Following are the short bios of mid- to staff-level TV writers who are women and/or POC. Because of the influx of submissions, they are now broken into three documents. This one is comprised of WGAE women/POC writers based in the East, though willing to move West for work. Click here for WGAW women/POC writers willing to move East. Click here for “pre-WGA” diverse writers open to entry-level staffing or assistant-level work. Please contact all writers directly via their emails. This list is compiled and maintained by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen (@lisacullen); I am a WGAE Council member but this is not an official Guild effort.
WGAE
Robyn Adams (WGAE). I'm a female comedy writer who started out in sitcom writers rooms, wandered into Sci-Fi (Warehouse 13), and jumped head long into late night manifestations of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog for Colbert, Hulu (Election Watch), Conan and Night of Too Many Stars. What I'm saying is, I can write for absolutely any voice. I'm sups flex.
Nayna Agrawal (WGAE): Featured in Variety's "100 Writers to Watch" (2015), Nayna is a former NYC analyst, a former DC policy writer, a former SF international aid director, and a former touring dancer. Her plays have been staged and produced in numerous cities including: New York, Los Angeles, Seattle and Chicago. She is the recipient of an East West playwright scholarship and a Moving Arts Theater playwright fellowship. In 2017, Nayna was a semi-finalist or finalist with the O'Neill Conference, PlayPenn, Screenwriters Colony and Harold Clurman playwright-in-residence program. In 2018, Nayna was a semi-finalist with the WB TV Writers’ Program, a Sesame Street Writers Room fellow, a Notable Writer with the New York Television Festival and a Kenyon Conference full-scholarship recipient. She recently penned her first TV episode for an upcoming Netflix animated series and has been awarded a development deal with Sesame Street. She is currently a Disney ABC Program Fellow. Born in Florida, raised in Virginia, and originally from India, Nayna has studied five languages, visited 22 countries, and worked in four industries. She received her BS in Economics and English at the University of Virginia, and her MFA at Northwestern University. She suffers from Asian Girl Guilt Syndrome, Law&Order SVU rerun marathon binges (from which she has developed restless leg syndrome) and a tendency to misspell the word "syndrome."
Sharbari Ahmed (WGAE) was on the writing team for Season One of the TV Series, “Quantico” on ABC. Most recently she wrote the screen adaptation of Mitali Perkin’s YA novel Rickshaw Girl. Her play Raisins Not Virgins was produced by the Workshop Theater Company and has been performed worldwide. It will be staged once again as part of New York Theater Workshop’s Next Door 2020 season. The screenplay version was part of the Tribeca All Access program at the Tribeca Film Festival. Sharbari’s debut novel, Dust Under Her Feet, is forthcoming in August, 2019 by Amazon India/Westland Publishing. Her short story collection book The Ocean of Mrs. Nagai: Stories was released in November 2013 by Daily Star Books. Her short fiction has appeared in The Gettysburg Review, The Asian Pacific American Journal, Catamaran, Caravan Magazine, Inroads, Wasafiri, Painted Bride Quarterly and Roanoke Review. She is a 2018 Storyknife Fellow and a Tribeca All Access Fellow. She is on the faculty of the MFA program at Manhattanville College and Artist in Residence in the Film and Television MA Program at Sacred Heart University. In 2018, she gave a TEDx talk about grappling with her Muslim identity, entitled, “Between the Kabaah Sharif and a Hard Place.” She was born in Bangladesh and raised in New York, Connecticut and Ethiopia. She lives in Darien, CT.
Isha Aran & Risschie Aran (WGAE) are a screenwriting team based in New York and Denver. They cowrote an original pilot called Dispensable that they are developing with Above Average and Louie producer M. Blair Breard, and are currently in the process of pitching it to networks including Comedy Central and IFC. Isha currently works at Fuse, where she writes, produces, and directs “Fuse News,” a biweekly music news show on Instagram Stories. She previously worked as a staff reporter at Splinter (formerly Fusion), where she also helped launch a weekly news web series she cowrote and cohosted called “What in Tarnation.” She has won two journalism awards for her work. Risschie has written and produced video content for small businesses in Denver, Colorado, and wrote and produced short videos for a women’s interest humor blog. He also interned with High Noon Entertainment, where he acted as a liaison between the production company and talent. As siblings, Risschie and Isha have been writing together for five years (although it would be about 20 years if home movies count). They are happy to relocate.
Eva Aridjis (WGAE): I'm a Mexican-American who grew up in Mexico City and came to the United States when I was 18. I attended NYU Grad Film but before that I studied Comparative Literature and Anthropology at Princeton, which led me to make both narrative and documentary films- I wrote, directed and produced five features. I've been writing for Narcos: Mexico (Gaumont-Netflix) and co-wrote EP 202 with the show runner, I also staffed on CDMX (Televisa-Amazon) and have two episodic shows of my own. The theme that my own movies and shows have in common is that of the outsider, misfit, or people who live on the edges of society or suffer from some form of discrimination. I like giving a voice to the voiceless, making the invisible visible, telling stories about individuals whose stories aren't usually told, whether those characters be fictional or real, living or dead, human, animal or monster.
