‘Writing for TV’ panel features notable Five College alumni

Pictured above: Sarah Walker Amherst College Class of 2003

By Rebecca Gagnon ’23

Staff Writer

On Oct. 1, Amherst College hosted “Writing for TV,” an event that was extended to Mount Holyoke and Smith students. The panel, hosted on Zoom, consisted of Jenna Lamia, Amherst College ’98, Ashley Soto Paniagua, Amherst College ’11, Sarah Walker, Amherst College ’03 and Leila Cohan-Miccio, Smith College ’05. Carla Costa from the Loeb Center for Career Exploration and Planning at Amherst College served as the event’s host. 

“Sarah Walker, who graduated from Amherst in 2003, actually reached out to me with the idea,” Costa said. “We had met before when I led the students on a career exploration trip to LA exploring the entertainment industry. Alums are often contacted by students and recent grads so they have a timely take on the questions and the concerns that people have about breaking into the industry.”   

During the panel, students were able to ask the alums questions about what it takes to get one’s foot in the door of screenwriting. The advice applied not only to get a job writing scripts for television but also to writing-based jobs in general.

There were over 50 participants in the panel, including students from Amherst, Mount Holyoke and Smith colleges.  Although the event was open to everyone, it was specifically aimed at people who are underrepresented in the industry, like women, LGBTQ+ students, students with disabilities and more.

“We have to take intentional steps,” Costa said, “to actually create change in the entertainment industry, and it starts at every level of professional development, including time as an undergraduate student.”      

While creating this event during the summer, Walker was watching the impacts of the Black Lives Matter movement. “I saw that a bunch of my writer friends were reaching out on Twitter to read Black writers and making an effort to talk to underrepresented writers,” Walker said. “Amherst was the perfect specific, maybe even smaller but very specific place to me that I could make an impact,” Walker added 

From this thought, Walker contacted Jenna Lamia and Leila Cohan-Miccio and asked them to be additional alums on the panel. Walker came to know Lamia and Cohan-Miccio because they all worked together on the show “Awkward.” Soon, Ashley Soto Paniagua, creator of the Raise the Percentage program, called Walker through Amherst connections. 

The Raise the Percentage program was a week-long mentorship of coffee meet-and-greets between Black writers and TV writers. The program was created by Ashley Soto Paniagua, a woman of color who is now a writer for “The Proud Family” on Disney Plus, to help people who are currently underrepresented in the entertainment industry meet people who can help further their career. The name refers to the low number of Black writers on TV shows — 16 percent — compared to the number of white writers on TV shows. 

Walker was one of the mentors in the Raise the Percentage program and was influenced to do something similar at Amherst. “[Paniagua] started that incredible Raise the Percentage program and I was like, if we could do a mini version of that at Amherst, why not?” Walker said. 

“Entertainment is a very relationship-driven industry,” Costa said, “and for students who don’t come from backgrounds where there is already an embedded family network or other professional networks, it’s so important for them to be able to rely on alumni as the first kind of professional network.”

During the panel, the alums talked about making connections with an emphasis on kindness, because that kindness will help build a good reputation in the industry. Walker also talked a bit about how it is very rewarding but difficult work. 

“When you start working in writers’ rooms, it is awesome. Usually, we work for 20 to 40 weeks, depending how long production is … so about a 30 week gig, awesome, but then, you are fully unemployed, like, it is not a vacation, you just don’t have a job and you don’t know when your next job is coming. That uncertainty and that waiting, not knowing what is coming next are really, really difficult,” Walker explained      

However, Walker also explained the upsides of the field of work. “It is so much fun! You get paid to be creative and you get paid very well,” Walker said. “Being on a film set is one of my favorite things; it is such a rush. … It is very cool to see an episode you wrote on television.”      

Costa and the alums stressed the importance of being prepared by doing all you can as an undergrad and having scripts and drafts ready.  

“Go to the Career Development Center,” Costa said. “Talk to someone who can help you identify alumni you can connect with. Look at the tools and resources they have to support you in learning how to network. A frequently asked question yesterday [at the panel] was ‘What do I even ask?’ and those resources exist on the Career Development Center’s website.”   

“You can definitely do it, you are fully capable of doing it,” Walker said. “You have to love it, you have to really want to do it. It is just a lot of trial and error in finding a community and finding people. Writing on your own time, whether it is a script or small pieces, submit to McSweeney’s. I tell everyone, ‘Submit to McSweeney’s, be prepared to be rejected a lot and learn how to deal with that. Try to keep confident and keep developing that voice.’”