I was a community organizer for Obama, a speechwriter for Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, a campaign director for The Green New Deal, and a staff writer of The Bear. As a WGA West Board member, I will mobilize the greatest communicators in America against 1%, and shift the balance of power in Hollywood. I am AMPTP’s worst nightmare.
We will become the most visionary, innovative, and effective union in America — inspiring workers across the country to follow our lead.
I was raised by a single mother in Florida. We were poor, living off the kindness of strangers who donated to food banks. But that never stopped my mom from giving all of our silverware to the immigrant family who just moved in down the street. My mom raised me with a discipline of solidarity. I have dedicated my life to the people, as a community organizer, as a movement leader, as a voice for working people on The Bear. I have given to the people until I'm empty. And in exchange, I have witnessed history in the making.
Writing for The Bear's first season, I was still on on Medicaid, my apartment had no heat, I was suffering through success. My body burned with stress. I felt like I was falling, pulling on the rip cord over and over. The Writers Guild of America was my parachute. I found community. I got health insurance, and I could finally afford a therapist. This union gave me the privilege of healing. So I put my career on the line for this union. I spoke my truth, I told the press what was really going on. All that glitters is not gold...
On a resume, you only see successes. If they gave awards for hard times, I'd have an EGOT. I am a candidate for every writer who has been down and out in La La Land. As a leader of this storied union, I will meet you in the valley. I will risk my career for you, I will say the things no one in Hollywood is allowed to say, I will fight for the causes everyone else is afraid to fight for.
If you elect me to WGA West Board, I will take a stand for you.
BUILD A BETTER HOLLYWOOD
Writers didn’t burn down Hollywood. Billionaires wrecked Hollywood just like Twitter, submarines, and everything else they touch. The next few years will be brutal. Jobs will be harder to find. But it will pass. If we keep our solidarity, we can build a better Hollywood.
Broke young writers, like myself, put our careers on the line for this union. Americans were captivated by the stories of our precarious lives behind the curtain. When the strike ends, every writer will be forced to rebuild our careers in a new landscape. AMPTP made it clear: they want to leave us homeless. Our union needs to show up for us after the strike is over.
In these moments of whirlwind, anything is possible. Writers have the power to create new worlds. We will rekindle the public imagination, and spark a culture of solidarity across America.
Photo by JW Hendricks
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I’d rather walk the picket line than walk the red carpet. On the picket line, I feel something no individual success can match: Solidarity. There are no ranks, no competition. We are all writers; sincere in our love for our craft. Solidarity is the practice of love.
Our solidarity cannot fade into nostalgia. We must replace Hollywood’s toxic culture with a culture of solidarity.
I will mobilize our army of communicators to keep up the fight against Hollywood’s 1% beyond the Writers Strike. We have seen the power of our members’ heartfelt storytelling, and our staff’s disciplined campaigning. Together, our Narrative Working Group will create provocative, and strategic messaging to keep up the fight against studios for years to come.
We need to reboot in-person orientation for new members, and create a Trade Union School to educate our membership about labor strategies. As a WGAW board member, I will ensure every member is well-prepared to engage in WGA’’s strategy.
We need to expand our union to include Reality TV writers, and Video Game Writers. Video games, in particular, are a bigger industry than Hollywood. In the next two years, we should make significant investment in our small but mighty Organizing Department. The influx of brilliant, new, dues-paying, members will grow the power of our union.
During the 2023 Writers Strike, I helped to organize a new wave of rank-and-file workers across every labor union in Hollywood. Let’s build a cross-union squad of entertainment workers. Hollywood Labor’s rank-and-file can organize effective campaigns, and convene forums to build solidarity between contract battles.
Writers must to stand in solidarity with IATSE and Teamsters as they enter contract battles in 2024. New voices will rise up in every union. By the time my generation inherits WGA, we will always weld the threat of a Hollywood General Strike at the bargaining table.
In the fifteen years between Writers Strikes, we lost too much ground. It is not enough to negotiate a minimum contract every three years. The forces of capitalism will move at warp speed to roll back progress. We must restore the social contract. We must invest in a livable future. Capitalism and fascism continue to strip away our human rights. I commend WGA for expanding abortion coverage in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. But we cannot stay on the defensive, bracing for the next blow.
The Writers Guild must bargain for the common good. AI and automation are existential threats that will workers and communities across California. As a WGA leader, I will weave our union into a national movement of workers rising up against the 1%. By mobilizing our messengers, and leveraging political power, we will regulate AI, and rebuild the middle-class.
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My experience is a case study, staff writers often live below the poverty line while working on hit shows. We need to end the practice of repeating staff writer level. Let’s give young writers a chance to thrive.