Lori Balaban (WGAE) is an award-winning writer whose Family Guy script won Scriptapoolza, and whose Arrested Development was a semifinalist in Austin Film Festival. Lori was a second rounder of Fox’s TV Writer’s Lab and the WIF/Black List Lab. She completed two novels, winning the Dejur Award, and the screenplay adaptation won the Dortort Award. Lori wrote the NGTV International Hidden Worlds series and the special, Giant Panda, served as Segment Producer for TLC’s Random Acts of Duff. She directed branded entertainment for clients including NBC, Disney, Harley Davidson, A+E and USA, to include Ron Howard for AMC’s Toronto Film Festival content. Her short The Dog Stalker featured The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’s Ellie Kemper, which aired on CBS. Lori’s films the Learning Curve and Nie zu Spat were screened at Ripfest’s Collaborative Film Project. She has four original pilots for television, two features and one novel in development. LA/NYC based.
Brooke Berman (WGAE) is an award-winning playwright, filmmaker and memoirist whose work has been seen at Second Stage, Primary Stages, The Humana Festival, Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, The Royal Court Theatre in London and others. Brooke wrote and directed the short film, UGGS FOR GAZA which premiered at the Aspen International ShortsFest where it won Audience Special Recognition. ALL SAINTS DAY, a short film she wrote, directed by Will Frears, won Best Narrative Short at the Savannah Film Festival and played at the Tribeca Film Festival. She adapted her play SMASHING for Natalie Portman and has written features for The Mark Gordon Company, Vox Films, Red Crown, and Fugitive. Her play Hunting and Gathering was named one of the Best of 2008 by New York Magazine. Her plays, features and pilots have recently been finalists at the O’Neill and Bay Area Playwrights Festival, made second round for Sundance Labs and Tribeca’s Through Her Lens program and mentored at New York Stage and Film’s Filmmaking Labs. She is the author of three nonfiction books including the memoir, No Place Like Home, published by Random House. Originally from Detroit and Chicago, Brooke is a graduate of The Juilliard School and Barnard College (American Studies) and the mother of a crazy nine year old. Brooke’s feature Polly Freed is in pre-production with Rebelle Media. She’s dying to staff. More info: www.brookeberman.net, contact: brookeberman@gmail.com
Kristy Lopez-Bernal (WGAE) is a Cuban-American comedy writer living in New York City. Kristy most recently wrote for TBS's The Detour and Audible’s 63rd Man. At the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, she wrote for various house sketch and video teams (Beige, One Idiot, Horse + Horse) and co-wrote the sketch shows Fuck Nostalgia and What The Horse Saw. She was a regular contributor to Funny Or Die. She co-created and wrote the Above Average sketch series Katie: A Lady. She has written original content for Univision, Fusion, PYPO, People Magazine, and other networks, and her spec pilots have been finalists and semi-finalists in various competitions. Kristy is originally from Miami, FL. She graduated twice from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and previously worked as an engineer.
Jessica Caldwell (WGAE) is an east coast screenwriter (happy to relocate) originally from a lobstering island off the coast of Maine who attended college at just 16 years old. A graduate of Columbia University’s MFA Film program, she produced the independent feature films ELECTRICK CHILDREN, HAPPY BABY and AWOL. Jessica was the writers room assistant and showrunners assistant on the Showtime series BILLIONS. Jessica’s short story “Fractured: A First Date” was published in the New York Times. She is currently writing a feature film for Working Title, EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT: IRIS for Mad Chance, and co-writing the feature GONZO GIRL for Catch and Release Films with Rebecca Thomas. She is a Moth StorySLAM storytelling competition champion.
Kashana Cauley (WGAE) is an African-American woman who has worked as a staff writer for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and Pod Save America on HBO. She’s also a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times, and can be contacted at kashana.cauley@gmail.com.
Laura Maria Censabella (WGAE) is currently adapting her award-winning stage play Paradise (IRNE Award Best New Play, Elliott Norton Nomination Outstanding New Script) for American Oasis films. It recently made its west coast premiere in Los Angeles at The Odyssey Theatre with producers Viola Davis and Julius Tennon. She has won two team daytime Emmy Awards for Writing in Serial Television on As the World Turns, and she wrote the half-hour film Physics for HBO. Her original screenplay Truly Mary was developed with director Angelo Pizzo/producer Michael London, and her short film Last Call was an official selection in festivals throughout the world and won the Best Short Drama Prize at Breckenridge. She has won three grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts: two in Playwriting, and the Geri Ashur Award in Screenwriting for Truly Mary. She graduated from Yale with a B.A. in Philosophy, and a Minor in Theater Studies. lauramariacens@gmail.com. Agent: Elaine Devlin edevlinlit@aol.com
Jamie Chan (WGAE) is a first-generation Chinese-American writer. She has over 10 years of television production experience on shows like HBO's Boardwalk Empire, TNT's Public Morals and Netflix's The Get Down. Her writing credits include MTV's Skins, UK Channel 4's Dates, TNT's Civil, USA & SyFy's The Purge and Showtime's Billions. Currently, she is working on Hulu's adaptation of George R. R. Martin's Wild Card series. Chan is fluent in Cantonese. She resides in New York City with her wife, Margaret. In her free time, she enjoys scouring NYC for the best cheap eats.
