Learn from industry professionals who have won the most prestigious industry industry awards from The Academy, BAFTA, WGA, Golden Globes and more!
Learn from producers and current studio executives at:
Meet a few of the speakers
Jim Rash
Oscar-winning Screenwriter / Actor / Director / Producer
The Way Way Back, The Descendants, Community, Sky High
Jim Rash is an actor, comedian, producer, screenwriter, and director. He is known for playing Dean Craig Pelton on the beloved NBC/Yahoo! sitcom COMMUNITY. In 2012, he received a Golden Globe nomination and subsequently won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film THE DESCENDANTS.
Rash and writing partner Nat Faxon wrote the screenplay for THE DESCENDANTS, directed by Alexander Payne, based on the novel of the same name by Kaui Hart Hemmings. The film was produced in Hawaii and starred George Clooney; it was released on November 18, 2011, to critical acclaim. The film received a Golden Globe nomination and won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Meg LeFauve
Oscar-nominated Screenwriter / Producer
PIXAR’s Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur, Captain Marvel
Nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar for the blockbuster INSIDE OUT, LeFauve won an Annie Award for that screenplay. She also wrote Pixar’s THE GOOD DINOSAUR. LeFauve is currently writing for Netflix the animated film MY FATHER’S DRAGON to be created by Cartoon Saloon. She wrote on the upcoming Marvel film, CAPTAIN MARVEL. LeFauve began her film career as a producer and President of Egg Pictures, Jodie Foster’s film company. During that time, LeFauve produced films which were nominated for an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and was awarded a Peabody for the Showtime film, THE BABY DANCE. LeFauve also produced THE DANGEROUS LIVES OF ALTAR BOYS which won the 2003 IFP Spirit Award for Best First Feature.
Keya Khayatian
Agent / Partner
United Talent Agency
Keya Khayatian is a Partner in the Motion Picture Literary department of leading talent and literary agency UTA. With a keen eye for spotting original artistic voices, Khayatian has helped develop the careers of many of the most sought after writers and directors, as well as representing established talent.
Clients include Marielle Heller (THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL), Garth Davis (LION), Craig Borten (DALLAS BUYERS CLUB), Asghar Farhadi (A SEPARATION, THE PAST), Naji Abu Nowar (THEEB), Max Borenstein (GODZILLA), Jonas Cuaron (DESIERTO), Carlos Cuaron (Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN, RUDO Y CURSI), Ira Glass (THIS AMERICAN LIFE), Rodrigo Cortés (BURIED, THE CONTESTANT), Marjane Satrapi (THE VOICES, CHICKEN WITH PLUMS, PERSEPOLIS), Jared Hess (DON VERDEAN, NACHO LIBRE, NAPOLEON DYNAMITE), Clark Johnson (THE SENTINEL, S.W.A.T., BOYCOTT, THE SHIELD ), Broken Lizard—including director Jay Chandrashekar (BEERFEST, DUKES OF HAZZARD, SUPERTROOPERS), Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely (CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE), and Michael Cooney (IDENTITY).
Cinco Paul
Writer / Producer / Actor
The Lorax, Bubble Boy, Despicable Me, Horton Hears a Who!
Cinco Paul grew up in Phoenix, Arizona dreaming of becoming a famous pop musician. He graduated summa cum laude from Yale University, abandoned his dreams of pop stardom, got an M.F.A. in screenwriting from USC and became a screenwriter instead. Life’s funny that way. With Ken Daurio he has written the movies DESPICABLE ME, DESPICABLE ME 2, DESPICABLE ME 3, THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS, DR. SEUSS’ HORTON HEARS A WHO, DR. SEUSS’ THE LORAX, THE SANTA CLAUSE 2, and BUBBLE BOY. He also wrote the lyrics for the six songs in THE LORAX, and is the recipient of the ASCAP Sammy Cahn Award for lyric writing and the Harold Arlen Award for the score of BUBBLE BOY THE MUSICAL, the original cast recording of which was recently released on Sh-K-Boom Records.
