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 2023 - 24
Bixby Elliot
Edward Excaliber
Aurora Ferlin
Helen Fernandez
Pamela Garcia Rooney
Eric Glover
Sujana Gowni
Maia Henkin
Bixby Elliot
Bixby Elliot is a queer writer for theater, film and television. His work often reexamines the past through a queer lens, flipping history upside down and allowing other perspectives to take center stage in fun and inventive ways. Elliot’s plays have been produced in several major cities including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and London. His play “I Love You St. Petersburg!” was published by major theatre licensing company Samuel French. TimeOut Chicago selected Bixby’s “Abraham Lincoln Was a F*****t” as one of the “Top 10 Plays of the Year.” It was also nominated for a Jeff Award that honors outstanding theater in Chicago. Additionally, his short film "Aquamarine” screened in more than 30 festivals and won multiple awards, including Best Short and Best Screenplay. He is a graduate of the MFA Playwriting program at Columbia University and co-founder of The Brooklyn Generator. Elliot is currently pitching a new half-hour TV show with Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios attached as producer. He also recently finished principal photography on his next short film “The Yellow Sponge Is the Dish Sponge.” Elliot is currently seeking representation.
Edward Excaliber
Aurora Ferlin
Born to a Rwandan father and a Belgian mother, Aurora Ferlin grew up on the outskirts of Brussels, Belgium in a large, blended family. She is a 2020 Academy Nicholl Fellowship Quarter-Finalist with her feature screenplay, VILOMAH. Last year, her screenplay, SHEWENT MISSING was greenlit by Lifetime. The made-for-TV movie premiered on the network in April and is Aurora’s first TV writing credit. With a background in journalism, she has a passion for highlighting marginalized voices. Her screenplays always contain a good dose of suspense and her works often explore themes of crime, race, class and social justice. In 2016, she won the Standing Up Award at the Cleveland International Film Festival with her feature documentary, JIMBROWN’S AMER-I-CAN DREAM about the social legacy of NFL Hall-of-Famer Jim Brown and his work with at-risk youth. It was nominated for Best Documentary at the2016 American Black Film Festival (ABFF). In 2018, her short film, MOTHERS was selected as part of ABFF’s Inaugural Emerging Directors Program. That same year, the short also won Best Short Film at the Back-In-The-Box Industry Film Festival.
Most recently, Aurora has written the pilot episodes of MAHOGANY SUNSET and A NEW DAY, the first scripted podcasts under Hallmark’s Mahogany banner. She has also produced shows for the Africa Channel and she is the co-creator of the networks’ original series, SHADES OF YOU. An HBCU alum, she is a graduate from Florida A&M University and the University of Brussels. Since moving to Los Angeles, Aurora has worked closely with community activists and at-risk youth to end the cycle of gun violence and youth incarceration. She’s an avid runner and completed her first marathon this past March.
Helen Fernandez
Helen Fernandez is a Mexican writer, producer and director, raised between the U.S. and Mexico, who often feels pulled between her Mexican culture and her American side. She channels her identity crisis into her writing by telling stories about unconventional women, complex family dynamics, and the occasional surrealist comedy. Fernandez has worked as a production assistant on Comedy Central's “Nathan for You” and in TV development at Aaron Kaplan's Kapital Entertainment. She was selected as a semi-finalist for the Paramount Writers Mentoring Program and participated in the Women in Film Mentorship Program for emerging talent. Currently, Fernandez is a showrunner's assistant on NBC’s “St. Denis Medical.” In addition to her writing pursuits, Fernandez produces and directs a popular monthly sketch comedy show called “Single Riders Only.” Fernandez is currently seeking representation.
Pamela Garcia Rooney
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.
Maia Henkin
Maia Henkin is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker and screenwriter whose work explores themes of alienation, female trauma and social justice in the genre space. She began her career as an Off-Broadway playwright in New York. Her accolades include being a finalist for the Black List/WIF Feature Lab and the Black List/WIF Episodic Lab, a semi-finalist for the Sundance Episodic Lab, a semi-finalist for ISA's Launch Pad Pilot Competition, a semi-finalist for the Austin Film Festival, and placed in the top 4% of scripts at the Final Draft Big Break Contest. The project she directed premiered at the Oscars®-qualifying independent short film festival HollyShorts, and HBO's Catalyst Film Festival. Henkin is repped by Untitled Management.