Eliza Cossio (WGAE) is a New York based Mexican American writer and comedian, currently writing for Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas on HBO. She is formerly the digital writer and Senior Latina Correspondent at The Daily Show. In February, her Sopranos/Sex and the City crossover script went viral on Twitter and was featured in NY Magazine/Vulture, AV Club, and Slate Magazine. She also wrote, directed, and acted in the upcoming short film La Bruja, a bilingual dark comedy about a Mexican American woman who goes through a breakup then meets a witch who offers to help, which won the Made in NY Women’s Film and TV Fund grant. Her writing can also be seen in Jezebel and Elle Magazine. She has studied at Second City, UCBNY, and the Annoyance, and now does stand up in dark basements. She loves emails:
Colin Costello (WGAE): Based in LA, WGA-East member Colin Costello is a biracial genre, comedy and horror writer. He has written two family feature films - 2013's theatrical release "The Stream" (available on Amazon) and 2017's "Alternate Universe" with Steve Guttenberg which is available on itunes and Amazon. His short films, The Twilight Zone-inspired "The After Party" and "Dream wisher" are currently winning awards on the fest circuit. In late 2018, Colin was selected for The Champions’ Program supported by the WGA Committee of Black Writers and designed to get writers of color representation or staffed. It was based on his one-hour pilot “Bad Cook” about a Las Vegas sous chef and her rise to becoming a crime boss. His sponsor is Dayo Adesokan of “Superstore” and just had a sample script “Cadets” about a privileged teen actor sent to military school approved by ABC and was invited to enter his information in their data base.
Cusi Cram (WGAE): I am a midlevel, two-time Emmy nominated writer of animation and premium cable TV. I’ve written on and developed shows for Showtime, Amazon, Nickelodeon, and PBS. I love the darkly comic and have a knack for creating slightly absurd yet emotionally grounded stories and characters. I gravitate toward putting unexpected and complex WOC at the center my work. I am native New Yorker of Bolivian and Scottish heritage. Right now, I am particularly inspired by the history of New York, the complexities of mixed race identity, and women in American politics. I’m also an award winning playwright and filmmaker. Graduate of Brown and Juilliard.
Cheryl L. Davis (WGAE) is an African-American playwright and TV drama writer. She received a WGA Award and a Daytime Emmy nomination for her work on As the World Turns. She received the Kleban Award (as a librettist) for her musical “Barnstormer”, about Bessie Coleman, the first Black woman flyer. Her play Maid’s Door won seven Audelco Awards and was a finalist for the Francesca Primus Prize, and her play Swimming Uptown received an Honorable Mention in the Kilroys 2017 List. Her play The Color of Justice (commissioned by Theatreworks/USA), received excellent reviews in the New York Times and Daily News, and tours regularly. Her musical Bridges, commissioned by the Berkeley Playhouse, premiered in 2016 and received three nominations from the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle. Her theater commissions include: Disney Theatrical Group, ClearChannel Entertainment, Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and Birmingham Children’s Theatre. She was the sole script writer for the health-related radio drama, Staying Well in Camberwell, and was one of the writing team for the web soap opera Our World. Her work has been read and performed internationally, including the Actors Theatre of Louisville and the Kennedy Center. She is the General Counsel of the Authors Guild. She is based in New York.
Nicole Drespel (WGAE) has written for Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later and The Chris Gethard Show on TruTv (writer/co-producer). She’s been in punch-up rooms for Broad City (which she also appeared in as Ilana’s co-worker) and worked on projects for Comedy Central, Adult Swim, and Above Average. She has a super practical degree in Medieval History and has spent more time teaching and performing improv comedy than any rational human being ever should. New York City based.
Kate Erickson (WGAE): As a TV writer, I have experience in hourlong dramas including BBC America’s Copper, AMC's Fear the Walking Dead, TNT’s Snowpiercer, Fox's The Passage, and USA Network's Mr. Robot, for which I won a Writers Guild Award (New Series). Prior to working in TV, I produced live storytelling for The Moth, wrote website copy, served coffee, crewed a Beneteau sloop, nannied, drove a produce delivery truck, walked across Spain, and ran a community center's after school program. My personal essays and fiction have appeared in various publications including The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Wellesley Magazine, and Narrative Magazine, among others. Originally from Kentucky, I am a graduate of Wellesley College, a WGA East member, and a current LA resident. I am willing to relocate for work. I am represented by Merideth Bajaña at Grandview. www.katefromky.com
Kaitlin Fontana (WGAE) is a Canadian TV and film writer, director, and producer, and a National Magazine award-winning essayist. In a not-so-distant past life, she was a music journalist. Most recently, Kaitlin was a Field Producer on Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. She is a NYTVF Development recipient ("Peace," Audible) and a finalist in the 2018 HBOAccess Directing Fellowship. Her directorial debut, Franchesca, was an official 2018 Sundance Film Festival selection. Kaitlin is a WriteHer List Honoree, an inaugural WGA/Made in New York Writers Room Fellow, Showtime Tony Cox Award winner, and Bitch List Honoree, all for her pilot Casey Can’t, which is currently in development with Shout!Factory. She’s also the creator and host of The Box, a live intersectional feminist late night comedy show. Kaitlin lives in Brooklyn, NY. She was born in Fernie, British Columbia, a distinction she shares with Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson.
Marin Gazzaniga (WGAE) is a drama and comedy writer who began her career in TV journalism (NBC News), moved to Vogue, and fled the world of women’s magazines to write for Victim Services, where she wrote about domestic violence, sexual assault, homicide and every other imaginable crime, as well as the criminal justice system and the programs and people who try to help. This experience inspired her first original play, the drama So Close, which she wrote, starred in and produced, and later did the same for the independent film. She was a staff writer for One Life to Live (Hulu reboot), co-created an original web series for IFC with Anslem Richardson, produces digital features for HBO and AMC and recently sold a half-hour comedy pitch to Hulu, now being developed at Freeform with co-writer Serena da Conceicao, and executive produced by Ilana Glazer. Other credits: maringazzaniga.com (NY based.)
