Hello! Here’s a way for you to catch up on me before we meet. First, my immediate goals (a.k.a., why I reached out to you):
- To sign a manager who complements my approach and is excited to introduce me to prodcos and showrunners seeking diverse writers on their projects.
- To book OWAs (ideally IP adaptations) and consult on productions where authentic representation of the BIPoC, neurodivergent, and disabled communities is a priority.
What I Offer
I’m a Canadian-American ghostwriter and story consultant. As an natural extension of my identities as a biracial Black woman who is over forty, neurodivergent, and disabled, my work centers diversity, inclusion, and authentic representation of mine and other underrepresented voices. That means when I’m hired for notes on features, pilots and pitches, my analysis covers not only structure, characters, voice, production considerations, etc. it also includes insight on intersectionality and authenticity of the world, characters, dialogue and more. Always have. Always will. Ditto for rewrites and adaptations, the work I love most.
I’m seeking connection to pro-active prodcos whose work I respect such as: MACRO, Outlier Society, Kaling International, Array, Shondaland, Hello Sunshine, and Higher Ground Productions.
A Brief History
I started as the long-form development assistant back in the day at Alliance-Atlantis and later for Katapult Film Sales. After paying my dues in production (as set dec, script coordinator, and music video producer) I transitioned to interstitial programming content producer then served as a Telefilm Canada-approved story editor working with profile Canadian prodcos and on international co-productions. My work has contributed Sundance, Tribeca, and Emmy-winning features. My articles, short fiction, and column ran nationally including in Canada’s in-theatre magazine, Tribute. I’ve published a novel and collaborated on two New York Times bestselling non-fiction titles. Together with my director partner, we have released three features in theaters and streaming and continue to develop new stories for all screens. I also devote myself to advocacy (see below).
Clients
As a ghost, my revisions integrate seamlessly while doing the heavy lifting of boosting emotional resonance. Here’s a selection of clients, many of which I neither received credit nor payment:
- Dreamworks
- SyFy
- Lifetime
- Pegasus Films — Known for Game of Thrones, The Tree of Life, and Fortitude.
- Jeff Renfroe — Known for American Gods, I Am Steve McQueen, and The Colony starring Laurence Fishburne, Bill Paxton, and Kevin Zegers.
- Ericson Core — Known for The Fast and The Furious, Point Break, Invincible, and Daredevil.
- Ramaa Mosley — Known for The Brass Teapot (and for being the only woman client I’ve had…ever.)
- Kevin Smith — Known for Clerks.
- Kai Sehr — Known for the Skatistan documentary.
- Dov Seidman — CEO of LRN and author of New York Times Bestselling business title, HOW featuring interviews with Thomas Friedman, Steve Kerr, and others.
Projects I’ve recently contributed to are currently being shopped by:
- Forest Whittaker’s Spirit Dance Entertainment
- Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment
Original Work
I’m best known for giving audiences the feels. Pulling heartstrings is my jam. An early draft of my latest feature dramedy placed in the top 15% of the Nicholl Fellowship and earned semifinal placement in both Diverse Voices and Creative World Awards. I was selected to participate in the inaugural LA Women’s Weekend Film Challenge in the spring of 2020. That 72-hour project recently won Best Narrative Short at the International Independent Film Awards and made the premiere audience laugh, gasp, and tear up, all in 10 minutes. Here’s a recent KCRW interview where I share my experience with our 100%-woman crew.
Available Projects
I have a feature dramedy with a 40+ Black star and an LGBTQ cast, the Cronenberg-sanctioned reboot of Shivers, an original sci-fi action-adventure series featuring a disabled cast, and, in collaboration with my partner, an original family drama crime series tackling race and privilege in wine country.
Advocacy
At 42, I learned that my extraordinary abilities and confounding challenges weren’t inexplicable at all. They’re part of my neurodivergence and are shared by millions of others. (Neurodiversity is the umbrella term for conditions such as ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyscalculia, etc. and are especially prevalent in our creative industry.) Learning who I am was the greatest gift of my life so I founded Autastic.com as a way to share my discovery with other adults whose irregular path through life seemed to have no explanation. I now host the world’s largest online community of late-identified autistic adults and two of the few spaces dedicated to autistic people of color. I work every day to educate and dispel widespread misinformation by being out and visible and by sharing my experiences.
The next step is to bring broader, non-stereotypical autistic representation to the screen. I’m seeking connection to Netflix/Exhibit A (Atypical S4), Netflix/Northern Pictures (Love On The Spectrum S2), Netflix/Dark Horse (The Umbrella Academy), Freeform/Avalon (Everything’s Gonna Be Okay), and True Jack (On The Spectrum).
Past Lives
As polymaths will do, I’ve lived lives outside film and television. My deep knowledge of and formal studies in human behavior were put to use in the advertising industry and as a Blue Sky Strategist during the dot-com emergence. There I worked directly with the C-suites of influential organizations such as the LA Kings and with the major studios and key players such as Michael Eisner of Disney. I had a formative hand in what were then groundbreaking innovations in natural-language search, mobility, and location-based services.
On A Personal Note
In non-working hours, I’m an accomplished baker, an animal lover, and an aficionado of musicals and drag. I’ve been a graceful national pageant queen and a hard-hitting roller derby skater. Raised in post-white-flight Detroit by an immigrant single mother, I’ve lived out of cars and cheap motels, and later, five-star hotels. I’ve broken the Viking high priest at my Icelandic cave wedding and spent many drunken evenings singing at the top of my lungs with pop stars who shall not be named. I can bring veracity from any of these experiences to the screen.
I am often The Only — the only woman, the only racially ambiguous person, the only Black person, the only gifted person, the only disabled person, the only person who has traversed race and social class, and the only person who is all of these identities at once. My abilities to see the world from the majority and minority perspectives at once and the advantages conferred by my neurodivergent mind need to be put to use in service of better projects and a better world.
Get in touch @dianejwright or send a message here.