Screenwriter uses real-life events, trauma to create ‘self-deprecating comedic piece’ | Your Observer
Screenwriter uses real-life events, trauma to create ‘self-deprecating comedic piece’
Lakewood Ranch’s Amber Nelson, who goes by Avo Shirazee, co-wrote screenplay “Amberica” based on her own life that brought her an opportunity to get it produced as a table read.
- ByMadison Bierl
- | 5:00 a.m. August 19, 2026
- East County
- Neighbors
When Amber Nelson’s mother, Fizzeh Shirazee Nelson, was sick with cancer in 2024, Amber had no idea how bad it was.
When notified the cancer had metastasized, or spread throughout Fizzeh’s body, Amber hopped on a flight to soak in the last days with her mother. Fizzeh was in lots of pain and was tired of feeling it.
“I woke up and found her on the sofa in the morning and there were two fentanyl patches on her,” Amber Nelson said. “There’s supposed to be only one every three days, but she had put on another one in the middle of the night. She was asleep and she never woke up. That was it.”
Amber Nelson said her mother had given her a piece of a plant that had been alive since 1970. She is not the best at keeping plants alive, but she had kept it growing for two years. Unfortunately the plant got no water and too much sun while she was gone.
“When I came back and the plant was dead, it was just heartbreaking to me because the one thing my mom wanted me to do was keep a plant alive,” Nelson said. “Can’t you just do something right?”
Nelson, a screenwriter and actor living in Lakewood Ranch who goes by Avo Shirazee, took her real life experience and created the screenplay “Amberica.”
Nelson described the work as a “self-deprecating comedic piece” that revolves around a 40-some-year-old woman whose life is falling apart, with her finances in disarray. She’s always changing jobs and her mother passes away. The one thing that can save her is her inheritance, but it comes with strings attached.
“Amberica” won an International Screenwriters Association Table Read My Screenplay Cannes competition. Nelson and her co-writer, Mokotsi Rukundo, were able to attend the Cannes <a href="https://cinemamix360.com/2026/08/19/club-kid-the-surprise-hit-of-this-years-cannes-film-festival-now-has-a-trailer/” title=”Club Kid: The surprise hit of this year’s Cannes Film Festival now has a trailer”>Film Festival in May and participate in a produced table read of “Amberica” on June 28.
Nelson was nervous prior to the table read — she wasn’t eating, wasn’t sleeping and emotionally dysregulated beforehand. What if no one laughs?
They got plenty of laughs. Nelson said she felt very supported and was elated to have the recognition and support of all the people involved.
“As a creative, much of the time I don’t care about what the audience thinks about what I make because the act of doing it is what’s purposeful to me,” Nelson said. “When it comes to something like screenwriting, we want to see it on the screen and it takes a team.”
Rukundo said the table read was a beautiful way to watch the story unfold before it becomes an actual show.
“After reading the script hundreds of times there are comedic and emotional beats that can be missed till you see the talent and audience reacting to it,” Rukundo said. “It also helped us tighten the script and cut out or add anything that we felt served the story.”
Rukundo helped make “Amberica” the story it is today. It was initially titled “The Adventures of Amberica” which revolved around a journal that takes the audience through flashbacks of Amber’s childhood and college years.
Rukundo said the story should be about who Amber is today. He said the idea of identity is a hot topic in our country now.
“Are you a foreign, American, Muslim?” Rukundo said. “Amber is the perfect person that represents a lot of Americans right now that are like, ‘I’m both. I’m everything. I don’t know what to pick.’
Nelson is not a practicing Muslim, but her mother was. In Islamic tradition, people are buried within 24 hours of their death. In the case of Fizzeh, her body was washed, prayed over and buried within 13 hours.
“I capture this death and funeral in the screenplay, but in a comedic way,” Nelson said. “It’s a dramatic moment. Aunts, uncles and cousins were all there and everybody’s such a character. I made light of this situation.”
Nelson had begun writing “Amberica” prior to her mother’s death, but afterwards she was given some advice from the grave. She said she visited a psychic who told her that her mother said she needs to finish the piece by September 2024. Without that deadline, Nelson isn’t sure the story would have materialized the way it did.
“I had that permission, I had the deadline and I was proactive,” Nelson said. “It’s not something that you just snap your fingers and it happens. Some people think this stuff comes easy but it doesn’t.”
The idea for “Amberica” has been around for at least 20 years, as Nelson painted a self portrait with the title in 2005. It was used for the poster, along with the plant that died in real life.
“The hand is my mom orchestrating my life even after death,” Nelson said.
Nelson said she worked on “Amberica” for a good six months with Rukundo before it started winning awards. She is excited to ride the wave and see where it takes them.
Rukundo hadn’t seen a story like “Amberica” before, of someone who is in between two worlds deciding whether or not to be more Muslim or more American. Should she be more independent or dependent?
“These (questions) were just oozing out of the story,” Rukundo said. “It had all the components of something that I wanted to jump into. We started from scratch.”
In her heart, Nelson knows exposing her faults makes this piece authentic.
“My mother would be proud of me for acknowledging the reality of my life, which is not perfect, it’s very flawed,” Nelson said. “I’m always wanting to be a better person and always striving to be better, butI am also my own worst enemy, and I get in the way. That’s gonna happen until I die. Accepting myself is important in this game of life because if you don’t, you’ll just always be miserable.”
Nelson and Rukundo both hope “Amberica” gets picked up by any popular streaming service in order for it to become “a show that connects with the masses.”
Nelson said Netflix has reached out to read the script, so now it’s time to wait and see what happens.
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