Alex Gonzalez (WGAE) is a Brooklyn based comedy and horror writer. He was raised in Florida by an immigrant father from El Salvador and a Puerto Rican mother. His aunt read tarot cards for the neighborhood, his grandmother warned people of brujas, and when his dad drank too many mojitos he started to speak to the ghosts of his sister and mother. That’s how things were around the house. He started writing early on and studied the craft at Florida State, Cambridge UK, and then achieved an MFA in TV Writing in Brooklyn, NY. After helping create http://FlexxMag.com , he was staffed at Michael Moore’s “TV Nation”, and, in the same year, had a trending script on the Black List that he wrote with his partner and also sold his horror novel “Land Shark” to Madness Heart Press. He’s managed by Matt Ochacher at the Nacelle Company.
Joe Gonzalez (WGAE): I’m a New York, University Graduate; Tisch School of the Arts, Class of 1999, BFA, GPA 4.86 with majors in Film/Television Production and Screenwriting. While at NYU I won the Universal/Wasserman Award in 1998, given to one Tisch Student annually. Winning the Wasserman gave me the opportunity to work on the Universal Pictures’ production of “American Pie,” in Los Angeles. After graduation I was a Set Production Assistant, Camera Assistant, Locations Assistant, Office P.A., Production Secretary, A.P.O.C. and finally the Production Coordinator on the Law & Order Mothership in New York until the show’s end in 2010. Showrunner Eric Overmyer hired me as a Staff Writer/Story Editor on the Amazon Studios show “Bosch” where I wrote or two seasons. I write Drama for television with subgenres in Psychology, Sci-Fi and the Occult. My writing strengths are Script Analysis and Action Set Pieces.
Tian Jun Gu (WGAE) is a first-generation Chinese-American from Walled Lake, a small Michigan town aptly nicknamed “Waltucky" (for its diversity, of course). A formative freshman year experience pushed him to forgo his future in biomedical engineering and thwart his accountant Tiger Mom for a degree in screenwriting, an Indy Jones leap of faith that landed him a Hopwood Award and a Naomi Saferstein Literary Award at the University of Michigan. While working at an agency by day and workshopping his own scripts at night, he was offered a writer's assistant position at HOUSE OF CARDS, where he would become a staff writer for the show's fifth season, and story editor for the sixth season (both the original AND the notorious reboot). He recently completed a Consulting Producer stint on the CBS All Access crime drama INTERROGATION and was one of four writers selected for the inaugural Screenwriters Colony Episodic Drama Residency.
Olga Humphrey (WGAE): As a playwright: award-winning, produced, and published. I also write screenplays and have recently branched into episodic drama with two new pilots. “The Exception” just made it to the second round of the Sundance Institute’s Episodic Lab. It is adapted from a play of mine about one of the first “Me Too” trials. My screenplay “The New Wife” is being financed for an international co-production based in India. “Mama’s Boy,” a screenplay adaptation of a nonfiction book by the National Investigative Editor of Associated Press, was featured by the WGAE at their screenplay reading series. My play “Magnificent Hubba Hubba” recently won the Dayton FutureFest, and was recently given a reading at the Actors Studio, with John Patrick Shanley moderating, and at the Cherry Lane with Annette O’Toole in one of the roles. Currently, I am writing for a new animated series, an American/Canadian coproduction called “The Dog & Pony Show.”
Shantira Jackson (WGAE) is a Chicago transplant who is currently bi-coastal. She creates queer Black content and is interested in being staffed on a narrative television show. She’s currently a staff writer for the late-night talk show “Busy Tonight” on E! She is a former writer for BET's "50 Central", NPR’s “Ask Me Another” and the popular game "Cards Against Humanity." She has been featured on Splitsider, Refinery29's "Strong Opinions Loosely Held," and has been a contributing writer for the Writer's Guild Awards, The Webby Awards and The ESPYS. She is an alum of The Second City Mainstage and can be seen performing all over the country with her critically-acclaimed improv group 3Peat.
Christina Kallas (WGAE) is the writer-director of the critically-acclaimed ensemble dramas, THE RAINBOW EXPERIMENT (2018) and 42 SECONDS OF HAPPINESS (2016). Just released in the US by Gravitas Ventures, THE RAINBOW EXPERIMENT takes Kallas’ brand of creating complex nonlinear stories with an unusually high number of morally ambiguous characters to another level. The film debuted at the Slamdance Film Festival 2018, and screened in festivals such as Cinequest, Cleveland, St. Louis, Moscow etc. winning several accolades. In 2016, Kallas scored on the film festival circuit with her award-winning feature, 42 SECONDS OF HAPPINESS. Prior credits as a writer-producer include the John Hurt-starring political thriller, THE COMMISSIONER (Main Competition, Berlin Film Festival); BBC Films and Polygram’s hooligan drama, I.D.; and European TV series hits, DANNI LOWINSKI and EDEL&STARCK (one-hour) for which she wrote several episodes. Film Threat recently called her “someone to watch; she ought to be on everyone’s radar.’’ In 2019 she was nominated for the inaugural Award This! Best Directress Award alongside Debra Granik, Josephine Decker, Jen McGowan, Chloe Zhao and Mimi Leder.
