Darci Interviews TV Writers

Home Town: Berkeley, CA Current Town: Valley Village, CA What are you working on now?: Currently chasing a couple books to potentially develop into a series and/or feature, developing an original The Ring-esque pilot about a haunted high school play, and trying my best to stay on this side of sane through these last 5 years. Oh and still trying to staff after being off through the pandemic. The hustle never ends. Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person: Well I didn’t realize I was a writer until I moved here to LA. I did always know I wanted to be in the industry as I’ve loved TV and movies my whole life, just didn’t know in what capacity. But once I started working, I realized quickly that I was a creator. I wanted to be the one to dream up the world and the characters and the story. So I tried writing a script and it was hard, and that script was bad, but I had found my thing and there was no turning back. If you coul...

Home Town: San Gabriel, CA, home of the best Asian food in SoCal in my opinion  Current Town: Los Angeles, CA  What are you working on now?: I’m staffed on a streaming cable one hour historical drama. I’m also doing a fantastic job on procrastinating in terms of developing new ideas to sell and also addressing notes on a holiday rom com I wrote during the pandemic. I hope my reps don’t read this.  Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person: I grew up “working” at my parents’ bakery. I subsisted on an inventory of baked goods, comic books, and every book I could possibly order from the Scholastic newsletter. It was my time being the world’s worst worker at the bakery that I fell in love with storytelling and then I started writing down my own stories, whether it was a bakery box or store napkin. This is where I fell in love with writing. Soon the lighter storytelling from Sailor Moon to comic books became darker...

Home Town: Mechanicsburg, PA Current Town: Los Angeles, CA What are you working on now?: Currently writing for a Netflix series (it's unannounced so apologies for the vague cagey mysteriousness!) and about to start a copywriting gig. It'll be my first time in the advertising space so very excited/nervous to tack on yet another industry in which I get to experience imposter syndrome! Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person: In second grade you got to publish a book (the word "publish" is doing a lot of work there. And also "book"). They were these 10 page-ish hardcover books with an illustration on one side, and on the other side those lined pages with dashes you'd practice cursive on when you first learning. I spent months poring over my story and coming up with this super high-concept snowman factory, JACK FROST meets WESTWORLD, something truly worthy of being forever immortalized in glos...

  Home Town: Brooklyn, NY Current Town: Brooklyn, NY Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person: It's really not so much a story, per se, as it is having discovered different types of writers across a variety of media who lit a creative spark in me: There were authors skilled in both whimsy and rhyme like Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein, and sharp-minded comedy writers like those who wrote for "MAD" Magazine. Also in the medium of print, t here were the clever-minded writers of tangible fads like "Garbage Pail Kids" cards and "Wacky Packages" (for you young'uns, the latter were collectable stickers that spoofed branded products... see pic below). In other areas of media, t here were brilliant television writers, like those who wrote whip-smart sketches for "The Electric Company" and "Square One Television." And on the music front, there was one of the greatest song...

Hometown: Olney, Maryland Current Town: Los Angeles What are you working on now?: Pre-pandemic I was working as a staff writer on a Disney+ series. Staffing has been incredibly challenging over the last year or so, so I've been working a full-time gig as a creative strategist at a marketing agency. On the side, I'm pitching a movie and 2 TV series. Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person: There's a home video of me on my 4th birthday where I'm sitting on the couch, gripping a Barney balloon in my hand. My mom asks me, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and then I reply, "Nothing! I just wanna be a kid." This moment truly captures who I was as a kid and who I am now as an adult. I suffer from a bit of Peter Pan syndrome, so it tracks that I write mostly in the kids/family space. If you could change one thing about television, what would it be?: Hollywood was largely founded by stra...

  Home Town: Long Beach, New York Current Town: Palm Springs, California What are you working on now?:   I'm working on a musical that I'm finishing up and also a play that I'm writing. So that's taking up my time right now, play is a comedy. I really don't want to go into it cause it’s not far enough for me to really go into it. But it's very different from television and movies and all the others. And I'm enjoying it enormously. I really like it. And I've always been a theater fan. So it's great. It's great to be working on those two projects right now. Tell me if you will a story about your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person: Well, I, I remember walking down the street and seeing a florist who was one of those grocery stores that has that sell flowers as well. And I saw the man and he was spray painting mums different colors, outrageous colors -- lavender, or some bright blue, and white mums. And it really offend...

Home Town: Niantic, CT Current Town: North Hollywood, CA What are you working on now?: Developing new TV ideas. Most recently wrote for MIGHTY DUCKS: GAME CHANGERS on Disney+ and shot a (now dead) pilot for HBO Max. Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person: I can tell you when I fell in love with writing. In my sixth grade English class, we had a month-long assignment called the “Writing Marathon.” Throughout the month we needed to write a collection of short stories, poems, etc. One of my short stories was about a fireman flashing back to a memory with his wife as he dies fighting a fire. I can only imagine what kind of warning signals screamed through my teacher’s head after reading such dark material from a 12-year-old, but I remember it was at that point for me that creative writing clicked. I fell in love with building characters and a world with emotional impact. And at the time, I was coming to terms with my lack o...