Photographer: J. Bryan Barnes

Sean Paul Murphy was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. He graduated from Towson University with a major in Mass Communications and a minor in English, with a Concentration in Writing. After college he worked at Smith Burke & Azzam, a hot regional advertising agency, as a broadcast producer and occasional copywriter.

Sean left the agency to pursue work as a freelance film editor, cutting television commercials, rock videos and cable network shows. He also signed with the late Stu Robinson of Robinson Weintraub and Gross, later Paradigm, as a screenwriter. His early work brought him letters of praise from Academy-Award winners like Barry Levinson and the late Richard Zanuck.

Sean’s first produced film was an innovative mystery called “21 Eyes,” starring Academy Award winner Fisher Stevens (“The Cove”) and Rebecca Mader (“Lost.”) The film was released by Vanguard Cinema and has been called “sleek, stylish and cunning” and “a courageous, absorbing and unique piece of indie film making.”

Sean’s next produced film was the faith-based drama “Hidden Secrets,” starring John Schneider (“The Dukes of Hazard.”) Released by the Weinstein Company, the film was a Top 10 CBA seller and enjoyed limited theatrical release. The success of that film led to commissions to write more faith-based productions including “Holyman Undercover,” “Sarah’s Choice,” “Run On,” “The Encounter,” “Marriage Retreat,” “Brother White,” “The Encounter: Paradise Lost,” “Revelation Road: The Beginning of the End,” “Revelation Road: The Sea of Glass and Fire,” and the upcoming “Open My Eyes” and “Revelation Road 3.”

Sean might be best known for his award-winning work with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Counter Intelligence Division. His film “Betrayed” recently won an Emmy, and his controversial docudrama “Game of Pawns,” has been featured on network news shows and garnered him interviews with news outlets from NPR’s “All Things Considered” to the BBC.

Sean is also a winner of the prestigious $50,000 Kairos Prize for Spiritually Uplifting Screenplays in 2012. His original screenplay, “Desecrated,” was a semi-finalist in the Slamdance Horror Competition. His feature-length film “Sacred Ground: The Battle For Mount Auburn Cemetery” was recently voted Best Documentary at the Churches Making Movies Film Festival.   He has also written numerous award-winning short comedies.

Sean married the lovely Deborah Lynn Crum and has three stepdaughters and three grandchildren. He can be found playing guitar every Sunday morning in the praise and worship band at Stillmeadow Evangelical Free Church in Baltimore. Come out and see him some time!

Books by Sean Paul Murphy

Sean’s supernatural thriller Chapel Street follows the story of Rick Bakos, a man whose family is stalked by suicide. Rick turns to genealogy to better understand his self-destructive family, and gets drawn into a maelstrom of horror that brings him closer to his own demise. He must solve the mystery of what haunts Chapel Street before it’s too late. Chapel Street was released on July 3, grab your copy here!

Praise for Chapel Street
“Horror story, metaphysical mystery, romance — Chapel Street is a spine-tingling supernatural thriller mixing family history, religion, dark secrets and a demonic presence into a fantastical yarn. Sean Paul Murphy is a powerful storyteller with a compelling imagination. Warning! Don’t read this battle between good and evil late at night. It’s unputdownable.” – K.A. Hitchens, Author of The Girl at the End of the Road, The Key of All Unknown, and The Gardener’s Daughter.

“Chapel Street is a wonderfully written and frightening book. I see this easily transformed into a haunting movie or streaming series.” – John Molli, Producer of Anestesia and Cabin Fever (2016).

A story of first faith and first love and how the two became almost fatally intertwined. The Promise, or the Pros and Cons of Talking with God is Sean’s inspirational, coming-of-age tale of first faith and first love and how the two became almost fatally intertwined in his life. It is a poignant and insightful meditation on surviving in the gray area between God’s sovereignty and our individual free will.

Praise for The Promise
Book Review: THE PROMISE, OR THE PROS AND CONS OF TALKING WITH GOD by Sean Paul Murphy

Where to find Sean online:
Sean’s blog | IMDb | @seanpaulmurphy