Writers
We are driven by a talent-first approach. NBCU LAUNCH aims to discover multidimensional, visionary creators and empower them to tell their authentic stories, providing them with the resources to enhance their craft and professional skills and supporting them throughout their careers.
Our writing program alumni, including those from the previous long-standing Writers on the Verge program, are currently staffed on critically acclaimed and top-rated series across our industry. Many have become sought-after showrunners and executive producers. They include Brandon Margolis and Brandon Sonnier, Gina Monreal, Rick Muirragui, Felicia Pride, Rashad Raisani, Keto Shimizu, and Debby Wolfe.
NBC TV WRITERS PROGRAM 2020 - 21
Cristina Boada
Eric Glover
Sujana Gowni
Hakim Hill
Julian Johnson
Shawn Parikh
Hussain Pirani
Kim Tran
Cristina Boada
Cristina Boada was born and raised in South Florida in a blended Puerto Rican/Argentine, strict Catholic family. From a young age, Cristina was fascinated by Catholic lore, which touched less on religion but more on themes of love, war, family, violence, mortality, and power. While devils and angels filled her young mind, she also noticed something important missing from these stories... women. Strong women, like her mother and grandmother who raised her. So many of Cristina’s stories are inspired by women like them. Women whose lives were shaped by dominant forces like masculinity, religion, or societal norms. Women who found ways to break down these walls of oppression and resistance in order to thrive. Cristina graduated from UCF’s Film BFA program and is currently working as the Script Coordinator on Danny Strong’s DOPESICK in addition to being in the current class at NBC’s Writers on the Verge. She recently received her first TV writing credit on Nat Geo’s scripted series VALLEY OF THE BOOM, and just completed a feature for MarVista Entertainment. She’s also worked as a Writers’ Assistant on shows like THE MENTALIST, FOREVER, LOVE IS... and PATRIOT. In her free time, Cristina enjoys volunteering at Young Storytellers and raising her own little mythical being -- a 7 pound, hairless Chinese Crested.
Eric Glover
Eric Anthony Glover is a feature writer, TV writer, and graphic novelist. He studied screenwriting at Sarah Lawrence College. After his sci-fi feature script earned him a fellowship through Final Draft, Inc., Eric went on to write his first drama pilot, which earned him representation. Additionally, Eric was selected for the 2020 Humanitas Prize New Voices award, NBC’s Writers on the Verge 2020-21 fellowship, the 2021 Sony Pictures Television Diverse Writers Program, and the 2021 WarnerMedia Access Writers Program. As a writer for the arts and entertainment company Meow Wolf, Eric developed storylines and wrote scripts for immersive science fiction exhibits across the country. His graphic novel, BLACK STAR, was just published as a title in Abrams ComicArts’ imprint, Megascope.
Sujana Gowni
Sujana Gowni is a writer and political organizer who was born in Mississippi, and grew up between India, California, and Boston. As a writer, she is currently a participant of the 2020-2021 NBC Writers on the Verge Program, and developing projects with YRF Entertainment, 42, the Amel Company, and Star Thrower Entertainment. She was previously a fellow of the 2019 Black List/Women in Film Feature Lab Residency, and chosen as a mentee of Lena Waithe’s Hillman Grad. She’s also been published in outlets such as Truth-Out, Knock LA, Times of India and Democracy Now. As an organizer, she co-founded the LA Works off-shoot Music Works, which provides musical training to youth from under-privileged communities, serves on the Human Rights Watch advocacy committee and film club committee, and is certified as a legal observer with the National Lawyers Guild. She was selected as a Halo Award nominee in 2016.
Hakim Hill
Hakim Hill's Trinidadian mother named him purposefully so that he wouldn't need a nickname. So to his mother's dismay, he started going by Kimo when he began performing and teaching poetry in Boston. One name just sounded cooler. Like Seal. While working in higher education, he wrote, directed and helped produce a couple of award-winning horror and drama short films that revolved around racial trauma, using them to workshop college students. Upon moving to Los Angeles, Kimo participated in the Writer's Mob auxiliary of Leah Daniels-Butler and Henry Butler's production company 1oneninety5 Productions before placing in 2020-21 NBC's Writers on the Verge. He is currently the Script Coordinator for CW's "Naomi."
