Walt Disney Television Writing Program Names 2020 Participants

Walt Disney Television (WDT) has selected 13 writers for its 2020 Writing Program. Widely recognized as one of the entertainment industry's most successful programs of its type, the initiative offers advanced professional development before participants are hired as staff writers on WDT shows during the program year. Additionally, one of the 13 writers has been awarded Disney Channel's Eunetta T. Boone Comedy Writer's Scholarship, established by the network in honor of the late writer/producer for diverse and aspiring comedy writers.

On the comedy side, participants include "Family Guy" writers' assistant Allyson Philobos (Corona, California), stand-up comedian Feraz Ozel (Los Gatos, California), feature film line producer Gabriela Lugo (Managua, Nicaragua), reality television producer Tasha Henderson (Dallas, Texas) and advertising exec-turned-development-assistant Vicky Castro (Miami, Florida). Drama writers include television feature writer Adrian Vina (Edinburg, Texas), "Evil" writers' production assistant David Ramirez (Bogota, Colombia), "black-ish" production assistant Keisha Ansley (Tallahassee, Florida), "Narcos" writers' assistant Paola Villegas (La Paz, Bolivia), writer/producer T Zhang (Hunan, China), "Grey's Anatomy" producers' assistant Zaiver Sinnett (Cairo, West Virginia) and "Dynasty" writers' production assistant Zoe Cheng (Cincinnati, Ohio). News marketing associate and former writers' assistant Darnell Jones (Lansing, Michigan) has been named the Disney Channel Eunetta T. Boone Comedy Writer Scholar.

This past season, the 2019 writers secured staffing assignments on ABC shows "The Good Doctor," "The Rookie," "mixed-ish," "United We Fall," "The Baker and the Beauty" and "The Goldbergs," and Disney Channel's "Just Roll With It."

Formerly known as the Disney|ABC Writing Program, the program now serves as a launching pad for writers across all broadcast, cable and streaming platforms under Walt Disney Television, including Hulu and the recently acquired FX, FOX 21 Television Studios, Twentieth Century FOX Television and National Geographic. The program has kickstarted the careers of many established and award-winning writers, producers and showrunners for hit shows, including "Grey's Anatomy," "Scandal," "Breaking Bad," "Mad Men," "Psych" and more. It also was the starting point for show creators such as Veena Sud ("The Killing," "Seven Seconds"), Jane Espenson ("Warehouse 13") and Erica Montolfo-Bura ("Zoe Ever After"); showrunners Dailyn Rodriguez ("Queen of the South"), Saladin Patterson ("The Last O.G."), Ayanna Floyd Davis ("The Chi") and Aseem Batra ("I Feel Bad"); and alumni with production overall deals at WDT including Peter Saji ("mixed-ish") and Tim Doyle ("The Kids Are Alright").

"The Creative Talent Development & Inclusion team is proud to launch this extremely talented group of writers into the next phase of their career," said Tim McNeal, vice president, Creative Talent Development & Inclusion. "Their drive and diverse backgrounds represent today's storytelling, and we look forward to seeing them shape the next generation of producers and showrunners."

Created in 1990 in partnership with the Writers Guild of America West, the one-year staffing program's primary goal is to secure participants' first staffing assignment, via Walt Disney Television series. Though staffing is not guaranteed, the program has had a nearly 100% hiring rate for more than a decade.

Photo credit: Craig Sjodin/Walt Disney Television*

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