Hartbeat, Sundance Institute Identify 2022 Ladies Write Now Fellows – Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat and the Sundance Institute immediately named Mayanna Berrin (Energy Dynamics), Kiana Butler Jabangwe (Evening Off) and Danielle Solomon (Hey Boo) because the recipients of this 12 months’s Women Write Now comedic screenwriting fellowship, designed to raise the subsequent era of Black girls in comedy.

The Fellows, whose brief movie scripts had been chosen from a pool of a whole bunch submissions, will now additional develop their materials beneath the steering of Hartbeat’s panel of script mentors and inventive advisors together with Leigh Davenport (Starz’s Run the World), Kay Oyegun (NBC’s This Is Us) and Yamara Taylor (ABC’s Black-ish). As a part of the event course of, every will even take part in an immersive profession improvement lab, the place they’ll obtain mentorship from inventive advisors together with Hartbeat’s Head of Movie Candice Wilson Cherry and VP, TV Improvement Tiffany Brown, in addition to such business veterans as Pricey White Individuals EP Stephanie Allain, director Marta Cunningham (Clear), CAA agent Ava Greenfield, producer Codie Elaine Oliver (Black Love), former HBO govt and creator Kelly Edwards (The Govt Chair: A Author’s Information to TV Improvement), Administration 360 Companion Melissa Breaux, AMC SVP of Content material Technique & Inclusive Programming, Nikkole Denson-Randolph, and Amazon Studios & Prime Video Head of Rising Viewers Improvement, Janina Lundy.

The fellows will subsequently carry their brief movies to life alongside visitor administrators Logan Browning (Netflix’s The Perfection), Tika Sumpter (Sonic the Hedgehog) and Nicole Byer (Netflix’s Nailed It), with every set to premiere at a personal screening on the 2023 Sundance Movie Competition. Initiatives will obtain distribution throughout Hartbeat’s flagship client model, the LOL Community, which reaches audiences throughout its O&O social media, audio and OTT companions. Hartbeat will even award every fellow with a 12-month first-look deal, throughout which they will submit authentic tasks for manufacturing consideration and distribution throughout the LOL Community.

Heartbeat CEO Thai Randolph created the Ladies Write Now fellowship program alongside founding companions Candice Wilson Cherry, Jennifer Kushner and Michelle Satter of Sundance Institute. Final 12 months’s inaugural set of fellows Wilandrea Blair, Danielle Nicolet and Moni Oyedepo collaborated with administrators Gabrielle Dennis (A Black Girl Sketch Present), Meagan Good (Harlem) and Bresha Webb (Run the World) on their brief movies which had been produced by Hartbeat and screened at a personal screening occasion in Los Angeles. Blair was in the end awarded a improvement cope with NBCUniversal Tv & Streaming to develop a venture for NBCU’s Peacock streaming platform, produced by Hartbeat, with all three fellows’ shorts at the moment out there to stream on Peacock.

“As a number one participant in comedic leisure and one of the vital wanted inventive engines for studios, streamers and types, we really feel now we have a accountability to hunt out, nurture and promote the subsequent era of gifted storytellers and escort them into doorways which may in any other case be closed,” stated Randolph. “It’s our privilege to collaborate with this new cohort of creators and we’re honored to have companions like Sundance who’re as dedicated to this work as we’re.”

“The Ladies Write Now program units its members up for achievement by prioritizing each improvement and distribution of those brief movies whereas additionally connecting these storytellers to a broader neighborhood of business mentors and allies,” stated the Sundance Institute’s Founding Senior Director of Artists Applications, Satter. “It’s an all-encompassing strategy to artist help and we’re so happy to be partnering with Hartbeat as soon as once more on this unimaginable and well-deserved alternative for Black girls in comedy.”

“Ladies Write Now has created an abundance of alternatives like I’ve by no means seen earlier than,” added Browning. “From outreach to mentorship to dismantling Hollywood’s gatekeeping, this program builds an equitable legacy for Hollywood. Everybody concerned has felt like household from day one, and I’m honored to collaborate with so many type and gifted creatives.”

Extra info on the tasks to be developed by way of the 2022 Ladies Write Now fellowship may be discovered beneath.

HEY BOO
Author: Danielle Solomon
Bio: Born and raised in Downtown Newport Information, VA, Danielle studied broadcast journalism and playwriting at Howard College. Immediately she lives on the earth of community tv and continues to hone her storytelling abilities in preparation for what’s to return.

Director: Logan Browning

About: Atlanta’s high braider, infamous for canceling on shoppers, finds herself having to braid her means out of being canceled by the web.

NIGHT OFF
Author: Kiana Butler Jabangwe
Bio: Kiana Butler Jabangwe is a storyteller from Lengthy Seaside, California who writes in regards to the on a regular basis lives of Black girls and women. Kiana co-created the net sequence Combined, and her writing has been revealed within the LA Instances. Kiana is a graduate of the USC Annenberg College for Communication and Journalism.

Director: Tika Sumpter

About: It’s the primary night time new mother and father Pat and Curtis have with out their child, they usually’ve been anxious for an opportunity to rekindle their flame. When Curtis convinces Pat to smoke slightly weed, Pat experiences main mommy guilt and trippy hallucinations.

POWER DYNAMICS
Author: Mayanna Berrin
Bio: Mayanna Berrin is a author, voice actor and slapstick comedian primarily based in LA. After finishing her BFA in Theatre on the College of Miami she accomplished the Second Metropolis Conservatory program and labored at Riot Video games, Netflix and most lately Mattel the place she writes, develops, and produces narrative YouTube content material for manufacturers.

Director: Nicole Byer

About: When a moonlighting dominatrix is reassigned at her day job as an govt assistant to work beneath certainly one of her submissive shoppers, the kinky/skilled pair should navigate continually shifting and unexpected energy dynamics.