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
Amelia Swedeen
Varta Torossian
Kim Tran
Sara White
Tommar Wilson
Ida Yazdi
Margot Ye
William Yu
Amelia Swedeen
Amelia Swedeen grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, alongside her favorite person in the world: her younger sister, who was born with developmental disabilities. As her high school’s resident documentarian, Amelia was known for making projects that created conversations around ableism. While attending USC School of Cinematic Arts, Amelia wrote and directed a short film starring Luke Zimmerman, an actor with Down Syndrome who starred on The Secret Life of the American Teenager.
Despite decades of elevating disability in her work, Amelia spent most of her life believing that she was neurotypical. After she watched Hannah Gadsby’s comedy special about an adulthood autism diagnosis, Amelia realized that she is autistic too. Now that Amelia recognizes herself as a member of the disability community along with her sister, she is finally able to make sense of her own life. This has led her to develop unique strengths in the writers’ room, such as using pattern recognition to nail pitches on story structure. Amelia is excited to continue elevating disabled and neurodivergent identities in her work – now from a firsthand POV.
Amelia has been on the support staff of six shows, her favorite being The Umbrella Academy, because she loves writing about complex family dynamics in heightened realities. After she wrapped on that show, Amelia wrote a spec of it that placed in the Austin Film Festival (but she is proudest of the enthusiastic response her script received after she posted it on a fanfiction site). Most recently, Amelia has experience working on crime dramas. She is currently the writers' assistant on the second season of Power Book IV: Force for Starz, and she is delighted to be co-writing the finale. She is repped by Writ Large.
Varta Torossian
Varta Torossian is a multicultural writer/director with roots in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. As a teenager, she traveled the world with a dance company performing in stage productions, music videos, and TV shows. She eventually landed in NYC where she literally and metaphorically felt like an alien. She didn’t know anyone, barely spoke any English and despite growing up without movies or TV shows, she decided to pursue a career in screenwriting.
Over the years, Varta won many grants and scholarships which put her through school. She graduated summa cum laude from Ithaca College and went on to earn two master’s degrees - in Directing from ArtCenter College of Design, and in Screenwriting from AFI.
Varta has an eclectic work experience as a PA on Top Chef and Project Runway, a Development Assistant at Lifetime, and a co-producer for a Korean documentary series. She also wrote, directed and produced a number of award-winning shorts which screened at festivals in the U.S. and abroad.
Varta’s scripts, which often feature rebels, outsiders, and misfits like her, have been finalists at screenwriting competitions such as ScreenCraft, Final Draft Big Break, and Cinequest. In her spare time, Varta loves to practice yoga and contortion, stretching both her body and mind
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.
Sara White
Tommar Wilson
TOMMAR WILSON (TOE-mar | he/him) is a Kansas born military brat who didn’t spend more than four years in one place until his mid 20s. The path to his career was just as chaotic having been a Pizza Hut manager, a clerk for the Kansas Secretary of State, and appearing in multiple Broadway shows including HAMILTON, HAIR, and the short-lived vampire musical, LESTAT.
The thing that has remained constant through his journey is his passion for storytelling, which took many forms before eventually leading to screenwriting. His original screenplay UP, UP, AND AWAY! earned a quarterfinalist honor in the Academy’s Nicholl Fellowship. And his original pilots including ROMANCE IS DEAD, and CHORUS BOY have been honored by multiple TV fellowships and contests.
As a writer, Tommar considers himself the lovechild of Barry Jenkins and Bryan Fuller,* creating rich, grounded characters navigating life through heightened, and sometimes fantastical, realities. (*Cannot confirm this parentage) He is particularly interested in drama that centers gay, Black protagonists, and exploring important issues like mental health, addiction, and the elusive human connection, while leaving plenty of room for joy and humor.
Tommar is a graduate of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, and the UCLA Professional Program in TV Drama Writing.
Ida Yazdi
Ida Yazdi is a Muslim Iranian American writer who was raised between Isfahan, Iran and Birmingham, Alabama. She is a former architect having worked within renowned architecture studios around the world before deciding to embark on a career in television writing. Her work often explores themes of cultural identity, alienation, and otherness. She builds narratives that examine both the humor and pain that comes with starting over in life, specifically through the lens of Muslim and Middle Eastern women.
Her most recent short film, LESSONS, screened at Maryland Film Festival and Atlanta Film Festival. Her pilot, ANDI, TODAY was a finalist for the 2021 Stowe Story Labs Fellowship and the Almanack Episodic Lab. It was also featured on the 2022 Black List x Muslim List, which highlights the best unproduced scripts written by Muslim writers. She was recently accepted into the Starz #TakeTheLead Writers’ Intensive and the 2022 Women in Film Writers Mentorship Program.