Working-class writers, like myself, put our careers on the line for this union. Our union needs to show up for us after the strike is over. Our wealthiest writers must continue to invest in charity, non-profits, and mutual aid for our fellow writers. WGA should forgive strike loans for writers who suffer significant financial burden after the strike. The Guild should also offer a generous grace period before health coverage lapses due to lack of income. Allow writers to rebuild.
Diversity is not about PR, or appearing “woke.” Diversity is about having the full spectrum of human experience represented in our culture. Our diversity is under attack. Execs are increasingly wary of "woke" content, and erasing LGBTQ+ characters. Hollywood’s mass layoffs have targeted Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion leaders and departments. The Wrap cited “diversity fatigue” for Hollywood’s disinvestment from multiple ethnicities, gender, and sexual identities: “The drive for diversity that picked up prominence with 2020’s Black Lives Matter movement seems to have run its course after just three years.”
Let’s be clear, “diversity fatigue” is a polite word for racism. America is backsliding into hate. Writers must take a stand. We cannot cater to the bias. We cannot allow Fascist Culture to take root in America. We need to fight back as artists, and as a union.
A McKinsey study showed that Hollywood loses over $10 billion every year due to a lack of diversity. Diversity is good for business. However, too many diversity initiatives try to spike demand by cheapening BIPOC labor. Diversity waivers gave talent like Donald Glover his start in the business. However, Glover was an outcast in the 30 Rock writer’s room, and he was not kept around for long. Glover was only brought onto 30 Rock because his labor was essentially free. We need to ensure Hollywood invests in young BIPOC writers for the long-term.
What I love about screenwriting is that all it takes is a paper, a pen, and an imagination. Writing is a truly democratic craft, but elite universities act as gatekeepers. You shouldn’t need college debt to become a professional screenwriter. WGA should partner with non-profits to bring screenwriting training into BIPOC-majority high-schools across Los Angeles.
WGA has the greatest writing talent on Earth, it’s time to give back to our community, and inspire the next generation of Black, Indigenous, Latine, Asian, and working-class writers. This New Wave of writers will not just be trained to Save The Cat, they will learn how to navigate an inhospitable business with an ethos of solidarity.
Our union must build a pipeline from high school or college, to apprenticeship, to staff writer, to mid-level writer, to show runner. We must offer training programs for both craft and career. We can partner with a platform like Smash Cut to create online, on-demand training programs featuring our talented members. This will quickly become one of the most valuable benefits our union offers.
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6 corporations own 90% of the media industry. The monopolization of news and entertainment has built a propaganda machine for the 1%, depressing wages for all workers. We must mobilize labor unions across America to block corporate mergers. My unique experience with Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey will help us leverage political power to strengthen antitrust laws, regulate emerging technology like AI, and protect working families across America.
WGA should fight for significant stock options in media corporations. Workers deserve to share in the success of our product. Corporations like Netflix, already offer generous Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) to executives and corporate staff. In addition to pension and health funds, WGA can push signatory corporations to invest in ESOPs, or an Employee Ownership Trust.
If we truly want to transform Corporate Hollywood, writers need a seat at the table. In Germany, the law mandates that workers at large companies elect up to half the members of supervisory boards. Workers and management co-determine how the company invests profits, and who the company hires for senior management. It may take quite some time, but I believe we can democratize the dream factory.
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We must be the generation to end toxic work culture, from our writers rooms, to our sets, and everywhere in between. When our fellow writers are harmed, where will they turn? Netflix HR? We know these corporations don't care about humanity.
Accountability often requires painful and lonely sacrifice. In Hollywood, it took a tidal wave of truth, women sharing their deepest traumas in public, to stop creeps like Weinstein. It’s not enough to cancel the worst abusers. We have to build a healthy culture to counter the status quo. Hollywood Me Too scandals changed American culture. Now, we have the opportunity to show America what healing & accountability looks like.
If we don't build spaces for truth, reconciliation, and repair, our scandals will continue to spill out into public. Not because accusers want to be famous, but because the court of public opinion (however flawed) is more neutral than an abusive boss, or a complicit HR department.
Showrunners must be properly set-up for success with leadership and conflict resolution training from The Management Center. Every writers room should have post-season 360 review. We need a third-party reporting system for writing room staff. The Writers Guild should create a Restorative Justice Council to address abuse.
Build A Better Hollywood is a living document. Your feedback matters!
In a union election, endorsements are everything. An endorsement doesn’t mean you agree with everything a candidate has ever said or will ever said. An endorsement simply means that you believe my voice matters. If elected, I will look to my endorsers as advisors. I will rely on your voice to guide me.
