Bisha K. Ali knows all too well how tough it can be to establish a TV writing career, especially if you’re from a marginalized community. As she recalled to Variety, when she was coming up, she often didn’t have enough extra cash to get to networking events. And she took an unorthodox route to show business: she was a domestic violence support worker before she got her first writing gig on “Sex Education.”
In order to make the path to TV writing more equitable, and more welcoming to people of color and folks from underrepresented backgrounds, Ali has set up The Screenwriters’ Fellowship at Netflix and Sky. The year-long program will see six U.K. scribes receiving a £22,568 (about $31,900 USD) bursary to write a spec script for an original idea, going to monthly development events, and getting a paid placement at a Netflix or Sky show.
As part of the fellowship, participants will also receive credit for writers’ room participation, shadowing opportunities (depending on COVID safety), industry mentorship, and three mentorship meetings with Ali.
“When the fellows come out of this, I want it to have real measurable impact,” Ali told Variety. She emphasized the importance of the first writing job, and how difficult it can be to land. “Getting that first credit is so hard,” she said. “It’s one of the biggest hurdles when you’re breaking in.”
The Screenwriters’ Fellowship’s set-up is inspired by U.S. mentorship programs in which writers get on-the-job experience and learn about various parts of production. In contrast, apprenticing opportunities aren’t as common in U.K. television.
“The benefit of the U.S. system is a built-in apprenticeship for writers. You can be a writer’s assistant or a showrunner’s assistant in a writers’ room, and you’re surrounded by writers doing the job of writing for 20 weeks minimum,” Ali explained. “There is an expectation in that system, then, that that assistant will go on to become a staff writer for the subsequent season, or get recommended to be a staff writer on a subsequent season of a different show.”
Ali also counts “Four Weddings and a Funeral” among her credits. She is the head writer on Disney+’s much-anticipated “Ms. Marvel” series. The titular character, a New Jersey teen, is Marvel Studios’ first on-screen Muslim superhero.
Head over to Netflix to apply to The Screenwriters’ Fellowship. The deadline is June 18.
