NBCUniversal Welcomes 2020-21 Writers on the Verge Class

NBCUniversal has selected comedy writers Kim Tran, Shawn Parikh­, and Hakim 'Kimo' Hill along with drama writers Cristina Boada, Julian Johnson, Hussain Pirani, Sujana Gowni, and Eric Anthony Glover for its 2020-21 Writers on the Verge class.

Chosen from a highly talented applicant pool of more than 2,400 submissions, the new class joins the long-tenured initiative for emerging writers of diverse backgrounds. This year's program is taking place virtually.

Created in 2005, Writers on the Verge provides talented writers who are "on the verge" of breaking into episodic television with a final polish to their writing and pitch presentation skills in order to prepare them for a staff writing position following the completion of the program. Now celebrating its 15th anniversary, the program counts executive producers Brandon Margolis and Brandon Sonnier ("LA's Finest"), Keto Shimizu ("DC's Legends of Tomorrow") and Gina Monreal ("NCIS"), among its alumni.

After NBCUniversal's recent announcement that the company's diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across Film, Television and Streaming would be unified under one umbrella, Writers on the Verge is now under the purview of the Global Talent Development & Inclusion team that services the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, the entertainment television networks, streaming platforms and Universal Studio Group.

Last year's class saw four writers staffed on primetime series soon after finishing the program: Shirin Najafi on NBC's "Connecting...," Shani Am. Moore on Netflix's "Sweet Magnolias," Mitali Jahagirdar on Disney +'s "Just Beyond," and Maya Houston on The CW's "Batwoman."

Over the course of six months, the new class will develop pilot scripts and fine-tune their pitching skills under the guidance of Jen Grisanti, a former CBS/Paramount and Spelling TV executive. Writers will be paired with NBCUniversal programming executives who will serve as their mentors and provide feedback on their scripts and pitching prowess. They will also have the opportunity to build relationships with network executives, showrunners and agents. At the end of the program, the writers will be considered for available writing assignments across the NBCUniversal portfolio.