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STARZ Writers Intensive 2024

STARZ #TakeTheLead, NewFilmmakers Los Angeles (NFMLA), and The National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) are thrilled to announce the participants for the third season of the STARZ #TakeTheLead Writers’ Intensive, set to begin on October 14th, 2024.

This year's writers include Alyssa Katalyna, Eric De La Rosa, Justin Omori, and Nneka Samuel. The cohort reflects diverse and historically underrepresented groups in media, showcasing the kind of representation STARZ is committed to fostering in front of and behind the camera.

STARZ has curated strategic sessions aimed at helping its participants gain knowledge and establish connections with experts in the television field, spanning the entire sector. Participating industry members include STARZ President of Original Programming Kathryn Busby, Hunting Wives Executive Producer Rebecca Cutter, STARZ Vice President of Original Programming Sebastian Arboleda, STARZ Director of Original Programming Tara Roy, Peabody Award-winning Producer, Showrunner and Writer Gary Lennon, TV Writer and P-Valley Co-Executive Producer Ian Olympio, WME Scripted TV Agent Bash Naran, 20th Television Executive Director of Drama Development Melissa Lora, ABC Hulu at Disney General Entertainment Content Manager of Drama Development Julio Castro, Point Grey Pictures SVP of TV Development Loreli Alanís, TV Writer and Story Editor Julian Johnson, TV Writer Rae Benjamin, Mediapro Studio Head of Scripted for US/Canada Erika Kennair, Valor Entertainment Partner and Co-Founder Carlos Bobadilla, TV Writer and Executive Producer Eduardo Cisneros, TV Writer and Executive Producer Claudia Forestieri, Grandview Literary Manager Faisal Kanaan, and more. These leaders will help the group gain a deep insight into the world of television and support them as they continue their journey as rising talents.

Alyssa Katalyna

Alyssa Katalyna is a Hoosier Chicana filmmaker who specializes in "the weird" with a slate of genre projects filled with emotional jump scares.

Alyssa was a 2024 Tomorrow's Filmmakers Today Fellow at the Hola Mexico Film festival. Her podcast Jack and Lou: A Gangster Love Story starring Lisa Kudrow was a winner of the 2022 Best Audio Fiction Series and Best Ensemble of an Audio Fiction at the Indie Series Awards. Alyssa has also been awarded the 2022 NALIP Emerging Content Creators Inclusion Initiative Scholarship winner, multiyear National Hispanic Foundation of the Arts Scholar, 2022 Latino Alumni Association Scholar, and the George Lucas Scholarship at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts.

Alyssa is currently producing ChikaBOOM!, the 2023 R&D Innovation Grant winner of the Entertainment Technology Center of the University of Southern California. Her other projects she has produced have been the recipients of multiple grants and accolades including the American Pavilion's Best Emerging Filmmaker Documentary at Cannes 2024, the Jury Award at the 28th DGA Student Film Awards, Epic Unreal Mega Grants, and The Rideback Rise Creative Development Fund.

Eric De La Rosa

Eric De La Rosa grew up in Arlington, Texas, home of the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers, but Eric did not participate in sports, instead he grew a love of film and television. Eric became a storyteller and amateur filmmaker and often convinced his friends and neighbors to help him shoot home movies on the weekends. Eric self-taught himself the craft of screenwriting before pursuing an Art/Film degree in college. From there, he packed his bags from Texas to reside in sunny Los Angeles to begin a career in the entertainment industry.

Eric has worked at such regarded studios including: The Jim Henson Company, MGM, Warner Bros., and FOX. He has written freelance children’s television for the PBS Kids series: Splash and Bubbles. His writing has been placed in several competitions. Eric is also an active member of two writing groups that meet around Los Angeles.

Justin Omori

Justin Omori was instilled with a love for art and storytelling while carrying his father’s camera equipment across the lava fields of Hawaiʻi Island. After receiving his degree in Creative Media from the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa, he made the move to Los Angeles. He currently works as a Writers’ Assistant. Previous projects include Netflix’s The Fall of the House of Usher and Something is Killing the Children.

In 2018, he co-wrote The Moon and The Night which was shortlisted for the Student BAFTA Awards and featured on the Criterion Channel. In 2022, he was named a Film Independent Project Involve Screenwriting Fellow and subsequently awarded the Disney Studios Content Fellowship. That same year, he wrote Inheritance, a short film supported by Tribeca Studios, Netflix, and Gold House. The short premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival. He was a finalist for the SFFilm Rainin Screenwriting Grant in 2023.

Nneka Samuel

Nneka Samuel is an award-winning film and television writer who lives to tell untapped stories. She was staffed on the second season of Flatbush Misdemeanors (Showtime). Prior to, she developed a dramedy series called Rejig with AwesomenessTV and Reform Media Group. Nneka also wrote for TV One’s NAACP award-winning music docuseries, Unsung. In addition to being a 2023 and 2018 participant of the Paris-based Cambridge Writers Workshop, Nneka is a 2019 WeForShe WriterHer List and Bitch List alum. Her work has been recognized by the Austin Film Festival and Hollywood Black Film Festival. As a freelancer her writing has been featured in numerous print and online publications, including Uptown, Heart & Soul and MadameNoire. Nneka holds a BA in Cinema Studies from USC and MFA in screenwriting from UCLA, where she was awarded the Zaki Gordon Award for Excellence in Screenwriting for her feature script Do Nothing Til You Hear From Me, the NBC/NAACP Fellowship, the Felicia D. Henderson Scholarship, Carl David Memorial Scholarship in Film and Video and placed in the Screenwriters Showcase as a finalist. Nneka is repped by Verve.