, documentary, theatre, poetry, and public scholarship — exploring how art and storytelling can shape social understanding and build collective power.

They are an alum of the Macondo Writers Workshop, the NALAC Leadership Institute, the Poetry Foundation’s Incubator Fellowship, the Disruptors Fellowship in Screenwriting by the Center for Cultural Power and Final Draft, and UCLA.

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