By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Growing up in Hays, Scotty Mullen dreamed of being a writer.

When he was in second-grade at Lincoln Elementary School, his teacher, Mrs. White, gave the class a manila envelope and asked them to write a story each week and place it in the envelope.

On Friday, the students read one of their stories aloud. He included cameos for his friends, and he loved making everyone laugh.

Mullen said it was good training for his last job, writing and casting the Syfy Channel’s “Sharknado 5: Global Swarming,” which premiered on cable earlier this month.

Mullen was born and raised in Hays and graduated from Hays High School in the 1990s. He spent his summers at Hays Public Library reading, writing and dreaming. He said it was hard growing up in Hays for a kid like himself who couldn’t throw a football, but drama, art and music programs through the Hays Arts Council, Fort Hays State University and the school system helped him keep his dream alive.

One thing eluded him, though. Every year, he entered the Hays Arts Council Creative Writing Contest — and each year he lost.

Mullen tried college at FHSU and KU, but couldn’t quite find his niche. He tried studying journalism, social work and education, but nothing stuck.

Some friends from Georgia finally convinced him to try Georgia State University, where he got a gig on the college’s TV station interviewing celebrities who came to town.

Before that time, he never knew anyone who was making money writing screenplays. It gave him hope.

Mullen got his start in L.A. working as a publicist organizing outlandish publicity stunts. One included casting 1,000 women to play living Barbie dolls across the country, including one who appeared in Hays.

Even with some success in L.A., Mullen said he was unsure if he would ever make it as a writer.

“I had a lot of doubt. I had a lot of doubt on myself, because it still seemed to be something for somebody else. It seemed such an impossible mountain to climb, and I didn’t know a lot people who had done it.”

He said he was going to studios as a publicist, but he said he felt as if he was cheating himself.

“Even though I was here on the lot, I was not on the side of the table that I wanted to be at. That was getting very depressing for me. It felt really inauthentic. I remember one day I totally stopped myself where I was walking. It was almost as if God grabbed me and stopped me and said, ‘Stop, you are going the wrong way.’ ”

Mullen connected with an old friend from Hays, Adrienne Kelly, who was working as a life coach in L.A. Together the two worked on a plan for Mullen to make his dream of being a writer come true.

“The first biggest step was that I had to admit to myself that I wanted to be a writer and also get over my negative thinking that it wasn’t possible. That took a good six months, but once I got out of my own way, that is when stuff started to happen.”

The connections he was making in Hollywood, led Mullen into casting. He worked as a casting associate on “Sharknado 3: Oh, Hell No.” and the SyFy channel’s “Z Nation,” a series about zombies.

Along the way, Mullen was getting calls to write jokes or short pieces of dialogue for the Sharknado franchise.

Although meeting stars as a casting director was fun, he said his dream was still to be a writer.

“Nothing is better than having a story in my head,” he said. “You get to watch it come to life. Working with a director to bring it to life is very addictive.”

In 2014, he got his first break as screenwriter. Director Glen Miller wanted a zombie movie, so Mullen paired a zombie with a sorority girl in “The Coed and the Zombie Stoner,” which he had to turn over in two weeks.

Casting and writing, Mullen has been able to work with many stars and some of his childhood idols. He met Jackie Collins during the filming of “Sharknado 3” and played her escort during filming.

Mullen fell in love with the movie “Xanadu” after seeing it at the Fox during a summer movie series, so he was thrilled when Olivia Newton-John and her daughter appeared in “Sharknado 5” for Newton-John’s first American movie appearance in 17 years.

“I used to have Bret Michaels on my Trapper Keeper, and then I am sitting with him at his house having a Coors Light talking about how he is going to fight a shark on his guitar,” he said. “That’s nuts. That was so fun. That was really, really fun.”

Mullen said he was surprised at how hard working and fun some of the celebrities he has worked with have been, including mogul Mark Cuban.

The Sharknado franchise has been fun to work on, and Mullen said that has drawn many celebrities to the films.

“I describe it as a Hollywood kegger,” he said. “It is just a fun crazy party that people really want to come to or not, and the people who do come to it have a great time.”

“Sharknado 5” filmed all around the world in London, Tokyo, Rome, Sidney, Bulgaria and little bit in the U.S. He spent 10 days in London filming with Clay Aiken, Geraldo Rivera and Tara Reid.

Mullen continues to write everyday and works to improve his skills. He is taking classes and reading script books as well as rereading Hamlet.

He is currently working on a World War II drama about the Flying Tigers plus some other possible projects in the wings.

However, he said he would not turn down an opportunity to write “Sharknado 6.”

“I love those sharks,” he said. “I would write them until the end of time. The sharks have been very good to me. They have been a lot of fun. I actually would like to write a script from the point of view of the sharks, because I think they are the innocent bystanders in this crazy phenomenon. I think people would get a kick out of that.”

You can watch reruns of Sharknado on the Syfy channel. The next showing on Syfy is Sunday, Aug. 27. Check local listings for exact times. “Sharknado 5: Global Swarming” will be available on DVD and VOD on Oct. 3.