ONLINE EVENT | January 11th, 2022, 7pm PST / 10pm EST
The Writer's Calendar 2022:
Everything You Need to Know
ALL ENTRANTS
Join screenwriters and LA TV Writers Admins Aadip Desai and Derek Asaff as they breakdown the applications for 2022.
This program is supported in part by an arts grant from the City of West Hollywood.
Aadip and Derek lay out the 2022 submissions for writers, which ones you should apply for, how to present your best self, and tips and advice on taking your career to the next level.
Fellowships and Programs (partial list) submission dates:
Warner Media Access (Formerly HBO) - March
Sundance Episodic - March
NBCUniversal Late Night Writers Workshop - April
Sundance Development Track (Features) - April
DGE Writing Program (aka Disney ABC Fellowship) - May
Viacom CBS Writers Mentoring Program - May
NBCUniversal Writers on the Verge - May (?)
Warner Brothers TV Writers Workshop - May
Nickelodeon Writing Program - July
Aadip Desai
Writer
The Goldbergs, ABC
AADIP DESAI is an Indian American television writer and Air Force Brat. He was honored as a 2020-2021 BAFTA Breakthrough for his work as a Staff Writer on THE GOLDBERGS (ABC), a show mostly about yelling. Aadip also wrote for MIRA, ROYAL DETECTIVE (Disney Jr.), a secret Nickelodeon/Netflix show, and a highly classified DreamWorks/Netflix series. Shhhh! He was in AFI’s MFA Screenwriting program but dropped out to join the ABC/Disney TV Writing Program, or whatever it’s called now, due to corporate restructuring.
Aadip is also an Advisor at The Sundance Institute, runs the LA TV Writers Facebook Group, and is Director of Brand Management & Marketing at Roadmap Writers. Back in the day, he was a longtime Co-Host/Producer of the On the Page screenwriting podcast with Pilar Alessandra and former President of the Northwest Screenwriters Guild in Seattle. He has a functionless BA in Economics and a Minor in Music from the University of Puget Sound. Aadip is a WGAw, BAFTA, and Pie of the Month Club member. Kaplan Stahler Agency and Mazo Partners rep him.
Aadip is most infamous for cooking with M&Ms, butchering onions, and maligning cheese as a cast member on Food Network’s Worst Cooks in America. He’s killed a record seven sideburn trimmers during the pandemic.
Derek Asaff
Writer
Universal Pictures Writing Program
Derek Asaff, an action/comedy & genre feature and TV writer, went to Cornell out of high school to study business despite only being interested in writing. Accounting and microeconomics classes quickly went so far over his head he was unceremoniously expelled. Twice. He found himself back in his hometown of Boston working every odd job imaginable over the next ten years. He was a waiter. He was a hotel bellman. He had a short yet glamourous stint sorting pig ears at a dog food factory. In 2007, while working in home loans, the housing bubble burst and Derek was happily laid off. He took it as a sign to finally bet on himself and decided to go back to school, studying the one thing he was always meant to.
Derek put himself through Harvard, receiving his degree in creative writing and literature with a focus on screenwriting. He then relocated to Hollywood and earned his master’s degree in screenwriting from the American Film Institute Conservatory.
Derek recently concluded his second year with the Universal Writer’s Program after being only the second person in the program’s history to have his contract extended by the studio. He is currently developing features around town with the help of managers at LBI Entertainment and agents at WME.
Derek’s background is the extremely common mix of Lebanese and Sioux, though he’d best be described as a dog person who doesn’t mind people so long as they have food.
Erin Enberg
Host, Program Director - AIM
Writer/Director
Erin Enberg is a screenwriter/director from Maine (a spooky Stephen King town in the woods where "The Mist" takes place) and has worked in production on film and TV in New York City and Los Angeles for NBC, A&E, Travel Channel, TLC, HBO and more.
She also once traveled extensively throughout the U.S. in an old renovated city bus with nine other people for three months - while working on a Columbia University documentary about unique roadside attractions with cinematographer Chris Teague (Emmy-winner "Russian Doll"). Erin's short films have won various awards including several best shorts and audience awards, and her screenplays have garnered accolades including Second Rounder at Sundance, and finalist selections in the Final Draft Big Break Contest and Cinestory. Her most recent short, "The Getaway," is currently on the festival circuit.
Erin volunteered for PEN America from 2016 - 2019 as a fundraising coordinator and was invited to teach a screenwriting workshop for the University of California Merced for their Collaboratorium: Create & Connect event in 2021. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast Program.
Most recently she worked at HBO in the Production Department and at HBO Max in Original Content, and currently works as Program Director for Age Inclusion in Media. This fall, Erin received a scholarship from Sundance to attend their nine-week Directing course.
IG @erin.enberg
Twitter @ErinEnberg
Age Inclusion in Media - Twitter @ageinclusion