Wendy Calhoun
TV Writer / Showrunner / Producer
Nashville, EMPIRE, Station 19, Grey’s Anatomy
Wendy Calhoun is a writer and Consulting Producer for STATION 19, the GREY’S ANATOMY firefighter spin-off for Shondaland and ABC. Her past credits include Co-Executive Producing and writing the historic first season of Fox’s hit series EMPIRE. In addition, she’s written and produced for ABC’S NASHVILLE, FX’s JUSTIFIED, ABC’s REVENGE, and NBC’s LIFE. Since 2015, she has created and developed pilots with ABC Signature, FX, 20th TV, Fox, and Netflix. Calhoun wrote and directed the virtual reality short, LEFT BEHIND, sponsored by Google and honored as “Best in VR” at Digital Hollywood 2016. She received a 2010 Peabody Award and WGA Best New Series Nomination for JUSTIFIED. She received her second WGA Best New Series Nomination in 2012 for NASHVILLE. Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Calhoun studied film and television at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Fatimah Asghar
Actress / Writer / Producer
Brown Girls, You’re So Talented, Red
Fatimah Asghar is a nationally touring poet, screenwriter, educator and performer. Her work has appeared in many journals, including POETRY Magazine, Gulf Coast, BuzzFeed Reader, The Margins, The Offing, Academy of American Poets and many others. Her work has been featured on new outlets like PBS, NPR, Time, Teen Vogue, Huffington Post, and others. In 2011 she created a spoken word poetry group in Bosnia and Herzegovina called REFLEKS while on a Fulbright studying theater in post-genocidal countries. She is a member of the Dark Noise Collective, a 2017 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship recipient, and a Kundiman Fellow. Her chapbook After came out on Yes Yes Books fall 2015. She is the writer and co-creator of Brown Girls, an Emmy-nominated web series that highlights friendships between women of color. Her debut book of poems, If They Come For Us, is forthcoming on One World/ Random House, Summer 2018.
Barbara Stepansky
Director / Writer / Editor
Flint, Die trojanische Kuh, Ex-Best
Barbara Stepansky is a WGA Award winner, a Nicholl Fellow and an award-winning independent feature film director. Her work was shortlisted for the Academy Awards, garnered the DGA Diversity Award and the Student Emmy and was featured on the Black List. She is the recipient of the Mary Pickford Foundation Scholarship and the Franklin J. Schaffner AFI Fellow Award. Barbara pursued her Master’s at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and in Directing at the American Film Institute. She has directed three feature films (HURT with Melora Walters, William Mapother, FUGUE, TAKEN FOR RANSOM with Teri Polo, Chazz Palminteri, Tia Carrere), several web series (EX-BEST, AWKWARD SUNRISE) and numerous short films (THE TROJAN COW, ROAD RAGE, SUBSTANCE). She has written projects for Mad Chance, USA SYFY and Storyline. Her TV Series FACE OF EVIL was developed at Fox 21 and Imagine Entertainment. FLINT, a film she wrote about the Flint Water Crisis for Sony/Lifetime with Queen Latifah, won several awards at NAACP, WGA and EMA and was nominated for Critics Choice.
Ready to get inspired?
Join us for over 80 lectures and deep-dive interviews with leading Hollywood professionals.
FAQ
How much does the summit cost?
Become a member of TSL 360 for as little as $12 per month. As a member, you’ll have access to over 80+ interviews and lectures with some of Hollywood’s leading screenwriters, studio executives, managers and producers – as well as last year’s content! Anyone, anywhere in the world is welcome to join this online experience from the convenience of your living room. All you need is a simple internet connection.
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Is it available in my country?
Yes, anyone from anywhere may register for this online service. All classes and interviews will be in English.
Will I be able to ask questions and interact with the panelists?
While most of the lectures and interviews are pre-recorded, there will be some opportunity for interaction via live Twitter Q&A. Additionally, if you’re local to Los Angeles, be sure to sign up for The Script Lab’s newsletter to receive notification of in-person events with industry mentors throughout the year.
How can I learn more about screenwriting after this event?
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