'Bones' Showrunner Hart Hanson Among Speakers for Fox Writers Intensive

Fox has selected 10 finalists for its inaugural diversity writing program and selected a crop of speakers for the effort that includes Bones showrunner Hart Hanson.

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Fox Targets Diversity in New Writers Program

The Fox Writers Intensive, designed to nurture writers with diverse voices, backgrounds and life experiences, has selected the following from a crop of more than 300 applicants:

· Nick Citton (Advance Talent Management)
· Alessia Costantini  (Artist International Management)
· Jan Eliasberg (Rain Management Group)
· Jason Gavin (The Alpern Group)
· Nicole Jefferson Asher (Gersh)
· Tina Mabry (Independent)
· Eric Nazarian (CAA)
· Mark Valadez (Brant Rose Agency)
· Thomas Wong (Gersh)
· Iris Yamashita (Gersh)

The News Corp.-owned company in October announced the Fox Writers Intensive, a program designed to nurture writers with diverse voices, backgrounds and life experiences in an effort to create a pipeline of talent for potential staffing as writers, story editors or showrunners on Fox productions.

“These 10 incredibly gifted writers represent the high-caliber talent we’re looking for at Fox, and we’re extremely excited to work more closely with them through this initiative,” said Nicole Bernard, senior vp audience strategy for the Fox Group. “This is an important step toward ensuring that our film, TV and digital productions better reflect our broader audience, and we’re thrilled that so many writers and producers have signed on to lend their expertise.”

Kicking off this month, the Film Independent-run effort will offer trained writers a four-month curriculum focused on developing original material, honing writing skills for multiple mediums (including film, television and digital) as well as the ins and outs of the business.

Selected writers from the program will receive feedback and guidance on their scripts through interactive master classes and guest speaker sessions where writers, showrunners and directors will discuss the writing process behind their films and television shows.

Speakers signed on to participate include Hanson, Davey Holmes (Awake), Patrick Massett (Friday Night Lights), Cherry Chevapravatdumrong (Family Guy), Virgil Williams (24), Eli Dolleman (The Cleveland Show), Laurence Andries (Supernatural), Jessica Sharzer (American Horror Story) and Roy Lee (The Departed).

At the completion of the program, Fox will select one participant as the Fox Writers Intensive Fellow, who will receive one-on-one meetings with the network and studio heads as well as priority staffing efforts across Fox properties. Fox also will purchase and develop their original submission and award the referring 501(c)(3) charitable organization of the winning fellow a financial grant to be earmarked for its writing program.

Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit