Ever watched a show and thought, “I can write that”? Ever faced the cold glare of a monitor and realized you should have gone to law school?  Ever waited for the phone to ring and understood why writers have a rep for drinking?   Join us when we drag Kent Jones, Kevin Kataoka, Jenna Laurenzo, Sherese Robinson Lee, and Evan Waite out from their dank hovels and into the spotlight for a lively conversation about creating empathetic characters, pitching ideas, navigating the writers room, and survival.  Bring your questions – we’ll give these writers some real work.

Hosted by Roxana Petzold

Biographies

Kent Jones is a writer, producer and performer based in New York City. He wrote for numerous newspapers and magazines (back when that was a thing) before moving on to The Daily Show, a then brand new program on Comedy Central. In 2001, he and his fellow writers won an Emmy Award and Peabody Award. Next, Jones served as producer for shows on ABC and Oxygen in Los Angeles before returning to New York as a writer and performer on Air America Radio alongside Marc Maron and Rachel Maddow. Jones then joined Maddow on air on The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. He is married with one dog, Pops.

Kevin Kataoka started out in San Francisco and is now one of the writers for Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj on Netflix. He’s also written for Adult Swim’s Newsreaders, and FX’S Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, where he was also an on-air correspondent. Starting his career as a standup, he spent over a decade on stage in clubs across North America (including the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal) before turning to TV writing. He currently splits his time between New York and Los Angeles, where the most depressing street in the city is named “Los Angeles Street.”

Jenna Laurenzo is the Director, Writer, Producer and Star of Lez Bomb. Lez Bomb made its world premiere this past May at Geena Davis’ Bentonville Film Festival where it won the best narrative jury award. The film had a theatrical release in November 2018, and is now on Netflix. Lez Bomb was executive produced by Bobby Farrelly (There’s Something About Mary, Dumb & Dumber) and stars Oscar® winner Cloris Leachman, Oscar® nominee Bruce Dern, Kevin Pollak, Deirdre O’Connell, Steve Guttenberg, Elaine Hendrix, Brandon Micheal Hall and more. Lez Bomb was Laurenzo’ s follow-up to her short film, Girl Night Stand (directed/written/starring Laurenzo), an internet hit that garnered over 3 millions of streams and drove online cultural conversation for months. Jenna’s an alumni of Carnegie Mellon University, where she received her BHA in Drama and English with a focus in writing & directing, graduating with honors. Earlier this year, Jenna was selected for Shoot Online’s 2018 New Directors Showcase, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s 2018 Artist Academy. Jenna can next be seen in Peter Farrelly’s Oscar® winning Green Book.

Sherese Robinson Lee creates, manages, and teaches how to use digital content to build meaningful relationships and careers. She is the creator of the scripted digital audio soap opera Sugar – a “throwback to the pre-TV radio soap operas,” that is slated for an exclusive summer launch on the digital social audio platform Ense (rhymes with sense.) Sherese began her career as a writer on ABC’s Daytime series All My Children and Port Charles.  Since then, her work has been featured at over 15 film festivals internationally, as well as on PBS and cable TV.  Sherese holds a BFA in Film from the School of Visual Arts and an MFA in Screenwriting from Columbia University.  She currently teaches film history, digital content analysis, TV writing, and screenwriting at the University of Connecticut, School of Visual Arts, and the Fashion Institute of Technology. Sherese believes that every voice deserves to be heard, and she’s here to listen.

Evan Waite is a staff writer on Showtime’s animated satire Our Cartoon President. Prior to that, he was a staff writer on the final season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and Comedy Central’s The President Show. His first TV project was writing for the Netflix special Kevin Hart’s Guide to Black History. He currently writes for The Onion, The New Yorker, Mad Magazine and previously wrote for ClickHole. In another life, Evan worked as an ESL teacher in China.