TV Writing: Crafting Your Pilot (Aug. 2020)

Starting her television career on the iconic 21 JUMP STREET, Thania went on to create two network TV series of her own (VR5 and CRISIS CENTER) and to write and produce over twenty popular and award winning dramas such as LIFE GOES ON, LOIS AND CLARK, ROSWELL, HUFF, EUREKA, DROP DEAD DIVA, GRIMM, CHICAGO FIRE, COVERT AFFAIRS and PROJECT BLUE BOOK. She has written over two dozen pilots for all four broadcast networks as well as Showtime, Lifetime, SyFy and USA and has also written several feature films now in development.

Currently teaching two television writing classes at AFI, Thania has also guest-lectured at UCLA, USC, NYU/Tisch and Gallatin, Ithaca College, and conducted seminars in TV writing at the Rio de Janeiro Film and Television Festival and numerous WGA and Harvardwood sponsored events. She is also proud to be a Co-Founder of The League of Hollywood Women Writers, has served two terms on the Board of Directors of the WGA, West and the WGA PAC. She earned her AB in American History and Filmmaking from Harvard University and her MFA in Film and Television Production from UCLA. 

Eliza was the 2016 Sundance Asian-American Feature Film Fellow, and attended the Sundance Screenwriters Intensive that same year with her Athena Film Festival award-winning screenplay, A BEAUTIFUL LIE, about crime novelist Patricia Highsmith. In 2017, she was selected to participate at the first ever Amazon Studios lab. 

Currently, Eliza has set up two original TV series, including an epic, WWII mini-series starring and executive produced by Steven Yeun (THE WALKING DEAD). The other series, PRETTY LITTLE FACE, is based on her experiences as a teenage model. Her pilot, ANGELICA, about the last standing abortion clinic in a state, has been included on the We For She WriteHer List, the best unproduced pilots by women. This project was also in competition at the 2018 Cannes /MipTV showcase of exceptional international drama series from new voices. The series is being produced by Oscar award winning, Shaun Redick, and Yvette Yates of Impossible Dreams (BLACKKKLANSMAN, GET OUT).

In 2019, Eliza was tapped to adapt Norma Yaeger’s memoir, “Breaking Down the Walls”, for screen, which is about the first woman stockbroker on Wall Street. An international coproduction set within the global EDM scene has commissioned Eliza as writer. She will also pen the authorized Robby Krieger Story, the guitar hero of the rock band, The Doors.

Eliza’s feature, MAYBE TOMORROW, about rock legend Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, is being produced by Michelle Sy (FINDING NEVERLAND), and executive produced by Sophia Chang (The RZA). With this script, she also went through the CAPE 2015 Film & TV Fellowship, and in 2017, she was invited to Film Independent's Fast Track with the project. She will make her directorial debut with this film. 

As a 2015 Outfest Screenwriting Lab fellow, she was mentored by Patrick Tobin, Don Roos, and Guinevere Turner, Gideon Raff among others.

A Canadian, Eliza graduated from Simon Fraser University with a BFA in Film and further film studies in the Czech Republic. She took a detour to Asia as a DP trainee before returning to her calling: to write and direct.

AWARDS:

Canneseries / MipTV 2018 In Development

Amazon Studios Lab 2017

Film Independent Fast Track Fellow 2017

WriteHer List 2017

Sundance Asian American Feature Film Fellow 2016

Sundance Screenwriters Intensive 2016

Outfest Screenwriting Lab 2015

Athena Film Festival 2015 Screenwriting Award

Liza St. John is a screenwriter born and raised in Los Angeles. She has written both original and adapted screenplays and currently has a pilot in development with Wonderthink, a production company from media veterans Tony Goldwyn and Richard LaGravenese. Liza has also worked in animation writing for Nickelodeon’s WELCOME TO THE WAYNE. 

Prior to her writing career, Liza worked extensively in film production and story development. While at New York University, she produced multiple award-winning short films and worked as a production and development assistant at Storyville Entertainment. 

Liza’s creativity extends beyond the written word as she is also a film composer and songwriter. She is Co-Founder of Wounded Zebra Music, a full-service music library, writing, and production house. Working in two different fields that often collide has helped Liza hone her storytelling craft.

Veronica Rodriguez is a writer, director, and producer. After growing up with her Mexican-American Brady Bunch family and attending an all-girls high school where she learned she didn’t have to shave her legs all the time, Veronica went on to receive her B.A. from Santa Clara University and then attended The Peter Stark Producing Program at USC's School of Cinematic Arts where she received her M.F.A. Veronica participated in the 2018 Sundance/Youtube New Voices Lab and was the 2019 Sundance Institute | Delta Air Lines & Aeromexico Latinx Fellow. She was selected as an emerging director for the 2019 Viacom ViewFinder Program with Paramount Television as well as Refinery 29's Shatterbox Program. She recently served as Story Editor on HBO’s new comedy series, BETTY, as well as Disney's GABBY DURAN & THE UNSITTABLES. She is currently adapting a book series for Nickelodeon, developing a series with Crazy Cat Lady Entertainment for Netflix, and is set to make her TV directorial debut on GABBY DURAN.