Pitch Perfect: Branding Yourself as a Writer
An event in support of The Writers Guild Foundation.
About This Event
- Karen Kirkland - Literary Agent, Abrams Artists Agency. Founder of The Breakk.
- Erin Ryan - Staff Writer, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Host of Hysteria podcast.
- Eliza Skinner - Writer, Drop the Mic, The Late, Late Show with James Corden. Actor, Take My Wife.
- Jen Statsky - Supervising Producer, The Good Place, Forever.
In the case the event is sold out, we will have a first come, first serve stand-by line at the event. The stand-by line does not guarantee entry into the event.
Proceeds benefit the Foundation’s library, archive and other outreach programs.
Got a question about events? E-mail us at events@wgfoundation.org.
Our Partners
Event to Support The Writers Guild Foundation
Founded in 1966, the Writers Guild Foundation is the premier resource for emerging writers and movie and TV lovers in Hollywood. Boasting a busy calendar of high-value events and a vast, seemingly bottomless toolbox for writers, the Foundation is unmatched in its mission to promote and preserve the craft, history, and voices of screen storytelling. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, we’re proud of all we do for the community, including our Veterans Writing Project, our Volunteer and Mentorship Programs, our Archive, and the Shavelson-Webb Library – the world’s only library devoted entirely to writing for the screen.
About the Panelists
KAREN KIRKLAND, Literary Agent at Abrams Artists Agency, international speaker and industry veteran, who over the past 27 years has been involved in various aspects of the film and television industry; stemming from an independent producing background, she has been nominated for multiple MTV Music Video Awards, won an NAACP Image Award for Video of the Year, and served as the Producer of the LA Film Festival. Formerly, as Nickelodeon’s VP of Talent Development, Karen spent 13+ years overseeing the Nickelodeon Writing Program - one of the most competitive and well-respected vehicles for emerging TV writers. Karen has launched the careers of many successful writers, including those who are currently at EP, Producer and Story Editor level at HBO, Comedy Central, ABC, Adult Swim, The CW, FOX, Amazon, and Hulu. She most recently founded The Break; a 3-day creative retreat for emerging female television writers from around the world.
JEN STATSKY is currently a Supervising Producer on THE GOOD PLACE for NBC and FOREVER for Amazon, as well as a Co-Executive Producer on BROAD CITY for Comedy Central. Prior to that, she was an executive story editor on PARKS AND RECREATION for NBC and LADY DYNAMITE for Netflix. Jen has also worked as a staff writer on HBO's HELLO LADIES, Comedy Central's ANOTHER PERIOD, and LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON. Jen began her career as a contributing writer and associate producer at THE ONION. She is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and currently resides in Los Angeles.
About the Moderator
SARAH PENNA is the co-founder and COO of Frolic Media, a new content destination celebrating all things romance and pop culture. Romance is a $2 billion/year genre that is rapidly changing and growing right now. No one has snapped up the fandom and created a true destination for this audience. Enter Frolic. We have quickly harnessed the top romance authors, bloggers and bookstagrammers to build a community, with over 5 million in reach, which we are leveraging for premium scripted content, e-commerce, master classes, live events and more.
Prior to that, Sarah was the Co-Founder of Big Frame, the first digital-only talent management firms. During her time there, she helped to establish Big Frame as an industry leading media company and talent management firm with 300 talent signed, who have a combined 70+ million YouTube subscribers and have a total social media reach of 200+ million followers. Dubbed “CAA for the digital set,” Big Frame was acquired by DreamWorks/AwesomenessTV in April 2014. During her time at Awesomeness, the MCN reached over 60 million views/month with a combination of celebrity and digital native talent.
Sarah is the mom to a feisty three year old and wife to an uber-creative husband which means she can often be seen simultaneously sweeping cheerios from the couch, while on a conference call and helping her husband find his keys.