Warner Bros. TV Writers’ Workshop Announces Class of 2022
Row 1 (left to right): Nate Burke & Sam Rubinek, Benedict Chiu, Nikita DeMare, Ashlei Hardenburg-Cartagena
Row 2 (left to right): Cheech Manohar, Alyson Weaver Nicholas, Oriana Schwindt, Nic Chatree Sridej
(Burbank, CA) — Warner Bros. Television Group today announced the nine up-and-coming writers — out of more than 2,500 applicants — who have been selected for the 2021–22 edition of the Warner Bros. Writers’ Workshop, running from now through March 2022. For more than 40 years, the WBTV Writers’ Workshop has been the premier industry program for new writers looking to start and further their careers in the world of television. Each year, the Writers’ Workshop immerses participants in a comprehensive training program and introduces their work to the Studio’s top writers, producers, and executives, with the goal of securing a staff writing position on a WBTV–produced series. Nearly 100% of Workshop participants in the past decade have earned staff positions.
The following talented writers make up the Warner Bros. TV Writers’ Workshop Class of 2022:
- Nate Burke & Sam Rubinek have been collaborating on screenwriting and filmmaking since their undergraduate years at Brown University, where they bonded over their shared love of genre films and dystopian fiction. They pull from their rich family histories — Nate unpacking the relationship between his Jewish and African-American identities, and Sam grappling with the legacy of his grandparents’ survival of the Holocaust. They’ve held various roles in the industry while simultaneously writing and directing their own work. Currently, Nate is the script coordinator for NBC’s The Blacklist, and Sam is the script coordinator & showrunner’s assistant for Amazon’s Daisy Jones & The Six.
- Benedict Chiu is a Bay Area native whose parents are originally from Taiwan. He started writing and directing short films at USC and graduated with a joint degree in Business Administration and Cinematic Arts. He has worked at Amazon, NBCUniversal, APA, and Scott Free. His writing is often set in imaginative worlds and focuses on endearing underdog characters, as seen in his short films Sick Superhero and Dancing Shoes, and in the narrative podcast he recently co-created, Admit It. He is currently in post-production on his coming-of-age comedy short film S.Q.A.G. (Short Quiet Asian Girl).
- Nikita DeMare was born in Colorado but blames her love of all things strange and gloomy on growing up in Portland, OR. Her youth was made up of family picnics at local cemeteries, where she developed rich backstories for the deceased. In recent years, she’s taken that fascination with identity and connected back to her Native roots, funneling those stories into her writing. She studied cinema and television at Elon University and since then has worked various support jobs both in the TV-verse and out. She’s interested in baroque architecture and puzzling over all things mysterious — from dark matter to wherever that second sock disappears to.
- Queer German-Puerto Rican and thoroughbred Jersey girl Ashlei Hardenburg-Cartagena writes fast-paced character dramas with bite. Growing up around toxic machismo, she built a thick skin and a dark, off-the-cuff sense of humor. No stranger to identity crisis and coming out, her writing veers toward exploration and growth, with the occasional tug at the heartstrings. Ashlei has been honored in various competitions, including Final Draft’s Big Break and the Outfest Screenwriting Lab. She is a recipient of the RoadMap Writers Diversity Initiative and was a finalist for Impact x Skydance. Ashlei is a graduate of Vassar College and finds guilty pleasure in karaoke. She is repped by First Story Entertainment.
- Cheech Manohar is a comedy writer and actor born in Wollongong, Australia, and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. He’s best known for originating the role of Kevin Gnapoor, the rapping mathlete, in the Broadway company of Mean Girls. He also appeared as Sanjay on the HBO show Mrs. Fletcher. Cheech can next be seen in the Paramount+ film Jerry and Marge Go Large. He enjoys writing about and for the queer/South Asian communities in a way that makes them feel in on the joke. A Syracuse drama alum, he is represented by A3 Artists Agency.
- Recovering Texas debutante Alyson Weaver Nicholas grew up believing flawless evening wear and duck hunting skills were the key to upward mobility. She now lives in Los Angeles and writes stories about young people coming to terms with reality. Alyson is currently scripting a pilot for Wattpad Studios and was previously head writer/executive producer for the second and third seasons of the Snapchat series Two Sides. Her feature screenplay The Mars Generation earned her the Alfred P. Sloan Award for Screenwriting and is in development with Intrinsic Value Films. She holds an MFA in Writing for Screen & Television from USC and is repped by First Story Entertainment.
- Oriana Schwindt is thrilled to be writing for TV after a decade writing about TV for publications like Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide Magazine, Variety, and Vox. She counts The WB’s Angel and Warner Bros. Animation’s Batman: The Animated Series among her formative influences. When she isn’t writing, Oriana is staring in awe at the natural wonders of her new home state of California, cooking her mom’s Venezuelan ropa vieja, and co-hosting a monthly podcast on all things Tolkien, By-the-Bywater.
- Nic Chatree Sridej is a Thai American genre and mystery writer from North Georgia who loves all things magic, horror, and Twilight Zone weirdness. He writes about characters who find themselves on the outside looking in — misfits straddling worlds and expectations. Nic is a lifelong amateur magician, a former showrunner’s assistant on American Gods and Avatar: The Last Airbender, and a 2020 CAPE New Writers Fellow. He is managed by First Friday Entertainment.
These emerging writers join a highly accomplished and distinguished group of alumni of the WBTV Writers’ Workshop. Previous graduates of the prestigious pioneering program include Jeff Astrof (Trial & Error, upcoming Shining Vale), Jenna Bans (Good Girls, Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy), Felicia D. Henderson (The Quad, Gossip Girl, Fringe, Soul Food), Joe Henderson (Lucifer), Albert Kim (Sleepy Hollow, Nikita), Heather Mitchell (Still Star-Crossed, Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy), LaToya Morgan (Shameless, The Walking Dead, upcoming Duster), Michael Narducci (Superman & Lois, The Vampire Diaries, The Originals), Janine Sherman Barrois (ER, Claws, upcoming The Kings of Napa), Sonya Winton-Odamtten & Jonathan I. Kidd (Lovecraft Country), and many more.
The six-month Workshop consists of three components, all geared toward preparing writers for a successful career in television:
- Lectures: Participants attend weekly lectures featuring guest speakers working in television, including a mix of showrunners, directors, and executives. Each seminar will teach a new skill essential for excelling in a writers’ room as a staff writer and beyond.
- Simulated Writers’ Room: In this intensive writing experience, Workshop participants are required to complete a new spec script under the same deadlines typical for a show in production.
- Staffing: Studio executives will help participants who successfully complete the Writers’ Room component obtain a staff position on a WBTV series by introducing them and their material to the people who make the ultimate decisions — the showrunners.
Anyone over the age of 18 who can legally work in the United States and has not previously held a staff writer position is eligible to apply for the Workshop.
About Warner Bros. Television
One of the entertainment industry’s most-respected providers of original programming since its founding in 1955, Warner Bros. Television produces original scripted dramas, comedies, and limited series for multiple platforms. As of November 2021, Warner Bros. Television is producing more than 60 scripted series for on-demand/streaming services, premium/pay and basic cable channels, and the five broadcast networks.
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Contacts:
Rebecca Marks
rebecca.marks@warnerbros.com
Robert Pietranton
robert.pietranton@warnerbros.com