OnWriting: A Podcast of the WGA East

Geri speaks with Zack Akers, writer and co-director of SHIPWORM, about how the project is the first podcast to be covered on the Writers Guild Minimum Basic Agreement; the challenges and freedoms of writing for audio; and the roles that doctors working during the pandemic, a rented duck, and a rare & elusive type of mollusk have played in his creative process. Zack Akers, along with his creative partner, Skip Bronkie, run the podcast production company Two-Up, the studio known for groundbreaking fiction, musical and documentary podcasts like 36 QUESTIONS, THE WILDERNESS, and LIMETOWN—the last of which was also adapted into a TV series for Facebook Watch (and which is now available to stream on Peacock). His latest project is SHIPWORM: a first-of-its-kind feature-length scripted podcast. The two-hour narrative story stars Broadway luminary Quentin Earl Darrington as Wallace Conway, a small-town doctor who wakes up to find he's been implanted with an untraceable chip that allows a mysterious voice to lead him on a deadly journey that threatens his family, friends and his own life. The full podcast is now available on all streaming services. -- Read shownotes, transcripts, and other member interviews: www.onwriting.org/ -- Follow the Guild on social media: Twitter: @OnWritingWGAE | @WGAEast Facebook: /WGAEast Instagram: @WGAEast

To kick things off for Season 9, Geri is joined by Sierra Teller Ornelas and Mike Schur, co-creators — along with Ed Helms — of the new Peacock sitcom RUTHERFORD FALLS, to discuss how the series tackles big issues around race and culture with an abundance of humor; how they built an inclusive and equitable writers' room; and how television, and the world, is better off when we learn from history. Sierra Teller Ornelas is a Navajo and Mexican American writer, producer, and showrunner whose long list of past credits includes BROOKLYN NINE-NINE, SUPERSTORE, and SPLITTING UP TOGETHER. Mike Schur is a writer, producer, and actor who is probably best known as the co-creator of PARKS AND RECREATION and BROOKLYN NINE-NINE, the creator of THE GOOD PLACE, as well as a writer on THE OFFICE and SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE – among other things. Their latest project is the sitcom RUTHERFORD FALLS. The series—which was co-created by Ornelas, Schur, and Ed Helms, and for which Ornelas is showrunner—follows Nathan Rutherford and Reagan Wells, two lifelong friends who find themselves at a crossroads, quite literally, when their sleepy town gets an unexpected wake-up call. The complete first season premiered on April 22 and is available to stream on Peacock. -- Read shownotes, transcripts, and other member interviews: www.onwriting.org/ -- Follow the Guild on social media: Twitter: @OnWritingWGAE | @WGAEast Facebook: /WGAEast Instagram: @WGAEast

The WGAE Women's Salon presents a series of four live recordings of OnWriting in honor of Women's History Month. In each episode, we're speaking with women screenwriters whose latest projects center on women's stories. To wrap up the series, Geri speaks with Eliza Hittman, the writer and director of the acclaimed 2020 film NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS. Eliza Hittman is an award-winning writer and director from Brooklyn, NY. She is the writer and director of the 2013 drama IT FELT LIKE LOVE and the 2017 drama BEACH RATS, the latter of which earned her the 2017 Director Award at Sundance Film Festival. She is also the recipient of the Emerging Artist Award from Lincoln Center and is a 2018 Guggenheim Fellow. Her latest project is the drama film NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS. The film follows Autumn, a 17-year-old who, after learning that she's pregnant but unable to get an abortion without her parents' consent in her native Pennsylvania, embarks on a trip to New York City with her cousin Skylar in order to get an abortion there. The film premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, where it won a Special Jury Award for Neo-Realism. It also won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival. It is currently available to stream on HBO Max. -- Read shownotes, transcripts, and other member interviews: www.onwriting.org/ -- Follow the Guild on social media: Twitter: @OnWritingWGAE | @WGAEast Facebook: /WGAEast Instagram: @WGAEast

OnWriting presents the third in a series of four live recordings of OnWriting in honor of Women's History Month, presented by the WGAE Women's Salon. In each episode, we're speaking with women screenwriters whose latest projects center on women's stories. For the third installment in the series, Geri speaks with Jenny Lumet, the co-creator and showrunner of the new CBS series CLARICE. Jenny Lumet is a screenwriter and actress who is widely known for her screenplay for the acclaimed 2008 drama film RACHEL GETTING MARRIED, directed by the late, great Jonathan Demme. She is a writer-producer on STAR TREK: DISCOVERY, and is co-creator and showrunner of the forthcoming sci-fi series THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH. Her latest project is CLARICE — the CBS crime procedural drama series co-created by Lumet and Alex Kurtzman, and for which Lumet serves as showrunner. CLARICE takes a deep dive into the untold personal story of FBI Agent Clarice Starling (Rebecca Breeds) as she returns to the field in 1993, one year after the events of THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. Brilliant and vulnerable, Clarice's bravery gives her an inner light that draws monsters and madmen to her. However, her complex psychological makeup that comes from a challenging childhood empowers her to begin to find her voice while working in a man's world, as well as escape the family secrets that have haunted her throughout her life. The series premiered in February 2021 on CBS and is also available to stream on Paramount+. -- Read shownotes, transcripts, and other member interviews: www.onwriting.org/ -- Follow the Guild on social media: Twitter: @OnWritingWGAE | @WGAEast Facebook: /WGAEast Instagram: @WGAEast