Neeraj Katyal (WGAE): Based in New York -- but ready to relocate -- Neeraj Katyal sold THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF THE MONOGAMOUS DUCK to The Weinstein Company in 2008. After that script tied for 48th place on The Black List, Neeraj has since sold and/or developed various projects including THE NEW YORKER, VIEQUES, and FALL FASHION. "DUCK" has Chris Evans attached as its star, and negotiations are underway to acquire the script from Lantern Entertainment. Neeraj is currently developing UPPERCUT. He is proud to be a graduate of the University of Maryland, and less proud to be a fan of the Mets, Jets, Nets, and Islanders.
Nurit Koppel (WGAE) was born in Puerto Rico and raised in South America and the Middle East. Her feature film THE KING AND ME is being produced by Archer Grey and Bona Fide productions. Her TV show, THE ETHICIST, based on Randy Cohen's tenure as The Ethicist at the New York Times, was bought by Amazon.
Kristen Lange (WGAE), a native New Yorker, started her career as an assistant at The Late Show with David Letterman before working her way up to writer. Her first break was a freelance script for NBC’s The Michael J. Fox Show before landing on the staff of HBO’s Divorce. She’s also worked on digital projects for Sharon Horgan’s Mermade and most recently Wavelength Productions — developing the company’s first digital series. Select bylines include the humor sites Reductress and The Belladonna Comedy. After having her tenth birthday party at a TV museum, Kristen studied English at the College of the Holy Cross. That’s where she realized real people could become writers and that she wanted to pursue a life around the thing she loved most: television. (Sorry, Mom.) Kristen is currently based in New York, but ready to work on either coast, and has done so previously.
Ryan Lipscomb (WGAE): Born and raised in Atlanta, writer and director Ryan Lipscomb attended Howard University where he earned a degree in business marketing. Ryan moved to Los Angeles after being accepted into the graduate film production program at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, where he focused on writing, directing, and producing. His short film, Bruise, starring rising actor Jovan Adepo, was inspired by the shooting deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police. He also directed Academy Award nominated actress Alfre Woodard in a PSA he wrote for USC’s Media Institute for Social Change. After earning his MFA from USC, he’s established himself as a promising young writer, having developed projects with John Legend’s Get Lifted and with HBO. Currently, Ryan is serving as the writers’ assistant for Damon Lindelof’s “Watchmen” premiering on HBO in Fall 2019.
Ione Lloyd (WGAE) is a phenomenally talented diverse writer who has sold pilots to F/X and CBS All Access in the past year. She is currently the Co Producer on Lena Waithe’s new show TWENTIES. Ione has also written on Oprah / Mara Akil's original series LOVE IS. She previously worked on SundanceTV's/AMC's original series HAP AND LEONARD and on USA's Golden Globe nominated series THE SINNER starring Jessica Biel. She recently completed her Tow Residency at the prestigious Public Theater, where her play EVE'S SONG premiered in November 2018. Previously, Ione was a member of the Emerging Writers Group, a two-year playwriting residency with the Public Theatre where her play PRETTY HUNGER was given a Lab production. She was a Sundance resident playwright 2016 in their theater lab in Morocco, and a New York Theater Workshop fellow. To get to know Ione better watch her Ted Talk which can be found online by searching Where Does Your Soul Live? | Patricia Ione Lloyd.
Mona Mansour (WGAE) is a NY based, award-winning, Middle Eastern American playwright. Her plays include: WE SWIM, WE TALK, WE GO TO WAR (premiered at Golden Thread in 2018); THE VAGRANT TRILOGY (premiered at Mosaic Theater in D.C. in June 2018, and slated to be produced by the Public Theatre in NY in 2020); from the trilogy: THE HOUR OF FEELING (Humana Festival and NYU Abu Dhabi Arab Voices Festival 2016); URGE FOR GOING (Public LAB and Golden Thread); THE VAGRANT (Sundance Theater Institute workshop); THE WAY WEST (Labyrinth Theater, Steppenwolf and Marin Theatre Company); UNSEEN (Gift Theater Chicago); and IN THE OPEN (Waterwell). Mona is a member of New Dramatists. Commissions include Playwrights Horizons, Old Globe Theater, La Jolla Playhouse and Oregon Shakespeare Festival's “American Revolutions.” Mona currently has a blind pilot deal at AMC.
CONTACT: A.B. Fischer, manager, abfischer@literateinc.com
Kimiko Matsuda-Lawrence (WGAE) is a writer/director from Washington, DC and Honolulu, Hawaii. She is the creator of I, Too, Am Harvard – a play and photo campaign highlighting the experiences of black Harvard students that inspired hundreds of “I, Too” campaigns around the world. Kimiko co-founded Renegade, Harvard’s only POC magazine, and co-wrote and directed Black Magic, a play about queer and trans black college students coming of age in the Black Lives Matter era. She’s worked in theater as Assistant Director on Anna Deavere Smith’s Notes from the Field, as assistant to Broadway director Diane Paulus, and as stage manager on Daniel Alexander Jones’s Black Light, in addition to co-writing and performing the play Holding: A Queer Black Love Story. She was a 2017 recipient of a SPACE on Ryder Farm Creative Residency. Kimiko is a staff writer on Lena Waithe's show TWENTIES. Website: kimikomatsudalawrence.com.
kimikomatsudalawrence@gmail.com
Nisha Mehta (WGAE) is a television writer who was recently staffed on the acclaimed USA Drama The Sinner. Previously, she worked as a writer’s assistant on Epix’s Berlin Station and ABC’s Quantico and as a producer’s assistant on various TV shows including AMC’s Turn: Washington Spies. Born in London, England to British-Indian parents, Nisha was raised with an amalgam of both Eastern and Western culture and religion. After graduating with honors from UCA Film School seven years ago, she decided to make the move across the Atlantic. She lives in New York City with her husband and dog and is represented by Abrams Artists’ Agency.
