Writers Guild of America West Announces 2022 TV Writer Access Project Honorees
Los Angeles – As part of the Writers Guild of America West’s continuing efforts to increase diversity and promote inclusiveness within the entertainment industry, the WGAW has announced its 2022 TV Writer Access Project (WAP) honorees: a diverse group of 13 writers whose work has been cited by a committee of upper-level writers and showrunners in Comedy (Half-Hour) and Drama (One-Hour) script categories.
2022 TV WAP Drama Honorees
- Erinne Dobson – The More Gone She’ll Be
- Skander Halim – Nathan X
- Anne-Marie Hess – Disturbed
- Allyssa Lee – Model Minority
- Kerri Brady Long – Blood Sport
- Laurie Parres – Life and Death and High School
- Barbara Soares – Username
- Tom Towler – Borderlands
2022 TV WAP Comedy Honorees
- Elysse Applebaum – Good Mom
- Christina De Leon – Open
- Jessie Gaskell – BumbleF*cked
- Lauriel Marger – Peaches
- Steve Westren – Before I Get Old
For more information about this year’s TV WAP honorees, and to access their work, click here.
The honorees will have their work spotlighted industry-wide via the Guild, as well as participate in a series of WGAW-hosted workshops in March designed to equip them with the skills sets and tools for successful television writing careers.
For TV WAP consideration, qualified WGAW members in five underrepresented categories—BIPOC writers, writers with disabilities, women writers, LGBTQ+ writers, and older writers (55+)—were eligible to submit an unproduced half-hour or one-hour spec script. Entries were read and scored on a blind submission basis by a panel of judges comprised of Guild members with extensive television writing experience.
The project, created in 2009 and administered by the WGAW’s Inclusion and Equity Department, is designed to identify and recognize outstanding and diverse writing talent, and provide access to their work to entertainment industry decision-makers, including showrunners, producers, network and studio executives, agents, and managers.
“Without question, the most influential experience of my career has been the TV Writers Access Project,” said 2015 honoree Karen Struck (The Good Doctor, For Life). “The program reshaped both how I thought of myself as a writer and how I presented myself. Even though I had been a staff writer previously, the program gave me a new perspective on the skills that are paramount to advancement: pitching, meetings, writers' room effectiveness, and polishing my personal story.”
“This program is what the Guild does best: writers helping writers to take stock, reinvent themselves, then move on to the next stage of their career,” said Glen Mazzara (Damien, The Walking Dead), co-chair of the WGAW’s Inclusion and Equity Group. “That peer to peer mentorship is invaluable.”
This year’s TV WAP received 236 total submissions from Guild members: 40 BIPOC, 39 LGBTQ+, 86 women, 66 55+, and five disabled writers.
The program enlisted WGAW members to serve as 136 first-round judges (74 drama / 62 comedy), and 76 second-round judges (42 drama / 34 comedy).
The Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) is a labor union representing writers of motion pictures, television, radio, and Internet programming, including news and documentaries. Founded in 1933, the Guild negotiates and administers contracts that protect the creative and economic rights of its members. It is involved in a wide range of programs that advance the interests of writers, and is active in public policy and legislative matters on the local, national, and international levels. For more information on the WGAW, please visit: www.wga.org.