Aisha Rupasingha grew up in 10+ places on this planet--and has no idea what to call home. She's Sri Lankan-American, of Muslim and Buddhist heritage. Her stories are as nomadic as she is—rooted in many peoples, places, languages, and cultural nostalgias. She most recently served as a freelance writer and script coordinator on Wonderoos for Netflix Jr.

Born in San Antonio, Texas, Cristina Cibrian comes from a big Mexican-American & Cuban family. Passionate about writing Latinx character’s inspired by her loved ones, she graduated from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. Recently, she worked for Ilana Peña, who become a mentor. Cristina has an original pilot in development with CBS Studios and another project with Marsai Martin’s Genius Productions.

Daniella Balarezo (she/they) is a writer and performer from the borderlands of El Paso Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. BoogieManja and Magnet theater alumn and UCB Diversity Scholarship recipient. Her latest short film screenplay with co-author Hannah Hollandbyrd recently won a Femme Frontera grant

Derek is a gay Filipino-American writer in West Hollywood by way of SF. He’s previously worked in a writers room as the showrunner’s assistant on The Sex Lives of College Girls. Derek is drawn to drama and procedural stories about flawed love-to-hate and hate-to-love AAPI and queer characters. Outside of writing, Derek plays on an all-inclusive competitive rugby team and collects whiskey.

Don Charles is a stand-up comedian and TV writer from Texas. He performs all over Los Angeles, while his newsletter has been featured from Business Insider to MFA journals. www.dnchrls.com

Jenna Mahmoud-Bosco is a mixed race filmmaker, actress and loud-mouthed Jersey girl. Her comedic, socially relevant narratives center women of color, immigrants and marginalized communities. She most recently worked as writer's assistant for a new high-budget Netflix show. When she’s not filmmaking, you can find her laughing with friends and pontificating about New York City.

Jess is a mixed-race, autistic woman who is regularly called "sir" in public. She writes comedies about being a fish out of water, even when you're in the water. Jess pulls humor from her most traumatic experiences, from suing her powerful employer to that time in fourth grade when she got stuck in a baby swing during her sister's softball game.

Lindsey is an animator and storyteller. She is passionate about critical media representation and defying genre expectations. As a lifelong artist, she aspires to create the kind of diversity touted but too often unrealized within visual development, helping remind us that people don't need their differences to be the highlight of our films in order to be included in them.

Manny is a film and television writer. A native Angeleno, born and raised in Boyle Heights, he graduated from Cal State Fullerton, followed by the UCLA Writer's Program. Manny's participated in the 48 hour film competition 8 times, winning Best Film twice. A proud graduate of the Writers’ Access Support Staff Training Program, he recently worked as a Writers’ Assistant in his first writers’ room.

Melissa is a published author with a passion for creating diverse and inclusive character-driven stories in supernatural and sci-fi worlds. She's a master at crafting romantic tension and chemistry on the page and isn't afraid of a steamy love triangle. Her background in politics and social justice work inspires themes, backstories, and worldbuilding for the immersive stories she creates.

Neeti is an NYC-based film school graduate with a background in digital advertising, business of entertainment/media/tech, and web programming. She writes through the lens of dark, absurdist humor, and with transgressive female characters. One of her strengths is that she has always been able to translate her feelings into scripts, so she can process those feelings via a fictional realm.

Parker Lemal-Brown is a writer, producer, and lyricist who worked in the writers room for BRIDGERTON S3 (Netflix) and wrote on GREASE: RISE OF THE PINK LADIES (Paramount+). He did creative development for Shondaland, eOne, Netflix, and Amazon. His original musical sold out at Hollywood Fringe 2024. Parker is a Creative Executive at Roadmap Writers and a Narrative Strategist for startups worldwide.

Phoenix Ríszing is a multidisciplinary artist from The Bronx. She graduated from Marist College with a Bachelors in English Writing and is a Gates Millennium Scholar, U.S Fulbright Alumni, John Lewis Fellowship Alumni, and Dear Fellowship Alumni. She taught in South Africa, was awarded the City Corps Artist Grant and became a Bronx Council on the Arts BRIO award winner for Performing Arts in 2022.

Praxis Fernandez is a Dominican-American Writer/Filmmaker based in New York. She holds a BFA in Film & Video from SVA and a Master's in Visual Effects Compositing from NYU. Her start in the trenches as a Wardrobe P.A., prepared her for her eventual transition to post-production, where she's spent the last decade as an Editor and GFX-VFX Artist across various genres in both fiction and reality TV.

Flint-raised and LA-based, Wilandrea Blair writes about complex Black women with humor, heart and a hint of badassery.

Her distinctions include:
- AFI grad
- 2024 HollyShorts Best TV Pilot Screenplay winner
- Academy Nicholl Fellowship Top 50
- Winner of the inaugural Women Write Now Fellowship by Kevin Hart’s LOL Studios and the Sundance Institute
- Awarded a development deal with NBCUniversal.

I am a son of Iraqi immigrants, an Air Force veteran, and a huge nerd. I grew up as the only Arab Muslim in Las Vegas, so I drowned myself in fantastical worlds to feel less of an outsider. I soon discovered that many people that look like me are always portrayed like the bad guy, so I write about Arab characters doing cool things in fantastical worlds, much like the characters I grew up with.