Frequently Asked Questions

The Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) is a labor union composed of the thousands of writers who write the television shows, movies, news programs, documentaries, animation, videogames and new media content that keep audiences constantly entertained and informed.

You can find the representation and contact information for Writers Guild members using our Find a Writer search function or call the Agency department at (323) 782-4502.

Yes. As a service to all writers, the Guild provides an online version of its Agency List. These agencies represent film, television and interactive writers and are licensed by the State of California. Each agency has its own submission policy. The WGAW recommends that a writer send a query letter, rather than submitting an unsolicited script. This letter should be concise, outlining relevant credentials and briefly describing the nature of the work.

See the Writers Guild Awards timeline for the date of the next Writers Guild Awards along with submissions and voting deadlines.

You can control how you prefer to receive awards-related material through your myWGA account. Members may choose physical (DVD) screeners and mail communications only; digital only, digital and physical; or no materials at all. Go to the Manage Mailing Addresses section to manage physical screeners. Digital screeners and awards-related e-blasts can be managed in Manage Email Subscriptions via the Digital Screeners option. If you need to add a new mailing address, contact the Membership Department or call them at (323) 782-4532.

No, screeners are sent from the companies who host them on their own FYC sites or viewing platforms.

Awards voting members are required to destroy FYC screeners and screenplays immediately after the awards season ends. Loaning, donating, or selling screeners and screenplays is not permitted.

Contact Harvin Rogas about how to become a Writers Guild Awards sponsor.

To apply for media/PR credentials for the Writers Guild Awards L.A. show, contact Communications Specialist Bob Hopkinson or call (310) 801-8563.

If you have a problem or question concerning bonuses, initial compensation, late payments, free work in television, merchandising, publishing or separated rights, program fees, theatrical reacquisition, videogames based on covered movies or TV shows, character payments, or other terms and conditions of your employment or sale of literary material to a signatory company, email the Contracts Department or call (323) 782-4501. If a signatory company has failed to pay you on time, go to our Late Pay Desk for more information.

If you have questions or concerns about credits or residuals, contact the Credits Department or the Residuals Department.

Working Rule 3.(b) requires that members send the Guild a copies of their contracts. Your writing contracts are a very important part of the Guild's enforcement efforts. If we do not have your contract on file, it may delay our enforcement efforts on your behalf. If the Guild does not have a copy of your contract, submit your contract now.

No. The Guild does not provide lawyer referrals. For help finding an entertainment attorney, try going to http://www.calawyersforthearts.org.

The Guild determines credits on WGA-covered projects once the Company submits a Notice of Tentative Writing Credits to the Guild and participating writers following the completion of principal photography. In certain cases, the proposed credits are subject to automatic arbitration, and in other cases, writers are given an opportunity to protest the proposed credits to trigger an arbitration. For more information on the credits process, please refer to the Screen and Television Credits manuals.

No. Guild membership is not a requirement to receive credit. If you work under Guild jurisdiction, you will be eligible to be a participating writer and seek credit in accordance with the Guild's credits procedures.

You should immediately email the Credits Department or call (323) 782-4528 so that the credits staff can investigate the status of the project and whether you are entitled to be a participating writer.

The word “and” designates that the writers wrote separately and an ampersand (“&”) denotes a writing team.

You should immediately email the Credits Department or call (323) 782-4528 so that the credits staff can investigate whether a credit violation has occurred.

To declare earnings and pay dues online, go to Dues & Earnings in your myWGA account. Read How to Declare Earnings for instructions on how to use the Dues Online system.

If you have questions about what earnings to declare and when to pay WGAW dues, read Declaring Your Earnings for WGAW Dues. For more information, questions or concerns, email the Dues Department or call (323) 782-4531.

WGAW committee activities and events are open to Current, Post Current, Associate, and Associate Caucus members in Active status. If you have questions about your member status, contact the Membership Department or call (323) 782-4532. Non-members can check the Writers Guild Foundation’s website for events open to the public.

No, the Guild Calendar only lists Guild-sponsored events.

Foreign levies are fees collected in some foreign countries to compensate rights holders for the copying, rental and retransmission of their films and television programs. The rights holders under foreign law include the “authors” of motion pictures and television programs. For more information, read the Foreign Levies Program FAQ or visit the Foreign Levies Program.

You can search the list of writers' names for whom the Guild is holding foreign levies but lacks payment information, or search the list of titles for which the Guild is holding foreign levies but has not identified the writer or lawful heir.

Email the Foreign Levies Department or call (323) 782-4607.

There are 11 Inclusion and Equity committees: the Asian American Writers Committee, Career Longevity Committee, Committee of Black Writers, Committee of Women Writers, Disabled Writers Committee, Jewish Writers Committee, Latinx Writers Committee, LGBTQ+ Writers Committee, Middle Eastern Writers Committee, Native American & Indigenous Writers Committee, and South Asian Writers Committee.

No. These meetings are for WGA members and associate members only.

