Stefani Robinson just scored her first Emmy nomination. The 26-year-old “Atlanta” scribe is up for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for the Donald Glover starrer. The episode that she’s up for honors for is “Barbershop,” an exploration of the relationships black men have with their barbers.
Just a few years out of college, Robinson was working as an assistant at a talent agency and had only recently met her agent when she was hired as a writer on “Atlanta.” “It was just one of those things: I had written an original pilot, got it submitted to FX, and here’s a young new writer,” she recalled to Vice. “It was at the same time they were hiring the ‘Atlanta’ staff, and they were looking for one more writer, a girl, specifically, and it just so happens that I was actually from Atlanta as well. It was crazy — suddenly I was meeting producers, and then I was staff on the show,” she explained.
Robinson had never written anything professionally prior to “Atlanta.” She moved to LA after studying screenwriting in Boston.
As for being the lone woman on “Atlanta’s” writing team, Robinson calls the situation “a really bittersweet thing.” She told TheWrap, “I’m so happy to be the woman in the space, because I think that it’s so rare in Hollywood for a woman, especially a woman of color, to exist in these spaces. So on the one hand, I’m grateful and I think it’s so important and I feel so blessed. But on the other hand, you always wish there was more than one,” she explained.
“To get more black people in writing roles, it starts with education,” Robinson has observed. “A lot of people in general want to get into acting because they don’t know what’s available to them. When I was a kid, I just knew that I loved movies and wanted to be a part of movies or TV someday. I didn’t really know about any black writers,” she said. “I didn’t know that was a thing black people did, or know that black people were writing, editing, and shooting things, or that they were designing costumes. If you don’t see something, how are you supposed to know that it’s something you want, or that you can aspire to be it one day?” she asked. “As a young person, acting was the most relatable entry into the entertainment industry. Luckily, I was in a position doing theater and various acting programs and I had teachers who recognized my strength in writing and told me that.”
Robinson continued, “I don’t have advice in particular for black writers entering the entertainment industry, because so much depends on luck and a random opportunity, but the thing I will say is to just be prepared and to write. That has been the thing to carry me and still carries me,” she emphasized. “Never in my life will I be able to manufacture the moment that got me on ‘Atlanta.’ I was just quite literally at the right place at the right time for that opportunity. The reason I was able to grasp it and to keep it going was because I was prepared. I wrote all the time. I was constantly thinking about ideas. My biggest advice is to constantly be writing, constantly be reading, and then on top of that, to be honest about what you love.”
Last year Robinson signed an overall production deal with FX. The pact sees her developing TV series for FX Networks and other outlets. She’s also working on two feature screenplays. According to Glover, she’s in “high demand in Hollywood because she has a perspective no one else has and she’s really good at a young age.” The Emmy-winning creator, star, writer, and director of “Atlanta” added, “She can probably get whatever job she wants right now, but what’s cool about her is she focuses on the quality of the project.”
“My goal at FX is to do stuff that hasn’t been done before, or done from the voice of a 25-year-old black woman,” Robinson revealed when she inked her deal. “I’ll hopefully be working with people that I love working with, who inspire me and push me to be better.”
“Atlanta’s” second season concluded in May. The show will return for a third season on FX in 2019. Season 1 is streaming on Hulu.
Writer to Watch is a new monthly feature on Women and Hollywood. We’ll be highlighting women working in television and film.