Leslie Nipkow (WGAE): I'm a +40-Female and write smart drama with a comic flair pegged to historical events (a la Mad Men, Manhattan). Playwright with staff experience. 2019 Humanitas New Voices Finalist. My pilot, Crumb Bums, is about an androgynous young boxer and aspiring sportswriter in the thick of the civil rights revolution as American athletes resist from the fields, courts, tracks, and boxing rings of the 1960s. I also have a Blacklist Era/Mexican immigration feature based on true events. For the stage, I've written a solo comedy, Guarding Erica, optioned by PSNBC, and essays for the NYTimes, O, and http://Salon.com . Carwash Donuts, a full-length psychedelic cancer comedy for five women, is a finalist for the 2019 Bay Area Playwrights Festival. 2007 strike captain. Roots in NYC, LA, and NOLA. When not writing you can find me in boxing gloves with Miles Davis on repeat.
Marygrace O’Shea (WGAE) is a film and television writer and producer. She worked as a writer on Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Her television pilot scripts include Golden Parachutes/Thieves Like Us for Fox Television Studios and Higher Ground with Maggie Greenwald. Her feature The Normal Amazing Catastrophe of Love, written with David Black, has been greenlit, but she’ll believe it when the check clears. Her script The Painting has won multiple awards, but alas, not even a check that bounces. She worked as an assistant editor, editor and producer on documentaries (HBO, PBS, ABC) and numerous independent films (with directors such as Ang Lee and Bob Balaban). She is a member of the Writers Guild of America, East and has taught at NYU, Columbia Grad Film, and Sarah Lawrence. She is writing a book about women showrunners.
Ryan Perez (WGAE) is a writer based in Los Angeles, who is flexible to work both LA/NY. Perez attended UCLA's School of Film and Television and has roots in sketch and improvisation at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. As a longtime staff writer/director for Funny or Die, he directed hundreds of shorts. In 2013, he wrote and directed FOD's first feature-length production, the Steve Jobs biopic iSteve with Justin Long. Perez has written for Saturday Night Live, The Break With Michelle Wolf, Lonely Island's Party Over Here, Hidden America with Jonah Ray, Adult Swim's special Live at the Necropolis: The Lords of Synth and ABC's The Gong Show. Though commonly staffed on sketch shows, Perez has written narrative for Comedy Central's animated series Moonbeam City, the American Revolution-set pilot Winslow K. Whittaker for Abominable Pictures, and co-written the feature script Eat My Dust for Sony and Imagine Entertainment.
ryanjamesperez@gmail
Celia C. Peters (WGAE) is an African-American filmmaker creating compelling, organic futurist stories about intriguing, authentic characters. She’s a member of New York Women in Film & Television, the Writers Guild of America, and sits on the board of the Greater Columbus Film Commission and the Columbus Black International Film Festival. Her screenplays have been prize-winning and recognized in competition. Her films have screened in New York, Washington, D.C., Detroit, Columbus, Cleveland, Los Angeles and London; also on public and cable television. She has produced programs at Afropunk, New York Comic Con and California African American Museum (L.A.). Peters is an honors graduate of University Michigan with a B.A. in French and Political Science, and holds an M.A. in Public Policy from the University of Chicago. As well, she has done graduate studies in clinical psychology at NYU. She’s currently developing her sci-fi feature film GODSPEED for production.
Gabrielle Fulton Ponder (WGAE) is a new member of the WGA with staff writer experience on the Will Packer produced OWN Network series, "Ambitions". Her short film, "Ir/Reconcilable" starring Jasmine Guy and Dick Gregory received an HBO broadcast deal. An African American produced playwright and independent filmmaker, Gabrielle earned her Northwestern MFA in Writing for the Screen + Stage. She’s a team player in the room with incredibly legible handwriting at the board, and a strong first draft writer. Gabrielle enjoys writing character-driven gritty family drama, half hour dramedy, and historical drama. East Coast based with easy access to LA residence and will travel.
ms.gabrielle.fulton@gmail.com.
Meredith Post (WGAE). Graduated Brown. Made a beeline for NYC. Wrote a play that got good reviews and got an A list agent who asked me what next? I said TV. Spent the next 2 decades writing 1 or 2 hour shows a week, 50 weeks a year, for daytime drama in its heyday - shows like “As The World Turns,” “Santa Barbara” and “Days of Our Lives”. So NO writers block. I’m also good at research. Moved my family to Ct to takeover reins of “World Turns” from legend, Doug Marland. And I have a WGA Award and 7 Emmy noms. Then I went to the ER one night that changed my life. I had a bad headache and fell down a rabbit hole of misdiagnosis that led to years in hospitals fighting for my life. I ‘m tough. Came home with a dozen scripts (the kind of shows I want to write no one else is writing.) Just finished writing the story for Season One of a new TV Drama. And set to write a movie for a studio head next. I also teach and mentor aspiring writers. And I have 3 webisodes on You Tube based on an hour dramedy I wrote. Search “The Grass is Always Greener” by Meredith Post. Webisode 1 is “Trying to Stay High.” It was shot with no budget when our investor ran off the night before we were set to start. I am currently repped by entertainment lawyer, Elaine Rogers, Sennott & Williams, after years of being repped by the head of Gersh TV/movie lit.
