writers can be hot

One of the TV fellowships I applied for this year wanted 300ish words on how your unique lived experience will make you an asset to the writers room. I think I nailed it!

My unique lived experience of being a hot person will contribute to a writers room in countless ways. There aren’t enough conventionally attractive writers currently working in Hollywood, and that missing perspective has lead to years of one-dimensional portrayals of really good looking characters. Sure, sometimes there are actors who claim to also be writers—and they are hot. But are they really writers? I’ve never seen any of them sitting with laptops at the Alfred Coffee on Melrose Place or the Verve on 3rd Street or that one Think Coffee on 4th Avenue in New York. Have you?

In addition to being a conventionally attractive adult, I’m also child of divorce who’s spent equal amounts of time in therapy and Irish dance classes, which are basically equivalent to a PhD. in dissecting generational trauma. If that’s not a key to defining distinct characters and coming up with storylines that challenge them from a psychological perspective, then I don’t know what is!

I came to comedy writing after a career as a political speechwriter and fundraiser, so I know how to be cool around rich people, like executive producers, and public figures, like famous actors (aka fellow hots). Plus, as a former political staffer, I’ve had multiple jobs where I was the only woman on the team, so in a sense I was in a writers room in the 90s. And early 2000s. And 2010s.

While all of the above is definitely true, and in no way an exaggeration (polling data backs up my assertions of hotness), I will get serious for just a second: I’m a lifelong storyteller who’s absolutely fascinated by people. Every character is their own psychological puzzle, and as someone with ADHD, I love solving puzzles! See, hot people can be complicated, too (told you I’d only be serious for a second)!

BONUS visuals