This issue gets exacerbated by the relatively new practice of “ mini-rooms ,” the practice of hiring small groups of writers, and short orders of series (fewer episodes per season). Ultimately, it’s at their discretion how much they care to help writers advance, but they also have to fight studio pressures to remain on budget when making the choice. There are showrunners who will work the budget to ensure lower-level writers can advance, but there are many factors involved in that decision, mostly budgetary and, if we’re being honest, moral.
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What’s been happening is that if a show gets a second season, that writer is often replaced with another free writer to save on budget, or is asked to repeat the staff writer position (sometimes multiple times) instead of advancing to a story editor position, which would mean doubling the salary and ensuring a script fee as mandated by the minimum basic agreement. Sometimes they come out of a diversity program run by a studio, where the studio pays for their salary for one season, meaning the writer’s salary comes at no cost to the show’s overall budget. Writers start as entry-level staff writers, Rivera explains. Rivera and Piña say there’s a big bottleneck in the lower and upper levels. Showrunners are the big bosses on a show - sometimes they are wonderful, generous people, and sometimes they are demons forged in the deep, fiery waters of the devil’s jacuzzi. In a writer’s room, there are three levels of writers: lower level midlevel writers with a few years under their belt and the most experienced, the upper levels. Anyone without a powerful parent can tell you that entry and advancement in those rooms is not easy, but why’s it gotta be so hard for us? When we are so prevalent everywhere, it’s glaring when we are nowhere to be found in certain spaces. census, that disparity becomes even more staggering.
When you factor in that Latinx people are the second-largest demographic in the U.S., per the U.S.
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In 2019, Latino TV writers made up “8.7% of employed television writers as measured by the WGA, up from 2.5% in 2008,” The Times reported. It was reported that since 2008, Latinx people have “never constituted more than 5% of employed WGA film writers,” based on available data. In 2021, The Times took a deep dive into Latinx representation in Hollywood. The WGA currently has about 800 self-identified Latinx members out of approximately 10,000. To borrow a question once posed by Cardi B: WHAT IS THE REASON?!
“It’s the same for all BIPOC and underrepresented groups,” says Rivera, “but for some reason we’re suffering some of the worst numbers in terms of employment in front of and behind the camera.” (Writers can be part of multiple groups.) Piña, who worked on the Starz series “Power” and the CW reboot of “Charmed,” and Rivera, who wrote on the Fox procedural “APB” and has several Latinx series in development, broke down the ways Latinx writers are affected by the current state of writing in Hollywood.Īlthough there are countless concerns, Piña and Rivera say the biggest hurdles Latinx writers face are around entry into the industry, career advancement and a lack of investment in Latinx stories and, therefore, Latinx talent. The group is one of 12 committees focusing on issues facing underrepresented writers in the industry. As I hit the picket line alongside my fellow TV and film writers, I keep high in mind what the future could look like based on the present, and it’s terrifying.Ĭhristina Piña and Jorge Rivera are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the Writers Guild of America’s Latinx Writers Committee, an affinity group that studies and advocates for diversity, equity and inclusion for Latinx writers in the WGA.
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I’m learning the ins and outs of this industry and navigating how to build and sustain a successful career in Hollywood as a Latinx woman. Ready for a bunch of increasingly depressing links to support this? Here goes: No mames. (Shout out to Shea Serrano and Mike Schur for giving me my big break and for not firing me from “Primo” for pitching dog erection jokes.) It felt like a miracle, considering Latinx people are severely underrepresented in Hollywood. I’m starting to learn this firsthand.Īfter about 15 years in media, I began writing for TV in 2021, making good on my fantastical dreams of being in a writers’ room pitching jokes about dog erections. It’s probably not a surprise that Latinx writers and other underrepresented writers in the industry are being hit the hardest by the issues on the table. For a breakdown of all the major issues, check out the Los Angeles Times vast reporting on the strike. and New York to demand a fair contract, building upon what was at stake in 20. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.īut what was hard-fought then still reverberates today as writers once-again picket in L.A.
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