OnWriting presents the second in a series of four live recordings of OnWriting in honor of Women's History Month, presented by the WGAE Women's Salon. In each episode, we're speaking with women screenwriters whose latest projects center on women's stories. For the second installment in the series, Geri speaks with Banban Cheng & Sasie Sealy — co-writers of LUCKY GRANDMA. Banban Cheng is a writer and filmmaker who spent her childhood performing Chinese stand-up comedy in Houston, Texas. Since then, she's traded the stage for writing and directing movies. Her screenplay TROUBLE TO THE HERD was the winner of the 2019 AsianCinevision SAG-AFTRA Screenplay Award and was a finalist at the 2019 Nashville Film Festival. She won the 2019 AsianCinevision SAG-AFTRA Screenplay Award for her screenplay TROUBLE TO THE HERD, was awarded NYU's Wasserman Prize for Filmmaking for her short film TEN & TWO, and received the Sloan Foundation feature screenplay award for her gothic drama SUGAR WATER. She is also the Creative Director of Format Development at TED, experimenting with and launching new forms of storytelling. Sasie Sealy is a writer and director with a love of striking visuals and cheeky scripts. She first made her mark in the commercial world of fashion and beauty, and her work in that industry has been featured in Glamour, Refinery29, Teen Vogue, Variety, and Style.com. Her short films have screened at the Smithsonian Institute and festivals around the world, and she has twice received the short film prize at the Tribeca Film Festival, first for DANCE MANIA FANTASTIC and then for THE ELEPHANT GARDEN. She was included on the 2020 Alice Initiative list of Emerging Female Directors and the New York Times' 2019 "9 Filmmakers Who Should Be on Your Radar" list. LUCKY GRANDMA—co-written by Cheng and Sealy and directed by Sealy—a funny and thrilling heist movies starring an ornery, chain-smoking, badass Chinese grandma (Tsai Chin) in New York City who goes all in at the casino, only to put herself and her family in the middle of a gang war. The film—which was the recipient of AT&T and Tribeca Film Festival's 2018 Untold Stories $1 million filmmaking grant—premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival and is currently available to stream on Hulu and Showtime. -- Read shownotes, transcripts, and other member interviews: www.onwriting.org/ -- Follow the Guild on social media: Twitter: @OnWritingWGAE | @WGAEast Facebook: /WGAEast Instagram: @WGAEast

OnWriting presents the first in a series of four live recordings of OnWriting in honor of Women's History Month, presented by the WGAE Women's Salon. In each episode, we're speaking with women screenwriters whose latest projects center on women's stories. For the first of these Women's History Month episodes, Geri speaks with Emerald Fennell — writer and director of the dark PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. Emerald Fennell is an actress, writer, and director. As an actor, she's known for starring in the BBC period drama series CALL THE MIDWIFE, as well as her role as Camilla Shand in the third season of the Netflix period drama THE CROWN. She also served as the KILLING EVE showrunner during its second season – for which she earned two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Her latest project is the Writers Guild Award-nominated black comedy thriller PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN – Emerald's feature film debut as both writer and director – follows Cassie (Carey Mulligan), who everyone said was a promising young woman ... until a mysterious event abruptly derailed her future. But nothing in Cassie's life is what it appears to be: she's wickedly smart, tantalizingly cunning, and she's living a secret double life by night. Now, an unexpected encounter is about to give Cassie a chance to right the wrongs of the past in this thrilling and wildly entertaining story. The film is currently in theaters and available to purchase on VOD. -- Read shownotes, transcripts, and other member interviews: www.onwriting.org/ -- Follow the Guild on social media: Twitter: @OnWritingWGAE | @WGAEast Facebook: /WGAEast Instagram: @WGAEast