Yes. While these committees serve the federally protected class groups defined by their name, each committee is open to any WGA member who would like to participate.

Employers may search for a WGAW member according to self-identified attributes. The information is available in Find a Writer. WGAW members must sign in or create a myWGA account. Select "Your member attributes" on your myWGA homepage. Make sure to select the "Yes" button next to “OK to Publish” for each attribute, then click bottom blue “Update Attributes” to save.

Use the website’s Find a Writer database to search for writers based on their experience and background.

Email the Inclusion and Equity Department to subscribe.

If you are a member of the media and would like to contact a Writers Guild member, email the Communications Department or call (323) 782-4574.

For press releases from the WGAW, go to our Press Room.

Read this list of requirements to join the Guild. For further information, contact the Membership Department.

Email the Membership Department or call them at (323) 782-4532.

If your email has changed, email the Membership Department, call them at (323) 782-4532, or log in to your myWGA account to update your address. Then follow these instructions to “whitelist” the WGA West with your email service provider to prevent it from being marked as SPAM.

There are four categories of WGAW membership as defined by the Constitution and By-Laws, Article IV, Sections 3 through 6.

Associate Membership – For writers who do not qualify for admission as Current members and choose to receive certain Guild services in exchange for payment of an annual service fee.

Current Membership – For writers who pay full dues and are eligible to vote in Guild elections and run for Guild office.

Post-Current Membership – For writers who no longer qualify for Current membership and choose to receive certain Guild services in exchange for payment of an annual service fee.

Emeritus Membership – For writers who no longer qualify for Current membership and do not choose Post-Current membership, or for writers who no longer qualify for Post-Current membership.

Only Current, Post-Current, Emeritus, Financial Core, and Associate WGAW members or their delegates are eligible to create myWGA accounts. Writers Guild of America, East members cannot currently access the system. Read this list of requirements to join the Guild. If you are a current WGAW member, refer to our myWGA Account Help FAQ or contact the Membership Department.

Contact the Producer-Writers Guild of America Pension and Health Plans at (818) 846-1015 or read their Pension and Health Fund FAQs on their website for more information.

Simply put, we cannot afford not to. Formed in 2008, the PAC has given the WGAW direct access to decision makers and allowed us to develop critical relationships with policymakers. The PAC allows us to fight against media consolidation and concentrated corporate power, for increased competition and opportunities for writers and to preserve and strengthen the labor movement. Collective bargaining remains our most important and powerful tool, but we must also exercise our political power in the legislative and regulatory process to advance the interests of writers.

Many of our supporters in Congress are engaged in a tough battles for reelection and many of our opponents are vulnerable in their races. If we don’t organize to support our allies, many of them might lose to candidates opposed to our issues.

Members can read more about the PAC here.

No. Federal election law prohibits using union dues to make contributions to federal candidates. The PAC is funded from voluntary contributions made by WGAW members.

New members are eligible to participate in the WGAW New Member Mentor Program, which places them on a team with an experienced, well-regarded Guild mentor for their first year. For more information, contact Member Organizing.

Conducted in partnership with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the WGA Showrunner Training Program is an important industry training program designed to help senior-level writer-producers and recent creators hone the skills necessary to become successful showrunners in today’s television landscape. For details regarding eligibility, evaluation criteria and more, read the WGA Showrunner Training Program FAQ. If you have any questions regarding the program, email the WGA Showrunner Training Program.

For information and questions about script registration, go to our Registration FAQ.

No. You can register material with the WGAW regardless of whether you are a member or not.

No. You can register material with the WGAW regardless of where you live.

Residuals are compensation paid for the reuse of a credited writer's work. Detailed answers to this and other general residuals questions can be found in the “Residuals Survival Guide.”

There is no “pipeline.” Since 2003, the Residuals Department has been using a “Rapid Residuals” system, which generally allows your checks to be mailed within 10 days of when they are received. We are unable to verify if anything is waiting to be mailed to you. For the status of current or past checks, please consult your myWGA account for details.

First and foremost, residuals are only due on WGA-covered projects. This means that the Company that hires you needs to be signatory to the WGA Agreement. To find out a Company's signatory status, contact the Guild's Signatories Department at (323) 782-4514. Remember: it is a violation of Working Rule no. 8 to work for a non-signatory Company.

Typically, residuals for theatrical projects are due to the Guild on a quarterly basis. Television projects are due either within 30 days of usage (if used on a Network) or within four months (most other usage). Please see the “Residuals Survival Guide” for more details.

Contact the Residuals Department at (323) 782-4700, or email the Residuals Department. The department will not only investigate any usage you report that may be overdue, but all exhibition markets for your project. If you wrote an episode of a series, they will check the entire series for unpaid residuals. Potential claims are researched on a first-in, first-out basis. Once they have completed their initial investigation, your claim will be assigned to a collections coordinator who will pursue any unpaid residuals and, if warranted, late fees.

Contact the Residuals Department at (323) 782-4700, or email the Residuals Department.

No. If you've received a residual check, it will then show up on your myWGA account but not necessarily in the same quarter in which you received the check.

