I suspect a lot of reps (and maybe some other well-meaning white showrunners) will see the credits of mid & upper-level BIPOC writers and decide they “don’t count” for some reason or other. It’s hard enough for BIPOC writers to get in the room - (THREAD) https://twitter.com/everythingloria/status/1281627208197394433

let alone find a showrunner who has both the desire + opportunity to promote them past staff writer. For a lot of us, that means our path in isn’t the traditional WA to staff writer route. 8 years ago, I tried to break in through that route and couldn’t even get an interview. 2/?

I’ve since been the creator/showrunner of a half-hour comedy series on the CW, sold a comedy pilot to Paramount, done a major feature roundtable with other EP-level writers, sold features & have been developing at the EP level for the last two years. I’ve still had people ask me:

“But would you feel comfortable speaking up at the table as an upper level writer?” I’ve had a 1st AD hand me a one-liner schedule and ask, “Have you ever seen one of these before?” I’ve had a producer gaslight me during a general about my own Nielsen ratings -

“That doesn’t sound right, I bet it was even lower than that.” I’ve had a line producer ask me rhetorically, “But your show wasn’t really a half hour, was it?” (It was.) People have told me I rose “too quickly” and “naturally others will be suspicious of that.” They’ve suggested-

“Maybe you should come in as a lower level writer.” On principle, I won’t do that. There are so few AAPI EP/showrunner-level writers that 1) I’d be making our WGA stats take a hit 2) how long would it take for another Asian American female writer to get to this point?

3) If I came in at a lower level, I’d be agreeing with everyone who told me the work I’ve done so far “doesn’t count.” No. I worked too hard, lost too much sleep, sacrificed many things for it not to count. The truth is, by the time a BIPOC writer gets to this level, even if-

we didn’t come up “the traditional way”, we’ve put in the work. We didn’t come from nowhere, we didn’t just show up and trip into a leadership position. We’ve been here, y’all were just too busy ignoring our credits and telling us they didn’t count to see us. I hope that changes.

I should add I’ve been lucky enough to develop with some amazing non-BIPOC producers who understood this from the get go and have backed me when the studio pushed back. I am so grateful for them. True allyship happens during the drafting of deal memos.