WeForShe
A women's advocacy group that finds practical ways to bring about a gender-balanced landscape in television.
THE 2019 WRITEHER LIST
WeForShe would like to thank everyone who supported the creation of our 5th annual WriteHer List. It is our honor to announce the 2019 WriteHer List!
Congratulations writers!
YAEL GALENA
1-900-BITCHIN
Set in 1986, 1-900-BITCHIN follows Debbie, an unfulfilled stay-at-home mother of four, who is forced to work as a phone-sex operator after her husband’s arrest. Feeling empowered for the first time in her life, she forges a friendship with badass feminist Marlene, and together they start a meaningful side-hustle: an underground advice line for women.
Contact: John Tomko & Corrine Aquino at RMG | Maude Reilly & Tasha Brown at APA
Genre: Hour
EMMA JAY
ALMOST OLYMPIAN
Maddy almost went to the Olympics. Almost; meaning she was literally one place away from making it. She blames all of her current problems on being a competitive rhythmic gymnast for her whole childhood, and has nothing to show for it. Now that she’s an adult with no other skills or interests, she is forced to become a gymnastics coach and inflict this "useless" sport on young, uncoordinated, children.
Contact: Paul Weitzman at Abrams Artists
Genre: Half Hour
TIFFANY EZUMA
B.B.B.W.
Set in the South, a plus-size Nigerian-American woman tackles dating, work, and her over-bearing, marriage-obsessed family.
Contact: Bash Naran & Lauren Dineley at Writ Large
Genre: Half Hour
SIMRAN BAIDWAN
BIRDIE
BIRDIE is a complex family drama centered around a devoted mother and highly regarded OB/GYN who reluctantly becomes the leader of a new American revolution after the passing of a 28th Amendment which has taken away all women's reproductive rights.
Contact: Nancy Etz & Adam Biren & Angela Dallas CAA | A.B. Fischer at Literate
Genre: Hour
MARGUERITE MACINTYRE
BLISSFIELD
A dangerous coming of age story, Blissfield is the story of three sixteen-year-old best friends -- Nessa, Lacey, and Annie -- who all become involved with the same charismatic stranger, new teacher Nick Reed, drastically changing the course of each of their lives.
Contact: Grant Kessman & Olivia Blaustein at CAA
Genre: Hour
VAN B NGUYEN
CASUALTIES
A conflicted Caucasian officer, a grieving African-American mother, and an introverted Asian-American witness, CASUALTIES explores three very different lives turning upside down with the challenges they face after a police shooting of a young unarmed man.
Contact: Lucy Stutz & Jacqueline Mosher | Rain Management
Genre: Hour
ARIELLE DIAZ
DISRUPTED
Three Silicon Valley tech girls grapple with their ambition while trying to balance life, work, and love in a hyper-connected city.
Contact: Brandon Lawrence at CAA | Michelle Knudsen at MXN Entertainment
Genre: Half Hour
REBECCA FELDMAN
LA COYOTE*
On the precipice of the 2016 Presidential election, Wilma, an El Salvadoran nanny and her employer, Lois, a Jewish dentist divorcee embark on a new business - human smuggling. An intimate look at how two women from different worlds maintain work-life balance while secretly operating as unhinged vigilantes.
Contact: https://www.rebeccafeldman.me/contact
Genre: Hour
* Big Kid Pictures attached
LAVETTA CANNON
OUTTA FLORIDA
A bright, young black girl must navigate her way through childhood with her dysfunctional, but loving family sabotaging her at every turn - even into adulthood. Think if Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt had “hood twins” with Everybody Hates Chris and This Is Us!
Contact: Todd Diener at Untitled
Genre: Half-Hour
NNEKA SAMUEL
REJIG
A young woman's obsessive compulsive disorder takes a turn for the worse after she discovers her ex-boyfriend is newly engaged. Now, she must learn how to navigate work, love and life in the aftermath of her new normal.
Contact: nnekasamuel10@gmail.com
Genre: Hour
JULIE MANDEL-FOLLY
SAFE SPACE
Paralyzed by the prospect of her uncertain future, a flailing Millennial seeks purpose and validation through her (somewhat misguided) involvement in a local murder investigation.
Contact: Allan Halderman & Abby Glusker at UTA
Genre: Half Hour
KIMBERLY ROSE-WOLTER
SHE SAID...
Chloe has it all: a family, a nice house and a good job as the only female professor of biology at a prestigious public university. But when her TA accuses a professor, the man Chloe’s been having an affair with, of sexual assault, Chloe’s ideal life disintegrates in search of the truth.
Contact: Dan Halstead at Manage-ment
Genre: Hour
DEANNA SHUMAKER
THE APOLOGY TOUR
After a particularly bad day, an aspiring singer/songwriter wishes she could skip over the hard part and just be successful already. The next morning, she wakes up to find her wish has come true: it’s ten years later, and she has Taylor Swift-level fame, but she’s lost all her friends (and herself) along the way.
Contact: deannashumaker@gmail.com
Genre: Half Hour
GILLIAN HORVATH
THE BOOK OF RUTH
Ruth is a teenage assassin, made invulnerable and unaging by unspeakable experimentation in World War II. She's on a lifelong mission to take out the next Hitler before he becomes Hitler. The world is full of targets. But after 60 years of killing, she's looking for a better way. She's going to try saving the troubled instead of killing the corrupt. Or maybe a little of both.
Contact: Lee Dinstman at APA
Genre: Hour
EMMA DUDLEY
THE NEW KINGS OF WEST HOLLYWOOD
After discovering that her husband is cheating on her, a closeted Midwestern stay-at-home wife has a quarter life crisis and decides to visit her free-spirited lesbian friend who owns a bar in West Hollywood. Harboring an age-old crush, she throws herself into helping the bar get back on its feet and starts on her path of discovering her truest self performing as a drag king.