Michele Remsen (WGAE) is a New York-based comedy and drama TV-writer and filmmaker. Her first feature as writer-director-producer, TOSS IT, an anti-romantic-comedy-drama, is on festival circuit - info & trailer: www.tossitthemovie.com. Winner: NYWIFT MAP Grant 2018. Directing-reel is also writing-samples: https://vimeo.com/209317494. Also: crime-drama screenplay available as writing-sample, upon request. Head-Writer (pre-WGA membership) comedy-series "The Tinsley Bumble Show" on WE-tv – 5 episodes; never aired due to cable-merger. Member: WGAE, NYWIFT, Film Fatales. www.micheleremsen.com & www.stevedoreproductions.com Attorney: Eric Brook – Bloom Hergott
michele.remsen@stevedoreproductions.com
Elizabeth (Liz) Rohrbaugh (WGAE) is a writer and director from Brooklyn, NY. Her most recent film, Becks, is an independent musical drama starting Lena Hall, Mena Suvari, Christine Lahti, and Dan Fogler. The film premiered at the 2017 LA Film Festival, where is won Best US Narrative Film. Becks was released February 2018 in theaters, and on VOD and other streaming platforms. It currently holds a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and received positive reviews from The New York Times, Variety, The Los Angeles Times and the Hollywood Reporter. Prior to Becks, Elizabeth wrote and directed the short film DYLAN, which played at a number of prestigious film festivals around the world and was a Vimeo Staff Pick and a Vimeo Short Of The Week. Elizabeth also directed, wrote and produced the documentary feature, The Perfect Victim which premiered at the Hot Springs International Film Festival and was a part of the PBS/World Channel documentary series America Reframed. Elizabeth worked for many years at a writer/director at MTV in their On-Air Promos department, where she wrote and directed advertisements for some of their biggest shows, movies and brand integrations. You can learn more about her work at www.lizrohrbaugh.com.
Alexis Roblan (WGAE) is a playwright and WGA Award-nominated screenwriter. Her plays have been produced and developed by and at Clubbed Thumb, Ars Nova, Dixon Place, The Dennis & Victoria Ross Foundation, The Blank Theatre (Los Angeles), Theatre 503 (London), Edinburgh Fringe, Festival de Teatro Alternativo (Bogotá), World Interplay (Australia), and more. Originally from Coos Bay, Oregon, she is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s MFA in Dramatic Writing program. Alexis’ plays include SAMUEL (Finalist, Clubbed Thumb Biennial Commission), DAUGHTERS OF LOT (Edinburgh Fringe), AND IT SPINS TWICE (Finalist, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference), YOU FEEL SO FAR AWAY RIGHT NOW (Finalist, The O’Neill National Playwrights Conference), LILIYA (Exquisite Corpse Company), THE ANDREW PLAY (Thomas Barbour Playwrights Award), and RED EMMA & THE MAD MONK (NY Times Critic’s Pick). Her work as a screenwriter can be seen on the Hulu / AwesomenessTV series “Guidance” and “Love Daily” (WGA Nominee: Short Form New Media Original).
Erica Saleh (WGAE): I’m a playwright turned tv writer who tells stories about strong, morally-complicated women. Sometimes these stories take the shape of hyper-naturalistic dramas, sometimes they’re dark comedies, but they are always brutally honest. I grew up in a tiny farm-town in Western New York where I spent my childhood waiting not-so-patiently to move to a city. I tried out a bunch of cities in my twenties, but finally made it to NYC (west Harlem to be exact) where I now live with my husband and 13 year-old stepdaughter. Hobbies include yoga, piano, and trying to convince my stepdaughter to hang out with me.
Chrissy Shackelford (WGAE) is a writer and performer currently based in New York City and originally from Texas. Chrissy is currently wrapping her second season as a staff writer on Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas on HBO. Since moving to New York in 2014, Chrissy has been a writer and performer at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater where she performs original characters as well as with her monthly sketch team, Attention Shoppers. Her solo show Diane Shangri-La: Not Dry Yet played at UCB Chelsea in 2016-2017 before completing its run in Los Angeles. She’s showcased for Saturday Night Live and performed at comedy festivals around the country. Her work has been featured on Reductress, CollegeHumor, Refinery29, Above Average, and the Frederator Networks. She teaches writing at UCBT NY, and is an actor, writer and director with the critically acclaimed arts education group The Story Pirates.
Lara Shapiro (WGAE) is a writer and director. Her work as a writer includes the FX drama THE AMERICANS, the EPIX spy drama BERLIN STATION and the YOUTUBE PREMIUM drama IMPULSE, and the SONY acquired original dramatic pilot QUIET REBEL, produced by Jessica Chastain and Alexandra Milchan. Lara's work as a director includes an episode of the USA drama ROYAL PAINS, the feature film LABOR PAINS (starring Tracee Ellis Ross, Cheryl Hines and Chris Parnell), and numerous commercial campaigns including Verizon, Prudential and L’Oréal. Narrative short films she wrote and directed were shown at the Sundance and New York Film Festivals, she was a fellow at the Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab, and she received a Sloan Foundation Filmmakers Award to write the drama TALKING BOOK. She received her MFA in filmmaking from Columbia University.
