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Exclusive: Rideback Rise, the non-profit accelerator seeking to advance racial equity through mainstream entertainment from Poc creators, has announced its 2025 Fellowship cohort of 15 mid-career writers, filmmakers and creators who will be financially and creatively supported as they develop market-ready television and film projects.

They are Aitch Alberto, Kerry Coddett, Morgan Collins, Melody Cooper, Alesia S.C. Etinoff, Carolyn Huynh, Taietsarón:sere Leclaire aka Tai Leclaire, Michael Yuchen Lei, Elaine Loh, Andrew Lopez, Kelly Luu & Kevin Luu, Paloma Riojas, Keith Sweet II, and Sunny Tripathy.

Clockwise from Top Left: Elaine Loh, Andrew Lopez, Kevin Luu, Kelly Luu, Paloma Riojas, Keith Sweet II, and Sunny Tripathy

Fellows were selected from more than 500 applicants, in a 25+% increase from the last application pool. Each will receive an unrestricted $40K grant for the year-long Fellowship. Fellows are also eligible to access a Development Fund to secure underlying rights to material and/or to create presentations, short...

Exclusive: Industry Entertainment is expanding its talent and literary departments with the hire of Emma Lewis and former A3 literary agent Kasey Muraszko as managers.

Lewis moves to Industry from Untitled. After beginning her career at ICM, she transitioned into management after serving as a talent agent at Paradigm for several years. At Industry she’ll continue to manage clients including Brooke Smith, who will next be seen in the upcoming second season of Netflix’s The Recruit, Chiara Aurelia (Peacock’s Hysteria!), Chandler Kinney, Alisha Newton (My Life with the Walter Boys) and Alison Sudol. At Industry, Lewis will serve in the talent department and will continue to develop and help navigate her clients through the diverse landscape of entertainment today.

Muraszko comes to Industry from A3 where she fostered the careers of numerous writers including Elaine Loh (Dynasty,...

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One of the issues at the heart of the WGA strike continues to be mini-rooms and the impact they’ve had — and could continue to have — on television shows. But, as WGA members who spoke with TheWrap note, the rooms have an emotional impact on writers, too.

A mini-room is a practice in which a television creator assembles a writers’ room to create multiple scripts — sometimes even an entire season’s worth — for a show, often before the title has even been greenlit. With these scripts in hand, a network or streamer will make a decision as to whether or not the show is good enough to go on.

In our latest strike roundtable, “Roswell, New Mexico” writer Danny Tolli — speaking alongside Dylan Guerra (“The Other Two”), Elaine Loh (“Gossip Girl...

"People deal with the loss of a loved one in a lot of ways..." The first official trailer has debuted for an indie revenge drama titled A Patient Man, marking the feature directorial debut of veteran editor Kevin Ward. Tom has been in a terrible car accident. After four months of recovering from his injuries, he starts the long process of putting his life back together again. And also begins planning revenge on the person responsible. It's pretty obvious from the trailer what's going on, so it's not really a spoiler or anything, but this does look like a tricky setup for a film to make you wonder what's really happening. Jonathan Mangum stars with Tate Ellington, plus a small cast including Kelsey Scott, David Jahn, Elaine Loh, and Amir Talai. This looks like a low key psychological drama that may be worth a watch. I also dig the minimalistic poster.

As SAG-AFTRA’s two factions threaten to fracture the guild further – now they’re threatening to see each other – independent presidential candidate Jane Austin has embarked on a campaign to unify the 160,000-member union in advance of next year’s negotiations for a new film and TV contract.

Saying that “the two-party slate system represents an antiquated system that no longer effectively serves the interests of the membership,” Austin now is rolling out her endorsements for board candidates from both parties – incumbent president Gabrielle Carteris’ Unite for Strength slate and challenger Matthew Modine’s Membership First opposition slate. Austin, currently the guild’s national secretary-treasurer, was elected to that post two years ago on the Membership First slate.

“Based on the board candidates’ statements, and my experience working with them, I’ve chosen to support these specific candidates no matter what slate they’re on because I know...

Unite for Strength, the ruling party of SAG-AFTRA, announced its slate of candidates today in the union’s upcoming elections.

Michelle Hurd, currently serving on the national board, will be running for president of the Los Angeles local; Clyde Kusatsu and Ellen Crawford will be running for vice president slots. Kusatsu is currently the national vice president from La, and Crawford is a national board member. As previously reported, Camryn Manheim will be running for national secretary-treasurer as president Gabrielle Carteris’ running mate.

Two candidates are challenging Carteris for president: Jane Austin, currently the guild’s national secretary-treasurer who’s running for president as an independent, and Matthew Modine, who is running at the top of the ticket for Membership First. His slate has yet to be announced.

In New York, Rebecca Damon, national executive vice president and New York president, is running for re-election as New York president.

In today’s roundup, Fox Nation announces a fresh slate of programming for the summer and HBO announces the recipients of its HBOAccess Writing Fellowship.

Development:

HBO has announced the recipients of its 2019 HBOAccess Writing Fellowship. The eight writers selected out of the 3,000 submissions will participate in an 8-month program of master classes and ongoing mentorship with HBO executives as they develop a pilot script for the network. The winners are: Darnell Brown, Elaine Loh, Melody Cooper, Danielle Iman, Lucy Luna, Eddie Mujica, Jessica D. Shields, and Ivan Tsang.

Executive News:

Igal Svet is set to become Discovery Channel’s new vice president of production and development where he’ll oversee the network’s documentaries, specials, and Shark Week. The executive comes from National Geographic and was previously the head of development at 2C Media.

Programming:

Fox Nation has announced a fresh slate of programming for this summer, including new...

HBO has selected eight writers for its 2019 HBOAccess Writing Fellowship, an eight-month program that offers master classes and mentorship with a creative executive as writers develop a pilot script for the premium network.

The program, done in conjunction with the WGA, begins with a week-long intensive workshop covering story structure, character development, genre writing, getting an agent and other topics before fellows turn to their pilots. Previous participants have gone on to work on HBO series including The Deuce, The Nevers and the upcoming Lovecraft Country.

“Selecting our fellows is always an exciting time for us,” Kelly Edwards, HBO’s Svp Talent Development, said in a release Thursday announcing this year’s class, selected from more than 3,000 submissions in the program’s third year. “This process introduces us to so many incredibly talented, emerging writers. We know they all have bright futures ahead of them.”

The HBOAccess writing program runs every other year,...