A NEW WAVE FOR SCREENWRITERS
“Film isn’t just entertainment. We’re looking at each other, watching what other people do and encouraging greater honesty about each other’s cultures. It’s the age of mass storytelling in which a video recorded on a phone can bring together families separated by lockdown — or inspire a powerful global movement.”
Creative Freedom
Screenwriters are filmmakers. We must fight for the creative rights DGA consistently wins for their membership. Screenwriters must never be cut out of the creative process. Screenwriters should have the same level of authorship and respect television writers receive. Great writers are able to take notes and improve their work without ego. However, it’s the writer’s duty to protect the soul and intent of our work. WGA must back-up the creative power of our members. In the age of corporate domination, we must revive the independent spirit of American cinema.
Development Heaven
The feature development process is broken. The market has been rigged for established IP, while original ideas languish in unpaid development hell. Studios won’t bet on fresh ideas or new voices unless a project has been written and rewritten a dozen times, a pitch deck has been designed, and starring actors have been packaged. Feature writers are expected to produce their project for free, without real collaboration from producers.
“We need to be clear about what’s happening in the industry,” Writer Ruth Fowler says. “Studios are offloading the financial burden for development onto writers. Rather than paying for it themselves, studios expect writers to fund the development of shows through teaching and writing and catering and bartending and, often, borrowing money.”
The development process should operate like any other job does. Feature writers need the stability of regular pay, at sustainable intervals. Producers must commit to real collaboration and support of writing talent. Years-long, uncompensated development must be barred. The Guild must rigorously enforce our contract to defend screenwriters. We must strengthen our captain program for features to ensure screenwriters are never isolated and vulnerable to exploitation.
Profit-participation
Studios are stealing our profits. Even when an artist’s agent is able to negotiate “points on the backend,” corporate shell games ensure that, on paper, no movies make profit (even global blockbusters). John Cusack’s boombox serenade in Say Anything is one of the most iconic scenes of 80’s culture. His contract included “points” — a percentage of net profits. In the 30 years since the release of that iconic, generation-defining film, Cusack has still never received his share of profits. FOX claims that Say Anything (a film which cost $13 million to make) lost $44 million over 3 decades. “A neat accounting trick don’t ya think?” says Cusack.
Artists with profit-sharing deals are often forced into lengthy, and costly legal battles with studios to prove and recoup profits. WGA must end the backend shell game and fight for profit transparency from the box office to streaming.
We must establish a minimum for profit-sharing in our next MBA. Exciting models for worker equity are rising in Hollywood. Artist Equity, Ben Affleck & Matt Damon’s production company, pledged to share the profits of “Air” with above-the-line and below-the-line workers. WGA can build coalition with SAG-AFTRA, DGA, IATSE, and Teamsters, to ensure that everyone who creates a film earns a piece of profits.
Independent Film
Independent Film has been largely ignored in WGA’s contract battle against Hollywood’s 1%. “We may need the money mainstream cinema from America brings in, but to create future stars and introduce new voices, independent film is where it’s at,” actor Idris Elba says, “I wouldn’t be here without it.” If we are serious about building a diverse future for our craft, WGA must protect independent film.
What is causing the degradation of independent cinema? Corporate mergers, free development, unreasonable packaging demands, over-reliance on established IP, lack of creative freedom, lack of diverse producers, nepotism, the rise of streaming and the decline of American cinemas nationwide. For independent film to thrive, we have to collectively reimagine the cinematic experience and bring audiences back to the theatre. Learning from greats like Melvin Van Peebles, we can make cinemas a site of community gathering and conversation.
Indie films cannot compete with Marvel’s latest, but they serve a purpose beyond short-term profits. Independent Cinema is often our “farm league” where diverse new voices are given space to innovate and develop thier talent. In recent years, we have seen big studios scoop up indie darlings like Greta Gerwig, and Chloé Zhao. The President of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige, explained the importance of indie filmmakers to the Marvel machine: “When you get people with unique points of views, regardless of the size of film they’ve done in the past, and empower them and surround them with the great artists and technicians that can bring spectacle, they can take you to places you’ve never gone before.”
Big studios are willing to invest in independent auteurs, yet they are destroying the ecosystem that allows independent voices to emerge. Top studios must be made to invest in independent film structures they exploit.
Public Imagination
We need to recognize film as critical infrastructure of American culture. During the Great Depression, when our country was poor and fascism was on the rise, the federal government deemed it essential to invest in working-class artists to define a new national identity. The New Deal’s Work Progress Administration launched the careers of directors like Orson Welles, writers like Zora Neale Hurston, artists like Jackson Pollock, and playwrights like Arthur Miller. These great artists were on welfare, saved by a government that believed in the power of art.
