Episode 16: Jenny Deiker Restivo
Current Town: Santa Monica, CA
What are you working on now?: I’m working on an adult animated sci-fi drama for HBOMax that… hasn’t been announced yet!
Story from childhood that explains who I am as a writer?: My mother claims that as a toddler I once sat in a mound of red fire-ants and let them sting me because I thought they were interesting. This may be a good metaphor for my love of probing the dark and scary in my writing.
If I could change one thing about TV?: I would love a return to bigger episode orders!
Who are/were my television heroes?: Jane Espenson, Damon Lindelof, Glen Mazzara (why was Damien cancelled?!), Sera Gamble, Akela Cooper, Javi Grillo-Marxuach, Jose Molina, and like a squillion friends who are keeping it real on writing staffs all over town.
What kind of television excites me?: I love anything that scratches that itch of humans behaving badly without realizing why. We the audience can see it’s because of their past traumas, but they are… hellishly clueless.
What advice do you have for TV writers starting out?: Ignore the online pressure to create pitch decks, pitch documents, bibles, etc. Your only job is to write and keep writing until you have killer pilot samples. (Multiple!)
Any plugs?: The show I’m working on won’t air until early 2023, and I will holler to the rooftops later about that one because it’s gonna be lit, but no plugs for anything immediate!
What are you working on now?: I’m working on an adult animated sci-fi drama for HBOMax that… hasn’t been announced yet!
Story from childhood that explains who I am as a writer?: My mother claims that as a toddler I once sat in a mound of red fire-ants and let them sting me because I thought they were interesting. This may be a good metaphor for my love of probing the dark and scary in my writing.
If I could change one thing about TV?: I would love a return to bigger episode orders!
Who are/were my television heroes?: Jane Espenson, Damon Lindelof, Glen Mazzara (why was Damien cancelled?!), Sera Gamble, Akela Cooper, Javi Grillo-Marxuach, Jose Molina, and like a squillion friends who are keeping it real on writing staffs all over town.
What kind of television excites me?: I love anything that scratches that itch of humans behaving badly without realizing why. We the audience can see it’s because of their past traumas, but they are… hellishly clueless.
What advice do you have for TV writers starting out?: Ignore the online pressure to create pitch decks, pitch documents, bibles, etc. Your only job is to write and keep writing until you have killer pilot samples. (Multiple!)
Any plugs?: The show I’m working on won’t air until early 2023, and I will holler to the rooftops later about that one because it’s gonna be lit, but no plugs for anything immediate!
JENNY DEIKER RESTIVO is a TV writress and genre geek who was born in Louisiana. She grew up on the grounds of psychiatric hospitals in three different states before attending the United World College of the Atlantic in Wales, U.K. In 2018, she was chosen for the Fox Writers Lab. In 2019, her sci-fi pilot, Vesta, was selected to be on WeForShe's WriteHer List. She has written for Fox's The Resident and a yet-to-be-announced animated sci-fi show for HBOMax.
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