Television writers Tanya Saracho (“Vida”), Liz Hsiao Lan Alper (“Day of the Dead”), and Mike Royce (“One Day at a Time”) are joining forces with the Writers Guild Foundation with the aim of making the TV industry more inclusive. They have started the Writers’ Access Support Staff Training Program, which Deadline describes as “a first-of-its-kind initiative to support the full inclusion and employment of underrepresented groups in the television industry.”
The program offers writers who are BIPOC, LGBTQ+, live with disabilities, and/or are over the age of 50 the resources and education needed to become writers’ assistants and script coordinators, positions that are often essential to landing TV writing jobs.
“Graduates of the program will be included in an ongoing list of trained writers’ assistants and script coordinators primarily from underrepresented groups, which will be made available to studios, networks, and showrunners, in order to increase the pool of eligible hires,” the source details. “This will open the door to opportunities to writers who are typically excluded from the writers’ room. In turn, the program hopes to up representation among television writers and capture an inclusive array of the human experience.”
The inaugural Writers’ Access Support Staff Training Program will be held virtually and taught by Debbie Ezer (“The Good Doctor”) and Clay Lapari (“Community”). Several guest lectures will be delivered by showrunners. Program participants will be selected by a committee of TV writers, creators, EPs, and showrunners who have previously worked as writers’ assistants or script coordinators — Saracho, Alper, Royce, Sera Gamble (“You”), Jenniffer Gomez (“Vida”), and Liz Tigelaar (“Little Fires Everywhere”) among them.
“This idea originated when we found ourselves sharing our frustration at how writer’s assistant candidates from underrepresented groups become trapped in a mobius strip of, ‘need experience but can’t get experience without being hired,’” Saracho, Alper, and Royce said in statement. “In order to incorporate true inclusion in Hollywood, we must ensure every underrepresented voice has the chance to get their foot on the ladder of success. Writing support staffs are integral to the success of a TV room and have been treated more as a type of apprenticeship for aspiring writers. In that way, this program aims to be a step towards greater inclusivity at the ‘entry level,’ and in the future, on all writing staffs.”
