EXCLUSIVE: Starz, NewFilmmakers Los Angeles and the National Association of Latino Independent Producers on Thursday revealed participants for the second season of the Starz #TakeTheLead Writers’ Intensive, kicking off February 5.
This year’s selection is comprised of writers from varied and often overlooked communities, aiming to embody the representation Starz champions in front of and behind the camera, and across its company. The Season 2 finalists are Christopher Au, Xavier Burgin, Caroline Guo, Lyn Alicia Henderson, Diego Lanao, Eunice Levis, Tyler Miguel Mercer, Wesley Rodriguez, Vee Saieh and Ora Yashar.
The initiative provides participants with opportunities to learn from and connect with industry professionals across the ecosystem of television, including Starz President of Original Programming Kathryn Busby, Paramount Television Studios VP of Development Gary King, Echo Lake Entertainment Manager Kim Yau, writer Charla Lauriston, WME agent Daniela Federman, HBO showrunner Amy Aniobi UTA TV lit agent Gina Reyes, Invention Studios president Nicholas (Nicky) Weinstock, TV writer-producer Ian Olympio, producer Pete Corona and others. They will assist the group in acquiring an understanding of the TV-writing landscape and guide them as they develop their careers.
“Partnering up with Starz and NFMLA exemplifies our dedication to fostering a groundbreaking program. This initiative brings together a handpicked cohort of writers meticulously chosen to deliver innovative and creative content that aligns seamlessly with Starz’s vision. By providing these talented individuals access to a premier television network, we are not only bringing them to the forefront of the entertainment industry but also elevating the landscape of multicultural creativity,” NALIP executive director Diana Luna said.
Larry Laboe, co-founder and executive director of NFMLA, added: “On the heels of Sundance where NFMLA, NALIP and Starz created space for three of our amazing writers from Season 1 in partnership with the Latino Filmmakers Network, we’re proud to welcome 10 incredibly talented scribes to Season 2. We couldn’t be more excited for the array of opportunities that are in store for our cohort.”
Phase one of the program launches will run through February 16. For Phase two, four participants will be selected to move forward to develop, write and pitch a spec episode script for a current Starz show with the support of program mentors.
Learn more about the 10 finalists below.
Christopher Au
Au is a San Francisco-based filmmaker who spent nearly a decade working for some of the largest tech companies in Silicon Valley. Recently, his original pilot Cloak & Data was selected for the 2022 Film Independent Episodic Lab, where he was mentored by showrunner Silka Luisa and won the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation development grant. Au wrote, directed and produced the Wall Street dramedy series Bulge Bracket on Amazon Prime, which was featured in Bloomberg, the Gotham Week Project Market (IFP), CAAMFest, and SeriesFest, among others. In 2021, he was awarded a screenwriting grant from SFFILM and the Sloan Foundation to develop his feature script Airborne. Au won an Emmy as a producer with Fox Sports Net, and holds film and business degrees from Yale and NYU.
Xavier Burgin
Xavier Burgin is an Emmy-nominated writer/director from USC Cinema. He wrote on Starz’s wrestling drama, Heels. He’s written for the WWE, CryptTV, Amazon Studios, The Discovery Channel, and Paramount. He directed AMC Network’s Horror Noire, Adult Swim’s Juneteenth Holiday Special, and the BET series, Giants. Xavier is the dubbing director for Netflix’s sumo sports drama, Sanctuary.
Xavier grew up down south in Mississippi. Grandma’s TV would switch between SEC football, wrestling, movies, anime, and Playstation games. He’d ride off into the countryside on his bike for the day, then return home to watch Toonami before Bible study. Xavier’s love for storytelling grew from his fascination with religious myths. He loves the intersection between gods, angels, demons, and mortals. As a child, he wondered if these fantastical stories could exist. Now, he chooses to be the hand that writes them. Xavier developed Sankova, a sci-fi comedy, with Justin Simien’s Culture Machine at Paramount. He wrote a horror feature for CryptTV and the WWE. He directed the English Dub of Sanctuary, a Netflix sports drama about a young sumo wrestler. Xavier’s film, Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror, expounds on the untold history of Black Americans in the genre. The documentary premiered on horror streamer, Shudder. Xavier earned a Daytime Emmy nomination for his directorial work on the BET show, Giants. He directed Juneteenth With Open Mike Eagle, an Adult Swim Special about the national holiday’s history.
Xavier’s shadowed on the TV series American Horror Story, The Ms. Pat Show, and Sacrifice. He’s participated in numerous industry programs, including: Paramount’s Viewfinder Program, Netflix’s Dubbing Initiative, The Sundance Labs, HBO’s Short Film Showcase, Berlinale Talents, The Commercial Directors Diversity Program, and Ryan Murphy’s Director Shadow Program. Xavier’s collaborations also include D.C. Comics, Lenovo, LOL Network, and Stage 3 Productions.