Julian Johnson
Born to a Jamaican immigrant dad and a multiracial mother, Julian Johnson was a semi-professional soccer player, world-ranked martial artist, actress, and lived the life of a financial planner before fully dedicating her life to storytelling. Julian has achieved numerous accolades as well as overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. She loves telling authentic, nuanced stories inspired by her vast experiences and encouraging people to be kind and to never give up. In the fall of 2018, she started her MFA in Screenwriting at UCLA and interned for Greg Berlanti Productions in 2019, before being tapped to be the Writers’ Production Assistant on Fox’s PRODIGAL SON. She juggled both her assistant position and the rigors of academia, graduating with honors.
She is an alum of Lena Waithe’s Hillman Grad screenwriting program. She sold her television pilot SLAY to CW / CBS Studios executive produced by Regina King and Reina King’s production company Royal Ties. Pam Veasey is attached to supervise and co-wrote the pilot. Her sports series DIVISION I has been optioned by Gale Anne Hurd's Valhalla Entertainment. Linda Gase is attached to supervise. She is currently in NBC’s Writers on the Verge class of 2020-2021. She was a WB Writers Workshop Fellowship Winner and was a DISNEY Fellowship Alternate for the 2020-2021 cycle.
Shawn Parikh
After nailing a kiss and a single line in Bye Bye Birdie in 9th grade, Shawn Parikh knew two things for sure: he loved showbiz and he did not love women. Being a gay Indian-Texan-American pursuing a creative career, he is an uberbrown sheep— although, he did his best to make his parents proud with a degree in PoliSci and a Master’s in Psych. A student of improv, standup and sketch at UCB & Groundlings, he has appeared on shows like “Outsourced”, “Cougar Town”, “What/If” and “Mom”. In addition to writing and starring in an independent pilot “Bad Indians” with Devanshi Patel and a spoof of HBO's “The Night Of” for Funny or Die, Shawn's short film “Khol,” starring Sarayu Blue, played a global festival circuit. He is in this year’s Outfest Screenwriting Lab, NBC’s Writers on the Verge, and a 2021 Just For Laughs Finalist.
Hussain Pirani
Born in Karachi and raised in Austin, Hussain Pirani is a storyteller with over a decade of experience directing short films, documentaries, and commercials. After studying both Film and Psychology at the University of Texas, he started out in casting and spent nine months canvassing the U.S. for Terrence Malick’s Oscar-nominated THE TREE OF LIFE. This experience evoked an enduring love for flawed, complex characters and thought-provoking material. Over the past 10 years, he has traveled globally as a filmmaker, shooting in places like Tokyo, Budapest, and the Peruvian Amazon.
Hussain relocated to Los Angeles in 2018 and, drawing from his immigrant experience, writes grounded dramas steeped in genre that explore themes of family, identity, and human resilience. His pilots have placed in Script Pipeline, Austin Film Festival, and Final Draft’s Big Break among other contests. In addition to being selected for NBC's Writers on the Verge in 2020, Hussain was a semifinalist for Disney's Television Writing Program and a finalist for the CBS Writers Mentoring Program. He enjoys good coffee, fluffy animals, and infusing classic breakfast cuisine with food from his Pakistani heritage.
Kim Tran
Kim Tran is a first-gen Vietnamese American writer, director and comedian from Texas. She most recently was a staff writer for season two of Space Force and is in the 2020-2021 NBC Writers on the Verge class. She received the Michener Fellowship to pursue her MFA in Screenwriting and Playwriting at UT Austin. As an improv and sketch comedian, she has performed at various festivals including SF Sketchfest and Del Close Marathon. Her films have been official selections of SXSW, Palm Springs ShortFest and Short of the Week. Her dramedy short film Zoe and Hanh, about an immigrant mother-daughter sex clash, recently earned a Vimeo Staff Pick and is being developed into a feature with a grant from the Austin Film Society. Her short film Pussy Talk, about a rambunctious talking vagina, was selected to be pitched at SXSW’s Episodic Pitch-a-Thon.