OnWriting presents three live-taped episodes of OnWriting celebrating Black History Month, presented by the WGAE Black Writers Salon. In each installment, two co-chairs of the WGAE Black Writers Salon—OnWriting's own Geri Cole and Rashidi Hendrix—speak with Black screenwriters who have each written amazing films about Black icons in history. For the third & final installment of the series, Geri and Rashidi speak with Shaka King, co-writer and director of JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH. Shaka King is a screenwriter, director, and producer. His debut feature film, NEWLYWEEDS, premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and went on to win the Someone to Watch Award at the 2014 Independent Spirit Awards. He then cowrote and directed the short film MULIGNANS, with which he and cowriter Kristan Sprague competed in the USA Narrative Short Film Program at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and for which they received the Nantucket Film Festival Screenwriting Award. He also co-wrote and directed the 2017 short film LAZERCISM, starring LaKeith Stanfield. On the small screen, King has written and directed episodes of several series, including HIGH MAINTENANCE, SHRILL, and RANDOM ACTS OF FLYNESS. His latest project is JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH – the powerful true story of Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) – chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party – and his betrayal by FBI informant William O'Neal (LaKeith Stanfield), which led to Hampton being executed in bed in a pre-dawn raid by Chicago law enforcement. Screenplay by Will Berson and Shaka King; Story by Will Berson, Shaka King, and Kenny Lucas and Keith Lucas (better known as the Lucas Brothers); Directed by Shaka King. The film will be available to stream on HBO Max until Sunday, March 14. -- Read shownotes, transcripts, and other member interviews: www.onwriting.org/ -- Follow the Guild on social media: Twitter: @OnWritingWGAE | @WGAEast Facebook: /WGAEast Instagram: @WGAEast

OnWriting presents three live-taped episodes of OnWriting celebrating Black History Month, presented by the WGAE Black Writers Salon. In each installment, two co-chairs of the WGAE Black Writers Salon—OnWriting's own Geri Cole and Rashidi Hendrix—speak with Black screenwriters who have each written amazing films about Black icons in history. For the second installment in the series, Geri speaks to Suzan-Lori Parks — Pulitzer prize-winning playwright and screenwriter of the new Hulu feature film, THE UNITED STATES VS. BILLIE HOLIDAY. Suzan-Lori Parks was encouraged to take up playwriting by her then-college professor, James Baldwin. In 2002, she became the first African-American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Topdog/Underdog. She also wrote the screenplays for the Spike Lee-directed 1996 film GIRL 6, the 2004 adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston's THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD, and the 2019 film adaptation of Richard Wright's NATIVE SON. She is also a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant. THE UNITED STATES VS. BILLIE HOLIDAY is adapted from Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs by Johann Hari. It tells the story of the legendary Billie Holiday (Andra Day) as she's targeted by the federal department of narcotics with an undercover sting operation led by black federal agent Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes), with whom she has a tumultuous love affair. The film is directed by Lee Daniels and is currently available to stream on Hulu. -- Read shownotes, transcripts, and other member interviews: www.onwriting.org/ -- Follow the Guild on social media: Twitter: @OnWritingWGAE | @WGAEast Facebook: /WGAEast Instagram: @WGAEast

OnWriting presents three live-taped episodes of OnWriting celebrating Black History Month, presented by the WGAE Black Writers Salon. In each installment, two co-chairs of the WGAE Black Writers Salon—OnWriting's own Geri Cole and Rashidi Hendrix—speak with Black screenwriters who have each written amazing films about Black icons in history. To kick things off, we're joined by Ruben Santiago-Hudson and the screenwriter of MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM, which is currently available to stream on Netflix. Ruben Santiago-Hudson is a versatile talent who — in addition to his many acting credits in projects like BILLIONS and THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS — wrote the award-winning stage play for LACKAWANNA BLUES as well as its Emmy and Writers Guild Award-nominated TV film adaptation. MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM is an adaptation of the August Wilson play of the same name. The film, set in 1920s Chicago, follows a recording session where tensions rise between mother of blues Ma Rainey (Viola Davis), and her ambitious horn player named Levee (Chadwick Boseman). -- Read shownotes, transcripts, and other member interviews: www.onwriting.org/ -- Follow the Guild on social media: Twitter: @OnWritingWGAE | @WGAEast Facebook: /WGAEast Instagram: @WGAEast

Geri is joined by award-winning screenwriter Lena Waithe – creator of and writer on the BET comedy series TWENTIES – about never pandering to an audience, how the series A DIFFERENT WORLD influences her work, and how success can come in small doses. Lena Waithe is a screenwriter, producer, and actress known for her Emmy Award-winning writing on MASTER OF NONE, as well as for creating the Showtime drama series THE CHI and writing the screenplay for the 2019 film QUEEN & SLIM. Her latest project, TWENTIES, follows a young screenwriter and her best friends as they pursue their dreams in Los Angeles. The BET series premiered in March 2020 and was renewed for a second season in June. -- Read shownotes, transcripts, and other member interviews: www.onwriting.org/ -- Follow the Guild on social media: Twitter: @OnWritingWGAE | @WGAEast Facebook: /WGAEast Instagram: @WGAEast