Career Path of a Staff Writer in a Television Writers Room

I went to UCLA for undergrad and studied film and television with a production focus. I always knew I wanted to be a screenwriter or writer for television. I mostly started writing on my own, balancing it with classes and my time on the crew team.

I challenged myself to seek feedback from my peers in film school and from my professors. During my senior year, I interned in the motion picture creative department at Paramount Pictures. I learned a lot about the pipeline for feature films.

The job market was tough in 2009 when I graduated. My first real opportunity didn't come on the feature side as I expected, but in television. A friend of a friend told me they were hiring a writer's production assistant for a short-lived Fox show called *Lone Star*.

I worked in the writer's room as a PA. For those who don't know, a PA is essentially a gopher: answering phones, stocking fridges, and making sure everyone has parking passes. It's not glamorous, but it gives you a lot of exposure to the inner workings of a writer's room, which is the brain trust of a TV show.

I gained great experience and, more importantly, made contacts that led to subsequent jobs. After that six-month gig, I was able to join a coworker from that show on *Homeland* for its first season as a writer's assistant. A writer's assistant has more responsibility; you're in the room with writers breaking the story, taking notes, and doing research.

You make sure everything said in the room is taken down and organized for script conversion. I spent two seasons on *Homeland*, during which we won the Golden Globe and an Emmy, which was amazing. Then, I had the opportunity to script coordinate for the first time on the CBS procedural *Unforgettable*.

Script coordinating is related to a writer's assistant but is much more technical. It's about the production, security, and distribution of scripts to all elements of the production. This includes the writer's room, studio, network, producing partners, production team, directors, and cast. It's very detail-oriented work involving proofing, formatting, and dealing with the legal team.

I did one season of that and then had the opportunity to move to *Suits* in the same role. I spent about three seasons script coordinating on *Suits* before I finally got the opportunity to write, which is probably the part most listeners are interested in.

As someone who always wanted to write, I knew this was the closest thing to a ladder. I made myself known and let people know I had been working on my craft. I had a writer's group where I developed material and got it in front of some writers. Ultimately, I had to wait for the opportunity to write a script.

This came in season seven of *Suits* when a freelance opportunity arose. Along with my writing partner at the time, Rob, who we had just started working with as assistants on the show, we were partnered on the script. They were impressed with our work, including the rewrite, and later in season seven, I was promoted to the writing staff as a staff writer.

I spent three seasons as a staff writer on *Suits*. Just a couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to start writing on the *Suits LA* spinoff, which has been very exciting. The previous couple of years were a bit more hectic and uncertain in the film industry. Our old boss invited Rob and me to come back for this new version of the show. So, we're back and crossing our fingers for 10 great seasons. That catches you up to today.