About Barbara
Barbara J. Ross writes bold, high-concept mystery and sci-fi thrillers driven by powerful women — heroines who win with intelligence, strategy, and resilience, and who move the plot forward with purpose.
Strength sits at the core of how she builds story, character, and conflict. Her work blends intricate suspense and layered mystery with high-octane adventure, placing her protagonists at the intersection of history, power, and consequence. She often weaves real historical events into contemporary stories, so her thrillers feel grounded even when the danger is entirely modern.
Her newest screenplay, What the Body Holds, is a 2026 Catalina Film Festival Official Selection — a thriller set in a New York City boiling over as Yom Kippur approaches, from a story by Eric Newman. The Cleopatra Project, a 2025 Catalina Film Festival finalist, is in active development, and her spy thriller novel Pythos: The Abdication is represented by Judith A. Moose at Midwest Literary and Talent.
Barbara earned Best Writer and People’s Choice at the Austin Film Festival for #WHATNEXT, produced by Bash Productions and starring Marietta Melrose, and Best Screenplay at The International Writers Seminar for her sharp, culturally relevant script Miss Millennial.
She trained through the UCLA Writers Extension Program, under Pilar Alessandra, Robert McKee, and Donald Freed, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Technology, and is the founder of B Story Media. She regularly shares craft insights and industry perspective with fellow writers on LinkedIn and Instagram.
