EXCLUSIVE:Disney General Entertainmenthas selected 13 participants for its 2023 Writing Program.
We look forward to seeing this cohort shape the next generation of producers and showrunners.
All program writers will be under contract with DGE and receive a weekly salary and benefits prior to staffing.
Top row (from left): Dallas Rico, Amanda Mortlock, Heidi-Marie Ferren, Kirby Marshall-Collins, Nikki Kashani, Sean Rivas; Bottom row (from left): Melanie Martinez, Yaou Dou, Morgan Grain, Shawnee Gibbs, Shawnelle Gibbs, Kevin Ramlal, Maya AyeleDisney General Entertainment
All those who staff on a DGE scripted series will be compensated at WGA scale.
Mortlock moved from Singapore to LA to attend University of Southern Californias Business of Cinematic Arts program.
Most recently, Mortlock was the writers assistant on season two of Sacrifice on BET+ and co-wrote episode 209.
Last year, Rico sold his drama pilot, Lessons, to NBC.
In 2019, Rico won the WeScreenplay Diverse Voices competition.
From 2020 to 2022, he served as an assistant to a showrunner.
As a hobby, Rico enjoys performing stand-up, so everyone can laugh at his dating mishaps.
She is the first Indigenous woman to hold that title since its inception.
Ferran was a finalist for the 2021 DGE Writing Program.
Kevin Ramlalis a Canadian-born, Texas-raised South Asian with roots in Trinidad as well as Tanzania.
He received his B.F.A.
in film and television production from the University of Southern California and interned at Material Pictures and Arad Productions.
During 2021, his feature, Citizen Nowhere, placed on Blacklists 2021 CAPE List.
Collins writes fun and romantic, supernatural dramedies that physicalize the vulnerabilities and victories of queer/trans people.
Collins was recently a writers assistant on Nancy Drew (CW).
Collins is great at heart, aches, humor and relating everything to a Disney movie.
Maya Ayeleis a mixed Ethiopian-American writer who currently lives in Los Angeles.
Ayele began her career as an assistant on shows including NetflixsBridgerton, MarvelsRunaways, andAmericas Next Top Model.
She was most recently a writers assistant on the upcoming Disney Channel showSaturdayswhere she co-wrote the episodeMama Drama.
Before this, she was a writers assistant on ABCsmixedish.
Ayele attributes her unconventional upbringing to shaping her interest in fish-out-of-water stories.
Martinez received a B.A.
in sociology from Harvard, where she wrote for the Lets Go travel series.
She moved to England to pursue a screenwriting M.A.
Martinez and her family recently traded East London for Westside Los Angeles.
Her journalistic work focuses on the cultural contributions Black women make in the arts, entertainment and media.
Grains third short film, Girls Night In, premiered at California Womens Film Festival in early 2022.
They were awarded a 2022 Writers in Residence at Renaissance House in Marthas Vineyard.
Shawnee and Shawnelle Gibbs are the recipients of the 2023 Disney Branded Television Eunetta T. Boone Comedy Writers Scholarship.
A first-generation Chinese immigrant,Yaou Douwas born in Germany and raised in Florida.