Pagination
NBC TV WRITERS PROGRAM 2023 - 24
Bixby Elliot
Edward Excaliber
Aurora Ferlin
Helen Fernandez
Pamela Garcia Rooney
Eric Glover
Sujana Gowni
Maia Henkin
Bixby Elliot
Bixby Elliot is a queer writer for theater, film and television. His work often reexamines the past through a queer lens, flipping history upside down and allowing other perspectives to take center stage in fun and inventive ways. Elliot’s plays have been produced in several major cities including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and London. His play “I Love You St. Petersburg!” was published by major theatre licensing company Samuel French. TimeOut Chicago selected Bixby’s “Abraham Lincoln Was a F*****t” as one of the “Top 10 Plays of the Year.” It was also nominated for a Jeff Award that honors outstanding theater in Chicago. Additionally, his short film "Aquamarine” screened in more than 30 festivals and won multiple awards, including Best Short and Best Screenplay. He is a graduate of the MFA Playwriting program at Columbia University and co-founder of The Brooklyn Generator. Elliot is currently pitching a new half-hour TV show with Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios attached as producer. He also recently finished principal photography on his next short film “The Yellow Sponge Is the Dish Sponge.” Elliot is currently seeking representation.
Edward Excaliber
Aurora Ferlin
Born to a Rwandan father and a Belgian mother, Aurora Ferlin grew up on the outskirts of Brussels, Belgium in a large, blended family. She is a 2020 Academy Nicholl Fellowship Quarter-Finalist with her feature screenplay, VILOMAH. Last year, her screenplay, SHEWENT MISSING was greenlit by Lifetime. The made-for-TV movie premiered on the network in April and is Aurora’s first TV writing credit. With a background in journalism, she has a passion for highlighting marginalized voices. Her screenplays always contain a good dose of suspense and her works often explore themes of crime, race, class and social justice. In 2016, she won the Standing Up Award at the Cleveland International Film Festival with her feature documentary, JIMBROWN’S AMER-I-CAN DREAM about the social legacy of NFL Hall-of-Famer Jim Brown and his work with at-risk youth. It was nominated for Best Documentary at the2016 American Black Film Festival (ABFF). In 2018, her short film, MOTHERS was selected as part of ABFF’s Inaugural Emerging Directors Program. That same year, the short also won Best Short Film at the Back-In-The-Box Industry Film Festival.
Most recently, Aurora has written the pilot episodes of MAHOGANY SUNSET and A NEW DAY, the first scripted podcasts under Hallmark’s Mahogany banner. She has also produced shows for the Africa Channel and she is the co-creator of the networks’ original series, SHADES OF YOU. An HBCU alum, she is a graduate from Florida A&M University and the University of Brussels. Since moving to Los Angeles, Aurora has worked closely with community activists and at-risk youth to end the cycle of gun violence and youth incarceration. She’s an avid runner and completed her first marathon this past March.
Helen Fernandez
Helen Fernandez is a Mexican writer, producer and director, raised between the U.S. and Mexico, who often feels pulled between her Mexican culture and her American side. She channels her identity crisis into her writing by telling stories about unconventional women, complex family dynamics, and the occasional surrealist comedy. Fernandez has worked as a production assistant on Comedy Central's “Nathan for You” and in TV development at Aaron Kaplan's Kapital Entertainment. She was selected as a semi-finalist for the Paramount Writers Mentoring Program and participated in the Women in Film Mentorship Program for emerging talent. Currently, Fernandez is a showrunner's assistant on NBC’s “St. Denis Medical.” In addition to her writing pursuits, Fernandez produces and directs a popular monthly sketch comedy show called “Single Riders Only.” Fernandez is currently seeking representation.
Pamela Garcia Rooney
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.
Maia Henkin
Maia Henkin is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker and screenwriter whose work explores themes of alienation, female trauma and social justice in the genre space. She began her career as an Off-Broadway playwright in New York. Her accolades include being a finalist for the Black List/WIF Feature Lab and the Black List/WIF Episodic Lab, a semi-finalist for the Sundance Episodic Lab, a semi-finalist for ISA's Launch Pad Pilot Competition, a semi-finalist for the Austin Film Festival, and placed in the top 4% of scripts at the Final Draft Big Break Contest. The project she directed premiered at the Oscars®-qualifying independent short film festival HollyShorts, and HBO's Catalyst Film Festival. Henkin is repped by Untitled Management.