Her work explores messy, yet spirited Asian American women fumbling to make their place in the world. In addition to comedy, she loves food, travel and adventure. She once spent a summer riding her bike from Texas to Alaska, and currently splits her time between the States and Spain, where she is a language assistant at a Galician public elementary school - and eating her way through every imaginable tapa, of course.
NBC TV WRITERS PROGRAM 2020 - 21
Cristina Boada
Eric Glover
Sujana Gowni
Hakim Hill
Julian Johnson
Shawn Parikh
Hussain Pirani
Kim Tran
Cristina Boada
Cristina Boada was born and raised in South Florida in a blended Puerto Rican/Argentine, strict Catholic family. From a young age, Cristina was fascinated by Catholic lore, which touched less on religion but more on themes of love, war, family, violence, mortality, and power. While devils and angels filled her young mind, she also noticed something important missing from these stories... women. Strong women, like her mother and grandmother who raised her. So many of Cristina’s stories are inspired by women like them. Women whose lives were shaped by dominant forces like masculinity, religion, or societal norms. Women who found ways to break down these walls of oppression and resistance in order to thrive. Cristina graduated from UCF’s Film BFA program and is currently working as the Script Coordinator on Danny Strong’s DOPESICK in addition to being in the current class at NBC’s Writers on the Verge. She recently received her first TV writing credit on Nat Geo’s scripted series VALLEY OF THE BOOM, and just completed a feature for MarVista Entertainment. She’s also worked as a Writers’ Assistant on shows like THE MENTALIST, FOREVER, LOVE IS... and PATRIOT. In her free time, Cristina enjoys volunteering at Young Storytellers and raising her own little mythical being -- a 7 pound, hairless Chinese Crested.
Eric Glover
Eric Anthony Glover is a feature writer, TV writer, and graphic novelist. He studied screenwriting at Sarah Lawrence College. After his sci-fi feature script earned him a fellowship through Final Draft, Inc., Eric went on to write his first drama pilot, which earned him representation. Additionally, Eric was selected for the 2020 Humanitas Prize New Voices award, NBC’s Writers on the Verge 2020-21 fellowship, the 2021 Sony Pictures Television Diverse Writers Program, and the 2021 WarnerMedia Access Writers Program. As a writer for the arts and entertainment company Meow Wolf, Eric developed storylines and wrote scripts for immersive science fiction exhibits across the country. His graphic novel, BLACK STAR, was just published as a title in Abrams ComicArts’ imprint, Megascope.
Sujana Gowni
Sujana Gowni is a writer and political organizer who was born in Mississippi, and grew up between India, California, and Boston. As a writer, she is currently a participant of the 2020-2021 NBC Writers on the Verge Program, and developing projects with YRF Entertainment, 42, the Amel Company, and Star Thrower Entertainment. She was previously a fellow of the 2019 Black List/Women in Film Feature Lab Residency, and chosen as a mentee of Lena Waithe’s Hillman Grad. She’s also been published in outlets such as Truth-Out, Knock LA, Times of India and Democracy Now. As an organizer, she co-founded the LA Works off-shoot Music Works, which provides musical training to youth from under-privileged communities, serves on the Human Rights Watch advocacy committee and film club committee, and is certified as a legal observer with the National Lawyers Guild. She was selected as a Halo Award nominee in 2016.
Hakim Hill
Hakim Hill's Trinidadian mother named him purposefully so that he wouldn't need a nickname. So to his mother's dismay, he started going by Kimo when he began performing and teaching poetry in Boston. One name just sounded cooler. Like Seal. While working in higher education, he wrote, directed and helped produce a couple of award-winning horror and drama short films that revolved around racial trauma, using them to workshop college students. Upon moving to Los Angeles, Kimo participated in the Writer's Mob auxiliary of Leah Daniels-Butler and Henry Butler's production company 1oneninety5 Productions before placing in 2020-21 NBC's Writers on the Verge. He is currently the Script Coordinator for CW's "Naomi."