Sasha Stewart (WGAE) is a television writer whose credits include "The Fix with Jimmy Carr" (Netflix), "The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore" (Comedy Central), and "Undivided ATTN" (Facebook Watch). She is currently writing a documentary series for Netflix about American history, with both dramatic and comedic elements. Her most recent samples include (EM)PATHETIC, a comedy about a young woman with a (real!) disorder who literally feels the emotional and physical feelings of the people around her, and RELATIVELY NORMAL, a comedy about an interracial, millennial couple in Dallas, TX "trying not to screw up their kids," told from the POVs of both the parents and children. Although she lives in NYC, she's happy to relocate to LA for work.
Daryn Strauss (WGAE) is a WRITERS GUILD AWARD winning writer, producer, director, and digital media pioneer. She took home a WRITERS GUILD AWARD for Weight, her comedy about the reality of life AFTER reality TV weight loss, which co-editor-in-chief of Variety Andrew Wallenstein called “razor sharp… great premise.” Her sassy, touching, and relatable voice first received notice for her pioneering, critically acclaimed web series Downsized, a dramedy which the Los Angeles Times called “The Best of the Straight-Ahead Dramas on the Web” and garnered her first WRITERS GUILD AWARD nomination. Other credits include the EMMY AWARD winning series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and EMMY nominated MAKERS (narrated by Meryl Streep) on PBS. She also produced the digital companion experience to NBCUniversal's 2017 Upfront at Radio City. Excellent with smart dialogue, problematic female characters, teens and millennials. Part-Cuban. Visit http://darynstrauss.com.
Marjorie Sweeney (WGAE) is a NYC-based writer whose original feature-length comedies Flower Girl and What I Did For Love have found an audience of millions on cable TV. In addition to her television projects, she has worked as a bartender in Ireland, a tequila shot girl in Los Angeles, and a speechwriter for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. She played women’s ice hockey in college and refuses to stop wearing fishnets even though it’s embarrassing the hell out of her kids. Ideal gig: Working on a show set in the world of politics, women’s team sports, or the 1980s. TOP CREDITS: WHAT I DID FOR LOVE (writer), FLOWER GIRL (writer).
Jennifer Vanderbes (WGAE) is a New York-based feature and television (drama) writer with a background in playwriting, investigative journalism and historical fiction. A politics and science junkie, she's won a Guggenheim for her prose and has written dramatic pilots for Bravo and Lifetime and a whistleblower feature for Paramount. She is skilled at Aikido, FOIA requests, and writing about fierce women battling crappy odds. She has a profound respect for people who scroll to the end of alphabetized lists. Yale BA, Iowa Writers' Workshop MFA. Top Three Credits: STACKED, Pilot (Co-EP); ENIGMA, Pilot (Co-Ep), STARTERS (EP, in Development).
Jackie Eckhouse, Sloss Eckhouse LawCo, 212-627-9898 jackie@slosslaw.com
Evan Waite (WGAE) is an African-American writer who wrote on the Emmy-nominated Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and was nominated for a WGA award for writing on Comedy Central’s The President Show. He has also written on Showtime’s Our Cartoon President and Kevin Hart’s Guide to Black History. He is currently a story editor on an animated Amazon satire of influencer culture called Fairfax. He also writes for The Onion, Mad Magazine and the New Yorker, where he has been published in the print edition twice. Evan previously worked as an ESL teacher in China. During this time, he traveled extensively and studied spoken Mandarin. He can be reached at evanwaite4@gmail.com and other samples of his work can be seen at http://www.evanwaite.com.
Colleen Werthmann (WGAE) is a twice-Emmy-nominated comedy writer (Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, Steve Martin, Academy Awards, Comedy Central Roasts, White House Correspondents Dinner, Mark Twain Prize, and more). Her new half-hour single-cam ensemble workplace comedy UNITED, based on her onetime real-life day job at the United Nations, has been described as "if Veep, Silicon Valley, Community, and The Office moved into the U.N." She's from Saint Paul, Minnesota, has an Irish-American mom and a German immigrant chef dad, went to Catholic school for twelve years, and was an altar girl. Her work is hilarious, dark, surreal, punchy, silly, and transgressive, and her long career as an actor lends her work a visceral theatricality. She's looking to staff in scripted and/or late night, is based in NYC and also happy to work in L.A.
Moujan Zolfaghari (WGAE) (in LA) Iranian-American comedy writer. The Detour (TBS), Human Kind Of (AnnieAwardnom), co-creator audiocomedy MISSION TO ZYXX.
Keisha Zollar (WGAE) is an African-American TV writer currently working as the writing supervisor on Busy Tonight. She’s previously worked as a staff writer on The Opposition on Comedy Central, co-headwriter on the digital series Astronomy Club Presents, and was a story editor on Harlem Code. As a human, Keisha is a big picture, problem solving, bleeding heart, Type-A intellectual that grew up like a de facto Huxtable. She's a California neurotic with some New York chill. In 2006 Keisha started her professional comedy journey touring short form improv for kids (think Whose Line meets daycare). In 2007 Keisha found her way to the Upright Citizens Brigade where took classes and eventually became an improv/sketch performer, writer, teacher and diversity coordinator at the theater. At this time Keisha is bicoastal and looking to return to her comedy narrative roots.