Talent

Ashish Ravinran is a Singaporean-Indian writer who tells subversive, multicultural stories that approach messy subjects with a light touch. He learned how to ask questions from his anthropologist mom and how to tell stories from his lawyer dad. He has a large, global family who come in multiple shades of brown and mysteriously end up as characters in his scripts. As an Indian kid attending Christian schools in Chinese-majority Singapore, Ashish developed an early interest in race, migration and cultural clashes. When he was stuck doing a 1984-esque desk job during two years of compulsory military service, he thankfully discovered writing and filmmaking as a more productive way to question authority.

Ashish began making short films as a history undergrad at Oxford University and received his MFA in Filmmaking from NYU Tisch. His thesis short dramatized the origin story of a real-life CIA sex tape that was made to depose the Indonesian president. While developing his writing, Ashish has also edited documentaries for Amazon, PBS, Hulu and ESPN, and has taught editing to both NYU grad students and Danny DeVito. In his spare time, he tries to re-create his dad's chicken biryani recipe.

Texas-bred Lindsay Opoku-Acheampong is a comedy writer and documentarian whose parents hail from Ghana and Uganda. Always finding herself in contrasting worlds, she received her BA in Biology from Occidental College (inspired by her love of childhood shows like Zoboomafoo and The Wild Thornberrys) and her MFA in Production/Directing from UCLA with an emphasis in Documentary filmmaking (inspired by her time abroad in Madagascar and her participation in undergrad campus protests). Staying true to her propensity for contrasts, Lindsay discovered that she not only loved documentary filmmaking, but also television writing.

She has since worked across documentary and scripted forms as a PA, teaching associate, and Peabody screening committee member, and her short documentary Textures has screened at prestigious festivals. She is currently in post on her hybrid documentary Cuffing Season, while attending the Mentorship Matters program and the Warner Bros. Writers' Workshop. Her comedies have their staples: flawed protagonists, the exploration of community and friendship, a sprinkle of hijinks, and a whole lot of heart. In her free time (when she can find it), Lindsay persists in her years-long journey of considering roller skating lessons.

Lynda Brendish was raised in New Zealand by her single mother and highly matriarchal and overbearing, but very loving, extended family. She was born in England - where she assumes her Chaldean Iraqi father still lives today but can't be totally sure because he abandoned her at a train station when she was six years old (hence the love for the overbearing aunties). Reflecting her great appreciation for the scenic route, Lynda has a film degree from Columbia College Chicago and a journalism degree from Auckland University of Technology. She has worked as a feature film development assistant, a non-profit media coordinator and a freelance writer. As a freelancer, she's covered everything from awards parties to lawsuits, and while working in marketing for a now-defunct aerospace startup, she sold tickets to space. Lynda writes mysteries anchored by complicated women searching for belonging. Her writing earned her a spot in the Circle of Confusion writers' development program in 2020 and in the 2023 Warner Bros. Writers' Workshop.

Nina Luckshmi Mohan was born to two Sri Lankan Tamil immigrants and raised in the Chicago suburbs. At 6 weeks old, she attended her first social event: a funeral, which set her up for a lifelong obsession with death and all things macabre. Between watching entire seasons of Unsolved Mysteries and Air Crash Investigation, Nina developed a love of collaborative storytelling through studying opera, slam poetry, and Bharatanatyam dancing. She went on to earn her B.F.A. in vocal performance and B.A. in creative writing from Carnegie Mellon University, then took a sharp left turn and got a technical writing job.

After realizing she did not want her beautiful words to die in unread software user manuals, she turned to the biggest audience she could find - The Internet - namely: BuzzFeed, where she got a job writing and producing videos. Eventually she met colleagues who wrote screenplays and realized this was a medium where her words could come alive off the page and she could tell stories that encompassed the 3Ds - dark, disturbing, and depressing. Nina's scripts about driven but imperfect women trying and failing to outrun their trauma landed her a spot in the 2020 CAPE New Writers Fellowship and the 2023 Warner Bros. Writers' Workshop.

Sara Kimura was born in Los Angeles to a Japanese DJ and a Latina schoolteacher who met on the way to the club - or church - depending on who you ask. Sara's mother raised her to become a Christian stay-at-home mom, wife, and author. Instead, Sara became a childless, husbandless heathen, and screenwriter. After escaping from her culty church, Sara began her TV journey as an assistant at Jason Katims' production company. Over the next few years, she worked on seven different TV shows, finding her voice writing dramedies about women of color exploring their identities - cultural, ethnic, sexual, and religious. As a self-proclaimed late bloomer, Sara is passionate about telling coming-of-age stories that make people on the margins feel a little less alone.

Sara is currently working as the Showrunner's Assistant on S2 of Shadow & Bone for Netflix where she does a number of important things, primarily, hoping for the next Ben Barnes sighting.

"What are you?" is a question Saroya Whatley gets asked constantly since she's ethnically ambiguous and likes to wear the occasional wig, whether it be black, gray, or mermaid green. She is a biracial, bisexual feminist born and bred in the golden state of California who believes anything below 75 degrees is cold and dreams about adapting her favorite anime Sailor Moon into a live-action fantasy drama.

As a native Angeleno, Saroya grew up in the business as a child actor. Fifteen years later, after a stint working in tech in San Francisco, she decided to return to the entertainment industry (something she knew she'd always do), but this time as a writer. After receiving her MFA in Writing for Screen & Television from USC, Saroya worked as an assistant on multiple television shows, most notably as a writers' assistant on Grey's Anatomy. Saroya's focus on female-centric narratives about the struggle of identity told through a genre lens led to her becoming repped by APA and to her acceptance into the Warner Bros. Writers' Workshop.

Stasia Demick is a Seattle-born athlete-turned-drama writer that doctors consider "lucky to be alive." Growing up, her family described her work ethic as that of someone living on borrowed time. As it turned out, they were right. While her friends spent their 18th birthdays getting their first tattoos, Stasia spent hers in an ambulance signing her first "Do Not Resuscitate" for an undiagnosed medical anomaly. To her credit, she's only almost died one other time. Over the years, a common theme emerged in her writing - all her female protagonists were gay. Off this revelation, Stasia explored the intersections of her identity on and off the page. Between her experiences as a late-blooming lesbian and competitive athlete with a secret health condition, she found ample material to pull from.

After years of assisting in several facets of production, Stasia wrote her first episode of television on Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin. Stasia landed a spot in the prestigious Warner Bros. Writers' Workshop while script coordinating on PLL Season Two.

Troy Kelly is a gay forensic psychologist-turned-TV drama writer. He attended thirteen schools across four states before high school graduation. His father's job (violent drug dealer) prompted the family's frequent moves. Despite his...unique childhood, Troy earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and practiced as a forensic psychologist, specializing in sex offenders, psychopaths, and interrogations. His cases ran the gamut from false confessions to serial sexually violent predators to murder-for-hire plots and everything in between.

Troy writes dark, emotionally driven dramas about flawed protagonists with complicated relationships and unresolved traumas who overcome impossible obstacles and do whatever it takes to survive. Among Troy's other passions are dog rescue and rehabilitation - most recently rescuing Lucky, his Australian Cattle Dog/Great Pyrenes mix who is training for therapy dog certification - and curating a collection of over 10,000 comic books.