Julian Johnson
Born to a Jamaican immigrant dad and a multiracial mother, Julian Johnson was a semi-professional soccer player, world-ranked martial artist, actress, and lived the life of a financial planner before fully dedicating her life to storytelling. Julian has achieved numerous accolades as well as overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. She loves telling authentic, nuanced stories inspired by her vast experiences and encouraging people to be kind and to never give up. In the fall of 2018, she started her MFA in Screenwriting at UCLA and interned for Greg Berlanti Productions in 2019, before being tapped to be the Writers’ Production Assistant on Fox’s PRODIGAL SON. She juggled both her assistant position and the rigors of academia, graduating with honors.
She is an alum of Lena Waithe’s Hillman Grad screenwriting program. She sold her television pilot SLAY to CW / CBS Studios executive produced by Regina King and Reina King’s production company Royal Ties. Pam Veasey is attached to supervise and co-wrote the pilot. Her sports series DIVISION I has been optioned by Gale Anne Hurd's Valhalla Entertainment. Linda Gase is attached to supervise. She is currently in NBC’s Writers on the Verge class of 2020-2021. She was a WB Writers Workshop Fellowship Winner and was a DISNEY Fellowship Alternate for the 2020-2021 cycle.
Shawn Parikh
After nailing a kiss and a single line in Bye Bye Birdie in 9th grade, Shawn Parikh knew two things for sure: he loved showbiz and he did not love women. Being a gay Indian-Texan-American pursuing a creative career, he is an uberbrown sheep— although, he did his best to make his parents proud with a degree in PoliSci and a Master’s in Psych. A student of improv, standup and sketch at UCB & Groundlings, he has appeared on shows like “Outsourced”, “Cougar Town”, “What/If” and “Mom”. In addition to writing and starring in an independent pilot “Bad Indians” with Devanshi Patel and a spoof of HBO's “The Night Of” for Funny or Die, Shawn's short film “Khol,” starring Sarayu Blue, played a global festival circuit. He is in this year’s Outfest Screenwriting Lab, NBC’s Writers on the Verge, and a 2021 Just For Laughs Finalist.
Hussain Pirani
Born in Karachi and raised in Austin, Hussain Pirani is a storyteller with over a decade of experience directing short films, documentaries, and commercials. After studying both Film and Psychology at the University of Texas, he started out in casting and spent nine months canvassing the U.S. for Terrence Malick’s Oscar-nominated THE TREE OF LIFE. This experience evoked an enduring love for flawed, complex characters and thought-provoking material. Over the past 10 years, he has traveled globally as a filmmaker, shooting in places like Tokyo, Budapest, and the Peruvian Amazon.
Hussain relocated to Los Angeles in 2018 and, drawing from his immigrant experience, writes grounded dramas steeped in genre that explore themes of family, identity, and human resilience. His pilots have placed in Script Pipeline, Austin Film Festival, and Final Draft’s Big Break among other contests. In addition to being selected for NBC's Writers on the Verge in 2020, Hussain was a semifinalist for Disney's Television Writing Program and a finalist for the CBS Writers Mentoring Program. He enjoys good coffee, fluffy animals, and infusing classic breakfast cuisine with food from his Pakistani heritage.
Kim Tran
Kim Tran is a first-gen Vietnamese American writer, director and comedian from Texas. She most recently was a staff writer for season two of Space Force and is in the 2020-2021 NBC Writers on the Verge class. She received the Michener Fellowship to pursue her MFA in Screenwriting and Playwriting at UT Austin. As an improv and sketch comedian, she has performed at various festivals including SF Sketchfest and Del Close Marathon. Her films have been official selections of SXSW, Palm Springs ShortFest and Short of the Week. Her dramedy short film Zoe and Hanh, about an immigrant mother-daughter sex clash, recently earned a Vimeo Staff Pick and is being developed into a feature with a grant from the Austin Film Society. Her short film Pussy Talk, about a rambunctious talking vagina, was selected to be pitched at SXSW’s Episodic Pitch-a-Thon.
Her work explores messy, yet spirited Asian American women fumbling to make their place in the world. In addition to comedy, she loves food, travel and adventure. She once spent a summer riding her bike from Texas to Alaska, and currently splits her time between the States and Spain, where she is a language assistant at a Galician public elementary school - and eating her way through every imaginable tapa, of course.