Jacquelyn Revere Awarded 2020 Disruptors Fellowship
There is a theory in LA that everyone has a screenplay. It isn’t true, but sometimes it feels like it is. Lots of people talk about writing a screenplay, but actually completely one isn’t as easy as you’d think. However, this doesn’t make getting hired as a writer in Hollywood any less complicated
One of the most consistent ways to get your name out there is to win one of the four big writing fellowship (NBC, CBS, Disney, the WB). Thousands of people enter every year for less than a dozen spots in each program.
Image: The Center for Cultural Power
But other fellowships are now appearing, usually focusing on helping in a specific, underrepresented group. The Disruptors fellowship is just one of those programs. Jacquelyn Revere is one of the ten inaugural fellows.
The Disruptors fellowship “supports emerging television writers of color who identify as transgender, non-binary, disabled, undocumented, and/or formerly undocumented. This 14-week fellowship for LA-based emerging talent includes mentorship, professional development, master classes and a $5,000 stipend.” Many up and coming writers would love to win for just one of these prizes, much less all of them.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Jay, as she is called by her friends, began writing because “I didn’t feel heard from a very long time. I have a stutter, it was very severe as a child. I also grew up in a home where if I had a differing opinion than my parent, my opinion wasn’t allowed to exist. So writing allowed me to have the voice that wasn’t able to articulate or voice in my everyday life. “
Applicants were required to submit two 10 pages writing samples and a personal statement. Jay’s samples included “the first act of a pilot I had written about a woman who becomes a stutterer after a freak accident” and another pilot “about a young woman who has grown out of the foster care system and is now trying to adopt her rebel younger sister.”
Jay learned about the fellowship from a fellow writer and then noticed it again when Felicia Pride (Writer on Queen Sugar) mentioned it in her newsletter, The Create Daily. “I took it as a sign that I should at least see what the fellowship was about,” Jay said. “Once I read the application, I knew a pilot that I had been writing was perfect for this particular fellowship, so I submitted. I totally forgot about it because of quarantine and preparing to submit to the big 4, but then a month later, I received an email saying I was chosen.”
Pepper Reed
Originally from Oklahoma, Pepper is a Fantasy TV Writer who uses the supernatural to tell personal narratives, a Union Script Supervisor, an NYU Tisch Alum, and a 2019 Finalist NBC Writers on the Verge.
You can find her on Instagram @pepperreed and on Twitter @starchaser14.
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