Robin Thede, a writer and performer for “The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore,” has penned a personal essay for Lena Dunham’s Lenny Letter in which she calls for the support of Writer’s Guild of America East’s diversity amendment.
The bill, EW details, is a proposed amendment to the Empire State Film Production Credit that would add a diversity tax credit. Its goal is to “tangibly increase the number of women and people of color in writing and directing positions by allotting around $5 million of New York’s $420 million credit for film and TV production to projects that hire qualified women and people of color in writing and directing roles.”
The proposed amendment passed the New York State Assembly but still needs to pass through the Senate.
“Women writers and writers of color are chronically underrepresented in television and film across the board (Shonda Rhimes can’t do it ALL, people. OK, she can, but she shouldn’t have to),” Thede wrote. “While scripted shows tend to be slightly more diverse, only 28.7 percent of television writers overall are women, according to a 2016 report published by the Writers Guild. The film industry is even worse, with women writers making up only 16.9 percent. Minority writers make up 13 percent of TV writers and a measly 7 percent of film scribes. If these numbers don’t make you angry, they should. They certainly piss me off.”
Thede, who EW points out, “[b]ecame the first and only black woman in history to hold the title of head writer on a late-night talk show across the first season and a half of ‘The Nightly Show,’ has also written awards show bits, sketch shows, and sitcoms for top-tier talent, including Chris Rock, Queen Latifah, and Kevin Hart.”
New Yorkers can support the bill by contacting Governor Andrew Cuomo at 518–474–8390 or legislative.secretary@exec.ny.gov, Senator John J. Flanagan, the Senate Majority Leader, at 518–455–2071 or Flanagan@nysenate.gov, and Jeffrey D. Klein, Head of the Independent Democratic Caucus, at 518–455–3595 or jdklein@nysenate.gov.
