There’s a chance all you know about me is that I ran for WGAW Board of Directors in 2019, but stepped aside before the deadline to take my name off the ballot in order to let the election be a clean proxy vote for the ATA action.
I’m proud of what I did last year, and I’m honored to be included in a fantastic field of candidates this cycle. It’s an understatement to say this is a very different election.
About Me
Before I tell you what I hope to achieve on the Board, allow me to (re-)introduce myself.
I joined the Guild in 2012, after several years as a writers assistant on various series. I’ve been on two TV staffs, where I had to repeat Staff Writer. But I didn’t grow up on a TV staff. Most of my work has been in development. I’ve sold pilots both off pitches and as specs. Since 2017, I’ve served the Guild as a Contract Captain and as a TV Captain. I’m part of the WGAW PAC working group and the LGBTQ+ Committee.
Though I write primarily in television, the last five years of my career much more closely resembles that of a Feature writer.
I live and die based on pitches and spec-ing out scripts. I do an unfathomable amount of free work. This is all without the safety net of a weekly paycheck from being on a show staff or under an overall deal. Due to the scourge of free work, there have even been periods where I lost my health insurance.
Mine is a new kind of TV writer trajectory that wouldn't have been thinkable when I first arrived in Los Angeles: the “TV writer in development.”
And I’m far from alone. Thanks to small rooms and short orders, my experience is becoming increasingly common, especially among our newer members.
I strongly believe this career path needs to be represented on the Board.
In addition to the above, out of sixteen candidates put forward by the Nominating Committee, I am the only one who self-identifies as queer in their Guild profile.
At the start of the ATA action, I co-founded “The Rainbow Pages,” an independent database of LGBTQ+ WGA members. This was an effort to make sure queer voices are part of the inclusion conversation, and to supply producers, executives, and showrunners with an easily accessible list of queer writers to meet, to read, and to hire.
By electing me to the Board, you will ensure there is another queer voice in the boardroom, and you will add a strong advocate for all five Guild-recognized categories of underrepresented groups: minority writers; writers with disabilities; women writers; writers age 55 and over; and LGBTQ+ writers.
Bridging the Feature-TV Divide
Thanks to my vantage as a TV writer in development, I can communicate why issues affecting Feature writers should be important to TV writers.
Simply put, it’s because they are coming for us, too.
While some say streaming is turning all content into TV, I’ve had a front row seat to something quite different. TV careers are becoming more itinerant, more irregular, more feast-and-famine… in short, more like Features. TV writers ignore this at our peril.
I won’t pretend to know all the ins and outs of every issue affecting Feature writers, but I can tell you two things.
First, I’m listening and looking to learn.
Second, our Guild is strongest when we fight not just for ourselves but for each other, and I’m a TV writer who is ready and willing to fight for Feature writers.
Prior to the pandemic, a lot of Guild members expected the 2020 MBA negotiation to be one that pushed hard on chronically-ignored Features issues. I’m disappointed we didn’t make significant progress on those, or for teams, or on inclusion, all of which were core tenets of my 2019 candidacy. But, given the new circumstances of COVID-19, I believe the Negotiating Committee secured the best deal possible.
2020 WGAW Election Issues
While I’m ready to rattle sabers on Features issues in 2023, the reality is, the two-year term of anyone elected to Board this cycle doesn’t include our next negotiation with the AMPTP.
Rather, I see this election as a cultural one. It’s about what Guild members are willing to do for each other, and what we ask of each other, regardless of our studio partners. My attitude is that, in many cases, we don't need to wait for the AMPTP to agree to put something in the MBA for us to do the right thing ourselves.
This is especially true in TV, where we always say “writers hire writers.” This fact, more than anything else, is why showrunners are so powerful. Many of my ideas and proposals are “best practices” that rely on this power, and ask showrunners to use it on behalf of their fellow Guild members. Key areas include:
- Assigning Freelance Scripts: Helping Members Maintain Healthcare Eligibility, Providing TV Experience for Feature Writers, and On-Ramping the Next Generation of WGA Members
- Inclusion & Equity: Starting with the First Hire
- Mentorship: Writers Reading and Boosting Writers
- The Staffing Submission System: Utilizing a Game-Changing Tool
I recognize these issues all have their own complexities and challenges. But each one is a choice any individual showrunner can make. Importantly, I am not asking anyone to do anything I’ve not already done, or that I’m not committed to doing when a piece of my development goes forward and puts me in the position to do so.
Writers do not hire writers in Features, but I don’t believe we need to wait for the next MBA negotiation to work on curbing abusive practices. Instead of leaving it to individual members to complain about endless free rewrites and risk blowback, the Guild can play the heavy. Let’s put the town on notice through proactive, organized outreach to producers. It’s a fact that people behave better when they believe they’re being observed. Well, we’re watching.
Finally, I want to help the Guild’s efforts to organize Video Game writers into our ranks. The gaming industry is massive, with global annual revenue that rivals both TV and Features, and is only growing larger. Several major game studios are even part of the same companies that comprise the AMPTP. Writing is certainly a large part of many video games’ success, and so writers should share in it.
Yet, many Video Game writers work on a freelance or permalance basis, with no pay minimums, no residuals or profit-sharing, and no pension plan or health benefits. This group already includes some WGA members: TV and Feature writers who have crossed over, whether to fill a gap or simply as a new revenue stream.
At the moment, writing for Video Games is a lot like Animation in that, on a project-by-project basis, a writer can push for a game to be covered by a limited WGA contract (the IPC). It’s not an easy thing for an individual to do when facing a large corporation, or even when working for an indie game developer. What I don’t want is for Video Games to actually become like Animation, where writers are part of a separate union. Once that happens, it’s legally very difficult to untangle.
This will be no small task. But the challenge also presents an opportunity. The gaming industry is not yet organized on any level. That may soon change. We have the chance to bring Video Game writers under our umbrella, to make Video Game writing a viable career option for WGA members who want to maintain their health insurance, and to have these projects contribute to our pension and health funds, thereby expanding and strengthening our Guild. This is both the right thing to do, and the right time to do it.
In Solidarity.