Please wait until the item appears on your account. The Guild processes checks on a first in/first out basis as quickly as possible. Because of the large volume of checks received on a daily basis, especially when the quarterly residuals are due and at the year's end, there may be a substantial delay between the time when you receive your check and the detail appears on your myWGA account. This is because the Residuals Department processing staff must confirm each and every residual that is paid to ensure the correct writer is receiving the correct amount at the correct time.

If you are underpaid, they will pursue the balance due to you; if you are paid late, they will pursue late fees. This is just one of the many ways the Guild works to protect your rights and your patience is greatly appreciated. Once your check is listed, you can click on the check number and gain access to detailed information regarding the payment, including market usage.

Contact the Residuals Department at (323) 782-4700, or email the Residuals Department.

Contact the Residuals Department at (323) 782-4700, or email the Residuals Department.

Your residuals check is reissued by the company that issued the original check, not the Guild. Every company has its own process for check reissues and generally takes six weeks or more to reissue a residuals check once the request has been received from the Guild.

No. The Guild will retain records of the original check only. If you access your residual records using the internet and bring up the original check, it will include information regarding the new, reissued check.

Yes, we're happy to announce that direct deposit of residuals is now available. To register, 1) go to Residuals Payees and Deposits and select Click here to register at PaymentHub for direct deposit setup, 2) review your payees/loan out companies. If you have loanouts, please check and confirm that the information on myWGA is current and correct, including the Fed. ID numbers. If the Fed. ID is missing or incorrect, please follow the link on myWGA to submit corrections. If the site lists any loanouts that have been dissolved, please submit for correction, 3) click Register at PaymentHub. This will take you to the secure PaymentHub portal where you can register for direct deposit and set up bank account routing.

Once you're in the PaymentHub portal, the remaining registration process is generally intuitive, however if you get stuck, please review the commonly asked questions about direct deposit on our FAQ section. If you need additional assistance, contact the Online Services Department or (323) 782-4141.

Contact the company that issued your check. The Guild does not issue W-2s.

A payroll company might void out your check for many reasons, such as if you have a tax lien or garnished wages. The check itself is your property and might contain important information for your records. The Guild will still process the gross amount of the check in order to track the fact that the Company met its residuals obligation. For check details, contact the payroll company that issued it.

Email the Membership Department or call them at (323) 782-4532.

Call the Writers Guild-Industry Health Fund at (818) 846-1015 or visit their website.

Email the Legal Department or call (323) 782-4521.

Read Explanation of Disbursement of Residual Payments After Death for a description of the residual compensation payable to beneficiaries under the Writers Guild of America Theatrical and Television Basic Agreement ("MBA"). For questions, email Estates/Trusts or call (323) 782-4612.

The Guild has a number of resources available for members. If you are a member, check them out at wgaplatform.org.

Yes. For technical advice, see FYI List/Ask the Expert.

No. To find resources and programs about screenwriting, go to the Writers Guild Foundation website. Their FAQ provides a list of information about script formatting, treatments, pitching, script libraries, copyright, screenwriting contests, writing classes and groups and other useful resources.

Once deal terms are negotiated, the company will need to complete and return the signatory application found on the Become a Signatory webpage. There are no application fees. 

The application will be processed within 2-4 business days of receipt. The length of time it takes to become signatory depends entirely on the company’s response time to Signatory staff’s revision or additional documentation requests.

Yes. Additional financial assurances may be required including an Article 42 bond. Please contact the Signatories Department for more information. 

Yes. Restrictions to Pension & Health and Membership eligibility may apply. Please contact Pension & Health eligibility or the Membership Department directly for eligibility requirements.  

No. Working Rule 8 states no member shall accept employment with, nor option or sell literary material to, any person, firm or corporation who is not signatory to the applicable MBAs.

Contact the Signatories Department at (323) 782-4514 or via email Signatories to confirm a company’s signatory status. You may also use the Signatory Confirmation Lookup webpage.

No. WGA members must confirm the company is signatory to the applicable Basic Agreement prior to signing the writing agreement.

Yes. Signatory companies must adhere to the Basic Agreement no matter the writer’s membership status. Option, sale or employment with a signatory may make a writer eligible for WGA membership. Contact the Membership Department for additional information. 

Yes. When all rights, title and interest in the covered literary material are assumed by another company, it is the signatory entity’s responsibility to submit a Literary Material Assumption Agreement (LMAA) to the Signatories Department. Contact the Signatories Department for more information.

A company contracting with a WGA member must sign to the Canadian Sideletter Agreement and the member must obtain a Working Rule 8 waiver prior to commencing employment. There are no application fees. Email the Signatories Department to begin this process.

Canadian Sideletters are signed on a per project basis. 

Working Rule 8 waivers are only issued for WGA members employed on Canadian WGC covered projects. Contact the Signatories Department for more information or complete the Working Rule 8 waiver request form. 

For more information and questions about the Writers Guild Theater, go to our Theater FAQ.