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Breaking into the Biz: From Pipe Dream to TV Writer

Online Nov 3 (1 Sunday Morning)10:30am - 1:30pm Pacific$95Limited Spots

25 Spots Left

Becoming a TV writer on a top show isn’t just about creating samples, it’s laying the groundwork for a stellar career. In this three hour Breaking Into The Biz Bootcamp, you’ll explore strategies for getting your foot in the door, plotting your rise and building trust with gatekeepers while staying a relevant, resilient and sane. By the end of the class you’ll have an array of tools and techniques to help you overcome the greatest career obstacles.

Topics include time management, collaboration, overcoming rejection, contests, networking, assistant gigs, staffing, self-promotion, personal branding and preparation. Overall deal not included.

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John Herrera

(The Purge, The Handmaid’s Tale, 4 pilots)

John Herrera is an Emmy-nominated writer and producer on Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale where he collaborates with writing partner, Nina Fiore. After The Handmaid’s Tale, John and Nina wrote on Bloom, a new show for Netflix that will be coming soon, and they have also worked together on USA’s The Purge, Syfy’s Nightflyers, Blood Drive, Alphas, and Eureka. Additionally, they have sold their pilots Players and Dante’s Inferno (the latter co-written with Ethan Reiff & Cyrus Voris) to CW and Freeform, respectively, and an adaptation of Melissa Lenhardt’s genre-bending, feminist western novel, Heresy, with MGM. John also co-wrote the movie Nancy Drew and The Hidden Staircase for Warner Brothers and is currently adapting a true-life feature story about the latter days of the Bosnian-Serb conflict of the 1990’s. Before becoming a TV writer, John was a script coordinator on Eureka, Californication, and Sleeper Cell. MORE

“John is fantastic. He treated newbies and those with experience with the same interest and respect for their work. He shares his experience with examples of his past shows which makes beat sheet expectations clear and understandable. It's evident he's an amazing writer because he's like a laser beam to the issues in the beat sheets and offers a clever, funny or perfect solution to fix them. ”
“Very thorough and supportive, spent extra time to make sure he could give thoughtful and specific advice.”
“John listened and gave concrete guidance and supportive feedback. Really created a safe environment for us to share.”
“He kept it real. I love his no bullshit approach about advice and what the business is like and how hard it is. No sugar coating but at the same time kind and realistically encouraging.”
“John did a great job at helping us dissect our beat sheets and gave us excellent and informative feedback on areas of improvement. His feedback is invaluable.”

Nina Fiore

(The Purge, The Handmaid’s Tale, 4 pilots)

Nina Fiore is an Emmy-nominated writer and producer on Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale where she collaborates with writing partner, John Herrera. After The Handmaid’s Tale, Nina and John wrote on Bloom, a new show for Netflix that will be coming soon. She and John have also worked on USA’s The Purge, Syfy’s Nightflyers, Blood Drive, Alphas, and Eureka. Additionally, Nina and John have sold their pilots Players and Dante’s Inferno (the latter co-written with Ethan Reiff & Cyrus Voris) to CW and Freeform, respectively, and an adaptation of Melissa Lenhardt’s genre-bending, feminist western novel, Heresy, with MGM. Nina also co-wrote the movie Nancy Drew and The Hidden Staircase for Warner Brothers and is currently adapting a true-life feature story about the latter days of the Bosnian-Serb conflict of the 1990’s. Before becoming a TV writer, Nina was a script coordinator and writer’s assistant on Eureka, Sleeper Cell, The L Word. Born in the Bronx to a Puerto Rican mother and a Sicilian father, Nina spent most of her formative years surrounded by an excess of personality. MORE

“She was amazing at keeping things positive and providing great feedback. She always made sure we were comfortable with feedback and notes.”
“Nina is very compassionate, kind, empathetic, and thoughtful. Being a working writer, she comes with experience and insight that is very beneficial. She is very approachable and pays attention to each student as they share their ideas.”
“John and Nina are great, extremely generous, and give really top level feedback. All the students saw tremendous improvements over their class. I know I would not have come to understand TV writing if I hadn't lucked into finding them. It's made a huge difference in my career already.”
“BRILLIANT! Nina is best ever at breaking things down and communicating it to you effectively. I learned more from her than I have from all the other projects I've done.”
“John & Nina provided excellent constructive criticism, passion and knowledge of the process, insightful and helpful hand-outs.”
“Nina knows how to get to the heart of a concept and makes great suggestions to elevate it, without ego. She knows the writer might take a different approach. Also, she has been incredibly open with her own experiences. Vulnerable, even. That quality a writer needs. She's very encouraging.”
“Nina gave useful feedback on my beat sheet and clearly knows a lot of great and valuable information on TV writing. She was also often funny.”

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