Abi Rich is a writer and actor from Boston, motivated to grow LGBTQ+ representation through television and film. As an only child to a single parent, TV was like a sibling to her. Since Abi’s mother gave her control of the remote, she had the freedom to watch anything as a kid, from Set It Off to Hey Arnold!. But it wasn’t until Lena Waithe’s Twenties that Abi saw both her image and likeness reflected in a show's protagonist — a queer masculine presenting woman. Inspired to contribute her own stories to this layer of visibility, Hillman Grad has provided an outlet for Abi to refine her craft as a writer. Abi brings characters to life in dramedies about people chasing dreams, coming into wealth, and rooting for the underdog.
The middle child in a family of 10 adopted, biracial kids, Blake Williams grew up as a queer wallflower in a very conservative & caucasian part of the world. As a result, his voice and perspective were shaped by living life at the intersection of race, religion, and sexuality in America. At one point an international missionary, and at another, a gogo dancer in Sacramento, Blake's life has been a series of adventures and juxtaposition. He moved to Los Angeles with a dream of sharing the untold stories of the forgotten and the misunderstood. He has worked alongside Emmy Award-Winning documentarians, Oscar-nominated directors, animation studio heads, music executives, and TV Showrunners – giving him a unique command of various mediums for storytelling and the logistics of production.
Blake currently works as a Showrunner’s Assistant on the original PEACOCK drama, KEEP THIS TO YOURSELF, slated to debut in the Fall of 2023. As a member of the writer’s room, he co-wrote episode 5, and received his first TV writing credit. In 2022 he was accepted into Lena Waithe’s Hillman Grad Mentorship Lab. In 2021, he joined the inaugural cohort for Black Boy Writes, a mentorship initiative that focuses on providing support and resources to pre-WGA Black writers.
Florida born and raised, Charlene is an alum of the FSU Film School, where she explored many facets of filmmaking and confirmed her passion for writing. After college, she took the scenic route to television writing: raising and blending a beautiful family, navigating a rewarding career in property management, and honing her craft as a storyteller. Charlene writes stories with heart and a gut punch. Her work spotlights Black characters in the genre space where horror, fantasy, and sci-fi mingle. Her voice is one of nuance, blurring the lines between right and wrong, hero and villain. Rejecting perfection, Charlene dives flaws-first into story to explore human emotion through an out-of-this world lens.
Cydney Fisher is a writer from rural Virginia. She graduated with her MFA from USC in 2019. While there she wrote and produced various student short films. One of which won a Student DGA award. She grew up with a deep love and appreciation for shows like THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, FRASIER, and THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO. From her time at Spelman College to USC, she has always put storytelling at the forefront. Aiming to create and help create a variety of content that focuses on BIPOC characters in nontraditional settings.
Emily Teera (เอมิลี ธีระสุภะเสฏฐ์) is a Thai Chinese writer/director born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand. She is currently based in Los Angeles, where she graduated from LMU in 2019. Since then, Emily has worked at CAA and Theresa Kang's Blue Marble Pictures, where she has garnered experience in producing and development. Earlier this year, Emily wrapped production on her short film, SOUL FOOD, a Thai language film about loss and reconciliation starring Praya Lundberg. The film is anticipated to make its festival rounds in 2023. Most recently, Emily graduated from Hillman Grad’s writing mentorship lab led by Lena Waithe as one of their hour-drama writers. As a self-identified third culture kid, Emily's drawn to telling stories about identity and miscommunication between generations and cultures.
A true first generation take on a Muslim classic, I’ve chosen to cover my body not with an abaya, but with a hoodie.
Growing up as a Pakistani in New York was like belonging to a top secret club that wasn’t actually a secret — people would whisper when talking about it, speak about it with an air of danger, and had no idea what was really going on. As I got older, I realized I wanted to share the eccentric stories and cultural quirks I saw growing up. In my writing, I aim to showcase the absurdity and the beauty of the culture that’s made me.
After graduating from NYU Tisch’s Film and TV Program, I began my professional journey as an intern working on Broad City’s fifth and final season. My writing and directorial debut short film premiered at the Muslim Film Festival. I later worked on Rebecca Hall’s Passing and Netflix’s Tigertail. In 2021, I was selected as one of twenty-three mentees for Hollywood’s premiere mentorship program for South Asians, The Salon Mentorship Program.
Rubén Mendive is a queer, formerly undocumented, Mexican immigrant raised on the South Side of Chicago. He was a writer/producer for Brown & Out V, a queer Latinx play festival, at Casa 0101 Theater in 2019 and a TV Writing Mentee in Lena Waithe’s Hillman Grad Mentorship Lab. He is also the host of La Lista: A Latinx Writers Podcast, a platform dedicated to connecting & highlighting Latinx voices in media. His writing deals with themes of immigration, queer identity & racial politics in America. He is currently based in Los Angeles.
Van grew up wanting to be two things when they grew up: a screenwriter and a person who worked in tech. After nearly a decade of working in the tech and advertising startup space, they’ve crafted narratives, strategies and stories to launch award-winning, impactful campaigns, communities and products that center Black and queer creatives. Through this work, Van has harnessed a unique power to bring words to life across a multitude of worlds, forms and concepts.
Now, they write high concept, genre-bending stories set in not-too-distant futures, centering complex, nuanced stories that serve as social commentary on race, gender and technology. When Van isn’t writing, they’re also a DJ and music producer with dreams to one day sync their own songs in their own shows.
Victoria George is a writer-actor who first fell in love with film and television as a child when Gene Kelly pranced across her screen in "Singing in the Rain". An immigrant from Sierra Leone, West Africa, Victoria’s writing is inspired by her comical and sometimes confounding African-Lebanese-Jewish upbringing. She writes satire, historical fiction, and fantasy—stories that explore friendship and identity through a comical lens and stories that spotlight lesser-known movers/movements in Black history.
Victoria is founder of the Network for Arts Administrators of Color (NAAC Boston), a network that elevates leadership opportunities for BIPOC arts administrators and tackles sector-wide change in Boston’s arts community. Victoria is also a founding member and current Board member of The Front Porch Arts Collective, a Black-led theatre company and is co-host of the podcast “Black At It”—a funny take on history, tackling myths and stereotypes surrounding Black culture. Victoria received her B.A. from Wellesley College.
