Spotlight: Crafting Complex Characters with the Creators of HACKS

Photo Credit: Andrew Law

Jen Statsky is the Emmy award winning co-creator, showrunner, and executive producer of MAX's HACKS. Prior to that, she was most recently a co-executive producer on NBC’s THE GOOD PLACE, working all four seasons on the Emmy nominated show. She also served as a co-executive producer on Comedy Central’s BROAD CITY. Her other writing credits also include NBC’s PARKS AND RECREATION, Netflix’s LADY DYNAMITE, and Amazon’s FOREVER. Jen is currently under an overall deal at Universal Television.

Photo Credit: Ryan Pfluger

Two-time Emmy-winner Lucia Aniello is a writer, director, producer, performer, and one half of the comedy team Paulilu with her partner, Paul W. Downs. Aniello and Downs are trailblazers who have achieved critical acclaim and commercial success over the past nine years, producing, writing, directing, and acting in comedy that brings authentic female experiences to the forefront. With BROAD CITY, TIME TRAVELING BONG, NORA FROM QUEENS, THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB, HACKS, and more, they make it a priority to showcase rarely seen characters.

Aniello recently wrapped writing, directing, and executive producing the third season of Max’s Original comedy series HACKS starring Jean Smart, which she also co-created alongside Downs and Jen Statsky. Hacks is the story of Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), a legendary grande dame of stand-up comedy whose long-running Las Vegas residency is threatened by a new vanguard of live performers, and Ava (Hannah Einbinder), a twenty-something television writer whose only hope of surviving cancellation is a gig modernizing Deborah’s material. Theirs is a fraught but kinetic partnership masterminded by Jimmy (Paul W. Downs). Season 3 of the show will premiere May 2, 2024 on Max.

HACKS has garnered a total of 32 Emmy nominations and 6 wins across its two seasons, including “Best Writing for a Comedy Series,” “Best Directing for a Comedy Series,” and Jean Smart won “Best Actress in a Comedy Series” in 2021 and 2022. The series won two Writers Guild of America Awards in the categories of “Comedy Series” and “New Series,” and Aniello won a Directors Guild of America Award in the category of “Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series.” For two years running, HACKS was honored as one of the “Outstanding Television Programs of the Year” at the American Film Institute Awards and was nominated for a 2022 Peabody Award, as well as won a Golden Globe Award for “Best Musical or Comedy TV Series.” HACKS has also received various award nominations at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Critics Choice Awards, Producer’s Guild of America Awards, and the Gotham Awards, among others.

Following the release of HACKS in 2021, Aniello and Downs signed an overall multiyear deal with Warner Bros. Television Group. Their first project is HOT ROBOT, a half-hour genre comedy written by Genevieve Aniello with Lucia Aniello set to direct. Most recently it was announced that they were developing their second project with the studio, BOYOS. The single-camera comedy stars Downs and Rhys Mitchell, and explores the dynamic of a male friendship based on love, vulnerability and sweet boyo-ness.

Aniello also serves as executive producer and director on Comedy Central’s series AWKWAFINA IS NORA FROM QUEENS and Netflix’s THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB starring Alicia Silverstone and Mark Feuerstein. Both shows released their second seasons in the second half of 2021. Aniello previously served as a writer, executive producer, and director on Comedy Central's critically acclaimed series BROAD CITY, which ran for five seasons. On the big screen, Aniello directed Sony’s ROUGH NIGHT starring Scarlett Johansson which she also co-wrote and produced with Downs. Other past projects include the Comedy Central miniseries TIME TRAVELING BONG, which was created and written by Aniello, along with Downs and Ilana Glazer. Aniello and Downs currently live in Los Angeles, California.

Erica Elson is a Producer, Writer and Educator based in the mountains outside Los Angeles. Her short film, WING NIGHT, premiered at Method Fest in Los Angeles. She is the co-author of the book THE AWKWARD HUMAN SURVIVAL GUIDE and co-hosted a podcast by the same name on the 5by5 network for five years. Elson's articles have been published by HuffPost, Lifehacker, and Reader's Digest. Prior to working in education, she worked in television development and writers’ rooms such as VH1’s HINDSIGHT, where she had the chance to write for the spinoff web series PLANET SEBASTIAN.

Elson joined the Sundance Collab team in October 2021 and produces courses, Master Classes, and events in the areas of screenwriting, television writing, directing, producing, and documentary filmmaking. She has moderated conversations with Sofia Coppola, Richard Linklater, Alexander Payne, and Susannah Grant, among others.

Prior to Sundance, Elson was the Thesis Production Supervisor at the American Film Institute for five years. She oversaw several award-winning graduate thesis films, notably the 2021 BAFTA student film winner APART, TOGETHER and the 2023 Sundance Film Festival short WE WERE MEANT TO. While at AFI, Elson developed a passion for sustainable production and created the Green Film School Alliance, which includes forty schools on four continents. She holds a BA in Communication and Film Studies from Concordia University and an MFA in Screenwriting from the American Film Institute.