Caroline Guo
Like any good Chinese-American daughter, Caroline Guo promised her parents she’d be a doctor or lawyer… only to become a diehard film nerd. She was a finalist for the 2021 NALIP & Netflix Women of Color Short Film Incubator and 2020 Women in Film & The Black List Feature Residency with the award-winning Firecracker , an Official Selection at the OutFest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival, Urbanworld Film Festival, Asian American International Film Festival, San Diego Asian Film Festival, Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival and more. It’s now distributed on Asia’s 1st and largest LGBTQ+ platform GagaOOLala.
Caroline is currently in development for her feature debut as writer/director, the sports comedy/coming-of-age feature Dear Michelle that was selected for the 2023 Film London Production Finance Market in association with the BFI London Film Festival. She’s also developing a Kids’ Animation TV series with ACE Entertainment (To All The Boys I’ve Love Before), EP Stephen Daldry (The Crown) and Showrunner Joe Purdy (Hey Arnold!). A graduate of Northwestern University, Caroline has published in academic journals, was selected as finalist for the inaugural INC TV Writing Program, semifinalist for the Universal Writers’ Program as well as a Sundance Development Lab and Austin Film Festival 2nd Rounder, and fulfilled her wildest film nerd dreams by featuring in Criterion Collection’s new release of Johnnie To’s Throw Down.
Hailing from Atlanta but having lived in Chicago, Paris, London and Beijing, Caroline is now based in Los Angeles, previously working in TV Development at MACRO. As a writer and director, she’s most interested in telling personal stories with humor and heart, especially of Asian and Asian-American women, to shed light on larger social issues.
Lyn Alicia Henderson
Lyn Alicia Henderson hails from the suburbs of Silver Spring, Md. She first demonstrated her writing chops as a comic and then with Her award-winning play Girls Night Out. Building on that success, she wrote, produced, and starred in the short film Short on Sugar, which collected numerous awards at prestigious film festivals and enjoyed a three-year run on HBO and CINEMAX.
As a writer, Lyn Alicia has a unique voice that takes you down unexpected corridors and sheds light on the quirky side of queerness, motherhood, friendship, and race. Her voice is edgy and bizarrely wholesome at the same time. It’s a contradictory style that is difficult to achieve, yet she does that in her storytelling. The main thread in her work is the ability to create characters we can relate to, even as they seem different at first glance. Her stories are alive with personalities that are authentic, funny, irreverent, and smart. Lyn Alicia is also a versatile character actor. She has guest-starred on numerous television shows and has recurred on many others. Her notable portrayal of Pam Olbes on the long-running series ER spanned 14 seasons, earning her three SAG Awards for “Best Ensemble in a Drama Series.”
Diego Lanao
Diego Lanao is a proud Peruvian-American writer and actor who has studied playwriting at HB Studio, television writing at Script Anatomy, TV Story Structure with Eric Kaplan and sketch writing at the Upright Citizens Brigade.Most recently, his TV episodic pilot, The Right One Alive, was selected for the 2023 NHMC Series Script Writers Program and placed on the 2022 Latinx List x The Black List. He was named a TV writer finalist for the 2022 NBC Writers on the Launch Program and a writer finalist for the 2021 3rd Annual NOSOTROS & NBC Ya Tu Sabes Monologue Showcase. His theater work has been developed and featured at: SolFest Latiné Theater Festival, AMT Theater New Work Development Program, Teatro Chelsea, The Barrow Group Performing Arts Center, Latinx Playwrights Circle Fresh Draft Series and South Texas College Theater. He is a proud member of the Latinx Playwrights Circle (2023 Summer Dramatists Guild Fellow) and The EST/LA’s New West Playwrights Group. He earned a B.A. in Biology with a Joint Minor in Computer Science and Mathematics from NYU.
Tyler Miguel Mercer
Tyler Miguel Mercer is a director and writer. His award-winning “must-see” (Vulture) short films have been featured as Vimeo Staff Picks and screened at Outfest LA, NewFest, HollyShorts, and more. Most recently he directed GLAAD’s digital series Dímelo spotlighting queer Latine voices in entertainment; Growing Up Reality for Yahoo’s In The Know channel; and the 2022 live VMA After-Show for MTV. He has also made commercials and content for brands like Bumble, Grindr, Netflix, and Logo. Tyler also wrote and produced for over 200 episodes of MTV’s award-winning series Need To Know, and his original scripts have ranked in national competitions. He holds a BFA from NYU Tisch and is represented by UTA & Range Media Partners.
