NBCUniversal Talent Infusion Programs has announced its 2016-17 Writers on the Verge, as in TV writers of diverse backgrounds who are on the verge of breaking out but need a “final polish of their writing and pitch presentation skills.”
Winners will receive coaching and mentoring from industry pros during an intensive 12-week program with the ultimate goal of preparing them to be staff writers. At the end, they will be considered for available writing assignments on NBC series.
This year’s winners are comedy writers Mnelik Belilgne, Melanie Boysaw and Jeremy Hsu and drama writers Lorelei Ignas, Allyssa Lee, Rayna McClendon, Mellori Velasquez and former student in TVWriter™’s Advanced Workshop and Master Class, Jeane Wong.
This is the 11th year of the program that is among the initiatives of NBCU’s program to promote and encourage people of diverse backgrounds. More than 2,000 applied this year. Recent alumni are staffed on series including The Blacklist (producers Brandon Margolis and Brandon Sonnier), Superstore, American Crime, Suits, Shades of Blue (co-EP Rashad Raisani) and NBC midseason series The Redemption and Midnight, Texas.
Congrats to everybody (but, yeppers, especially Jeane cuz we know her) from everybody here at TVWriter™!