In 2023, we face a recession. Hollywood is downsizing, thousands have lost their jobs, including the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion leaders across several studios. It is time to force government and corporations to invest in a modern Works Progress Administration to employ precarious artists. WGA must aggressively lobby for National Endowment of the Arts, which Donald Trump has threatened to defund.
In most other countries with a thriving film industry, the government heavily subsidizes production. In the richest country on Earth, we deem art as a frivolous luxury. WGA should push to close loopholes that allows Disney+ to avoid paying $1.5 billion in taxes by erasing our art from streaming services. Instead, that money can be invested into a national endowment for diverse independent filmmakers.
Together, we can push Congress to divest from systems of destruction, and invest in the future of America: arts and culture, health and science, green new careers to survive the climate crisis. Screenwriting is one of the greenest jobs on Earth, we don’t even use much paper anymore. Writers have an important duty to help our neighbors both escape and understand the turmoil of the world — just like we did for COVID-19. As Kerry James Marshall said, “Art isn’t made for coffee tables, it’s made to sustain a people.”
BARGAINING FOR THE
COMMON GOOD
Community and union members partner around a long-term vision for the future.
FAQs
What’s your priority for your first term?
A better Hollywood will be built in waves. The first wave must be education. In my first term, I would build a Trade Union school, create online career & craft training for writers, and bring screenwriting education into LA high schools. A well-educated membership is able to fully participate in union strategy and build the broad movement we need to rebuild the middle-class.
What’s your position on AI?
Artificial Intelligence poses an existential threat to human life. Unregulated algorithms and machine-learning is degrading attention spans and decaying human culture. AI is incapable of producing art, it is simply a machine designed to steal our original material at a warp speed. Our activism must match the speed of technological advances.
WGA must heavily invest in expert staff to research and stay ahead of technological developments that endanger our livelihoods. We must aggressively lobby the state of California and U.S. Congress to pass bi-partisan AI regulation to protect every American worker from automation without compensation. My old buddy Senator Ed Markey has been a leader on AI and net neutrality in Washington, he will be an important partner for our guild. I know from my years in politics, that the only way to pass major legislation is to convince politicians that it is a winning electoral issue. To this end, WGA should use the backdrop of the 2024 elections to showcase overwhelming voter support for AI and automation regulations.
What’s your position on writing teams?
Writing Teams share a script, but they don’t share hospital bills. WGA should ensure our writing teams are paid enough to keep their health insurance. I believe writing teams should be paid 150% of the minimum rate.
How do we stop streamers from erasing our art?
Streamers are erasing our art for billion dollar tax write-offs, and to bolster free, ad-supported outlets like Freevee. Our contracts should ensure substantial residuals, regardless of distribution outlet or method. I support streamers licensing our art to new outlets, if residuals compensate the value of our work. If content is totally removed, there should be a lump-sum payout.
We have to close tax loop holes that allow global corporations to receive U.S. welfare. Instead of the American government paying Disney $1.5 billion dollars to erase our art, that money should be given to the common good: healthcare for all, education for all, and investments in independent art & culture. Media corporations’ taxes can be used to restore the National Endowment of the Arts.
What’s your position on video game writers?
Video games are an even bigger business than Hollywood. The medium allows for truly immersive, interactive storytelling that rivals Hollywood offerings. Such a profitable industry can afford to pay its workers a middle-class income. In the next two years, WGA should aggressively push to unionize America’s 40,000+ video game writers. We should build coalition with gaming journalists, striking pro-gamers, and vocal gaming communities online. We should encourage hybrid-careers, with prestige screenwriters and television writers writing AAA games to help meet annual healthcare requirements.
What’s your political history?
I have an audacious political history, full of underdog victories. As a teenager, I was a community organizer for Obama’s campaign in Florida. I learned to mobilize volunteers to share authentic personal stories with voters. I carried my community communications experience to become a prolific creator of political ads. I wrote viral speeches for Senators, including Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey. I built a youth climate movement for The Green New Deal — a plan to address stop climate change, and create millions of good jobs in the process. Instead of messaging dystopian dread, I wielded militant optimism, A Better World Is Possible.
The Green New Deal is one of the most successful grassroots policy campaigns in American history. For the first time ever, every Democratic presidential candidate was forced to create a plan for the climate crisis. Within 3 years, a movement of young people literally rewrote the climate agenda of the United States. Our movement passed the biggest climate laws ever, on state and federal levels. While there is more work to be done, my leadership revolutionized the climate movement to achieve the impossible.
I ultimately decided to resign from my position and leave politics in 2021. I could not stomach the corruption and abuse which infects our entire political system. If we change the culture, our political problems may be easier to confront.