Wesley Rodriguez
Wesley “Wes” Rodriguez is a Latino, bilingual writer, director, and cinematographer based in Los Angeles. As a first-generation Cuban-Guatemalan American, he grew up as an only child in a tightly-knit household in Naples, Fla., where he spent his time at the intersection of his imagination, virtually as a video game nerd and in his backyard as an Eagle Scout. As a first-generation multi-disciplinary artist, his work explores themes of love, identity, metaphysics, and spirituality with a focus on healing generational trauma through laughter and self-reflection. Under the mentorship of Werner Herzog, Wes directed Pa’lante, an award-winning short film shot on location in Cuba. Shortly after, Wes founded Pa’lante Pictures, a Latine production company focused on empowering and uplifting voices in the Latino community through genre storytelling.
Beyond his career as a writer-director, Wesley’s work as a commercial and narrative cinematographer has been exhibited both domestically and internationally. Most recently, Wes served as the Virtual Production cinematographer and technical director for AMC Networks’ live and interactive Twitch Channel, FearHQ. Wes is a GFS LA Frieze Award Fellow, Hola Mexico TFT Fellow, NALIP Latino Media Market TV Writing Fellow, and a DGA John Frankenheimer Fellow. He earned an M.F.A. from the USC School of Cinematic Arts and holds a B.S. in Media Production from the University of Florida. He has also taught film and mentored underrepresented youth in East LA through the Latino Film Institute’s Youth Cinema
Project under the guidance of its founder, Edward James Olmos. Currently, Wes practices mindfulness and martial arts at the Shaolin Temple Los Angeles and is an avid hiker, plant dad and photographer.
Vee Saieh
Vee Saieh has spent her life between worlds—as a Colombian immigrant, a trans woman, and a bad Catholic with an esoteric flair. As a drama and genre writer, she blends her passion for the unknown with the stark realities of life to tell stories of ghosts, queerness, and broken people and their one shot at redemption. Vee is a 2023 Film Independent Project Involve Fellow, and was a finalist for the 2023 NBC Launch TV Writers Program. Her feature script ASIA A has received multiple awards, including Sloan grants from the Tribeca Film Institute and Film Independent’s Fast Track program. Her other projects have placed second and third in the PAGE Awards, Top 5 in Final Draft’s Big Break contest and have been a finalist for both WeScreenplay’s TV Lab and Diverse Voices Lab.
Vee’s collaborations on short films have garnered numerous honors including the Jury Prize at the DGA Student Awards, Best Narrative Short at the San Diego Latino Film Festival, and two finalist placements in HBO Max’s Short Film competition. She’s also been nominated for a Best of NewFilmmakers LA Award. Vee has an MFA in Screenwriting from USC. She is repped by Bellevue.
Ora Yashar
Writer/Director Ora Yashar fell in love with screen magic when her father made the horrible (yet awesome) decision to take her six-year-old self to see Goodfellas. Recognizing “gangster” wasn’t a viable career route, she decided on “storyteller.”Coming of age in the US as an Iranian-American greatly influenced Ora’s POV and her work seeks to empower voices that too often go unheard. Recent credits include penning an Iranian-American legal drama for ESX Entertainment and co-producing the salon theatre show Persian Sunrise, American Sunset, which explores the fractured experiences of Iranians living in the U.S. Ora is a Film Independent Episodic Lab Fellow and currently assists the showrunners of the hit series “The Equalizer” where she co-wrote episode 311. She earned her MFA in Directing at Chapman University and is repped at MetaMorphic Entertainment.
Eunice Levis
Writer and director, Eunice Levis is a first-generation Dominican American from the Bronx, New York. Eunice’s work focuses on genre-bending stories that combine her love of horror, sci-fi, thriller and fantasy often through a diasporic lens. Her work seeks to disrupt and challenge dominant narratives around technology, race, gender, history, and diaspora identity by altering the stories we tell about them.
She is a two-time Sundance Lab Second Rounder, a Stowe Story Lab Fellow, an Alliance of Women Directors mentee and a Netflix/NALIP Women of Color Short Film Incubator Fellow. Eunice’s folklore horror micro short Fell Ends was an extraordinary selection at NYX’s 13 minutes of horror film festival and streamed on Shudder. Her latest film, RO & The Stardust, a space fantasy short was part of the 2021 NALIP Latino Lens Women of Color Short Film Incubator, sponsored by Netflix. The film won Best Narrative Short at the 25th Annual Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival, making it a 2024 Oscar® qualified Narrative Short Film. In addition to writing and directing, Eunice is a film adjunct professor and cohosts Café Negro con Genre, a podcast that promotes creatives working in the genre space.