Contact: Bradford Bricken & Matthew Ellis at The Cartel
Genre: Hour
CAROLINE LEVICH &
MICHELLE BADILLO
THORNS
Rosa is a queer performance artist and up-and-coming Instagram star who started her online persona in spite of her abusive ex. She’s now becoming tired of keeping up her double-life when she realizes she needs to turn her attention to the “real her.”
Contact: Dan Norton and Katie Cates at ICM | Marc Provissiero and Eva Dickerman at Odenkirk-Provisseiero
Genre: Hour
JENNY DEIKER-RESTIVO
VESTA
2080. With Earth’s resources dwindling, the need for space colonization is looming. On the first off-world colony, scientist Sylvie Domingo discovers that Vesta, the planet itself, is subtly altering the colonists DNA and may even be responsible for a colleague's death.
Contact: Noah Jones, The Gersh Agency | Tom Carter, Artillery Creative
Genre: Hour
NILANJANA BOSE-CIUPINSKA & JAKUB CIUPINSKI
WINTEROVERS
A mind-bening science-fiction thriller about a group of international scientists stationed in Antartica who accidentally wake up a primordial force located thousands of feet beneath the ice. More than just a genre thrill-ride, WINTEROVERS will explore timely themes about our environment in series.
Contact: Corey Trent Ackerman & Evan Corday at The Cartel
Genre: Hour
EVE CRUSTO
PASADENA*
PASADENA is a post-World War II drama about a tenacious Black woman who moves her family to California in hopes of a better life, but when she discovers her husband wants them to pass for White in an exclusive all-White neighborhood, she must decide to either agree to the plan or rebel against it.
Contact: eve.crusto@gmail.com
Genre: Hour
*Wonder Twins Entertainment is currently attached
TESS RAFFERTY
WOMEN OF MYSTERY
After a whiskey fueled late night twitter rant tanks her TV writing career, JULES escapes to her hometown to live above her beloved aunt’s mystery bookstore, only to find herself the prime suspect when her aunt is actually murdered. In order to prove her innocence, Jules is forced to rely on JACKIE and M.J., two celebrated, local mystery authors, to help sort through the past and its effect on the present so that she can bring the murderer to justice and begin a new chapter of her professional life.
Contact: Robin Budd Viewfinder Management
Genre: Hour
ONES TO WATCH
MEG JACKSON
A MATTER OF PRINCIPLE
This legal dramedy follows the complicated relationship between Maggie Principle, a brilliant but headstrong young lawyer, and her mom Rebecca, a trailblazing conservative U.S. Senator. Marginalized by polarizing politics, Rebecca sets her sights on the Oval Office. But Maggie’s fondness for bizarre and controversial cases could destroy her mother's chance to make history.
Contact: Vanessa Livingston & Camran Shafii at Rothman Brecher Agency | Adesuwa McCalla at MetaMorphic Entertainment
Genre: Hour
KAROLYN CARNIE
DAMNED
Once, a powerful protector, Assata, who left her life of hunting daemons in her past gets dragged back in for what she thinks is one more job when her mother goes missing. But, when she finds out her mother is actually working with the King of Hell, and was sent to the past to stop angels from killing Assata, she'll find out heaven and hell isn't so simple as she tries to stop the "good guys" from hitting the restart button on humanity.
Contact: J.D. Sobol of Pebble Entertainment |
Genre: Hour
SPINDRIFT BECK
PERFECT
Professional gymnast Chelsea Hunter has spent her entire life working toward one goal: an Olympic berth. But when she wakes up in a mental hospital mere weeks after narrowly missing qualifying for the 2020 US Team, she finds herself piecing together more than just the circumstances of her arrival.
Contact: Lauren Dineley & Matt Dartnell | Writ Large
Genre: Half-Hour
MEGAN GRAY
PLOT
Emily Summers is an aspiring novelist who’s day job is touring the country to blog about regional food festivals. When she stumbles upon an adorable small town not found on any map, she begins to suspect it is keeping a very big secret.
Contact: meganmgray@gmail.com
Genre: Hour
NICOLE AVENIA
THE CANTERBURY TALES
The Canterbury Tales, a one-hour drama series, is a fairy tale gone awry exploring sexual awakening amidst horrors both literal and figurative. When troubled, new girl Angela arrives at Canterbury Girls Prep School, located in the quiet NY Hudson Valley, she battles adolescence amidst an incubus haunting that causes havoc at the school and resurfaces a cold case about a Canterbury girl who went missing ten years earlier.
Contact: Jill Gillett, Sylvie Rabineau, Lauren Szurgot at WME | Robin Budd at Viewfinder Management
Genre: Hour
ABOUT THE WRITEHER LIST
Since the beginning, the WriteHer List has been anchored in shining a light on talented female writers and the diverse, compelling, original stories they have to tell. For five years, it has been our honor to curate a range of voices reflecting the rich perspectives that make up our human experiences. Nearly 100 women have been featured on our annual list, which has led to these writers finding passionate representation, being staffed, and placed into development deals. We are also very proud to have featured scripts now making their way to the small screen.
The surge in rallying cries for authentic female-driven narratives has led to some improvement, yet we know there is more to be done. We, as a community, have experienced other "watershed moments" for women in Hollywood, only to see a retreat in the advances made to reach gender-balanced television. So we thank you for being relentless partners in this effort. This was another competitive year with an over 50% increase in nominations. As you'll see again in the wide range of narrative styles, perspectives, and levels of industry experience on this year's list - it is well worth all of our efforts.
Thank you for your continued support. Onwards to parity and a most hearty congratulations to our 2019 WriteHer List Honorees!
We would also like to thank our industry partners for their continued support of WeForShe and our programs.