She received an MFA in Screenwriting from Columbia University where she was awarded the 2020-2021 Screenwriting Teaching Fellowship. She has worked as a Script Coordinator for shows like City on Fire on Apple TV+ and The Girls on the Bus on HBOMax.
Margot Ye
William Yu
William Yu is a Korean American screenwriter and Asian American advocate who tells subversive stories that tackle difficult cultural conversations while winking at you with a hopeful smile.
William's feature romantic comedy IT WAS YOU was recently selected to the Black List - the buzzy compendium of the year’s most-liked unproduced Hollywood screenplays - and also attached Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu as an executive producer. Yu's half hour dramedy pilot GOOD BOY was selected for the 2020 Sundance Episodic Makers Lab and was named to the 2020 CAPE List as a top screenplay by an AAPI writer.
He was also selected to the inaugural cohort of The Thousand Miles Project, the story incubator program run by Soo Hugh, the creator of Pachinko on Apple TV+.
William is the creator of #StarringJohnCho, the viral phenomenon that used photoshopped movie posters to spark a global conversation about Asian American representation in media and that had a wide-ranging impact on Hollywood.
Yu brings a global perspective, with family roots stretching as far as Seoul and Jamaica. He was born in Philadelphia, raised in Hong Kong, grew up in Boston, seasoned in New York, and now resides in Los Angeles.
Pagination
NBC TV WRITERS PROGRAM 2023 - 24
Amelia Swedeen
Varta Torossian
Kim Tran
Sara White
Tommar Wilson
Ida Yazdi
Margot Ye
William Yu
Amelia Swedeen
Amelia Swedeen grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, alongside her favorite person in the world: her younger sister, who was born with developmental disabilities. As her high school’s resident documentarian, Amelia was known for making projects that created conversations around ableism. While attending USC School of Cinematic Arts, Amelia wrote and directed a short film starring Luke Zimmerman, an actor with Down Syndrome who starred on The Secret Life of the American Teenager.
Despite decades of elevating disability in her work, Amelia spent most of her life believing that she was neurotypical. After she watched Hannah Gadsby’s comedy special about an adulthood autism diagnosis, Amelia realized that she is autistic too. Now that Amelia recognizes herself as a member of the disability community along with her sister, she is finally able to make sense of her own life. This has led her to develop unique strengths in the writers’ room, such as using pattern recognition to nail pitches on story structure. Amelia is excited to continue elevating disabled and neurodivergent identities in her work – now from a firsthand POV.
Amelia has been on the support staff of six shows, her favorite being The Umbrella Academy, because she loves writing about complex family dynamics in heightened realities. After she wrapped on that show, Amelia wrote a spec of it that placed in the Austin Film Festival (but she is proudest of the enthusiastic response her script received after she posted it on a fanfiction site). Most recently, Amelia has experience working on crime dramas. She is currently the writers' assistant on the second season of Power Book IV: Force for Starz, and she is delighted to be co-writing the finale. She is repped by Writ Large.
Varta Torossian
Varta Torossian is a multicultural writer/director with roots in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. As a teenager, she traveled the world with a dance company performing in stage productions, music videos, and TV shows. She eventually landed in NYC where she literally and metaphorically felt like an alien. She didn’t know anyone, barely spoke any English and despite growing up without movies or TV shows, she decided to pursue a career in screenwriting.
Over the years, Varta won many grants and scholarships which put her through school. She graduated summa cum laude from Ithaca College and went on to earn two master’s degrees - in Directing from ArtCenter College of Design, and in Screenwriting from AFI.
Varta has an eclectic work experience as a PA on Top Chef and Project Runway, a Development Assistant at Lifetime, and a co-producer for a Korean documentary series. She also wrote, directed and produced a number of award-winning shorts which screened at festivals in the U.S. and abroad.
Varta’s scripts, which often feature rebels, outsiders, and misfits like her, have been finalists at screenwriting competitions such as ScreenCraft, Final Draft Big Break, and Cinequest. In her spare time, Varta loves to practice yoga and contortion, stretching both her body and mind
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.
Sara White
Tommar Wilson
TOMMAR WILSON (TOE-mar | he/him) is a Kansas born military brat who didn’t spend more than four years in one place until his mid 20s. The path to his career was just as chaotic having been a Pizza Hut manager, a clerk for the Kansas Secretary of State, and appearing in multiple Broadway shows including HAMILTON, HAIR, and the short-lived vampire musical, LESTAT.
The thing that has remained constant through his journey is his passion for storytelling, which took many forms before eventually leading to screenwriting. His original screenplay UP, UP, AND AWAY! earned a quarterfinalist honor in the Academy’s Nicholl Fellowship. And his original pilots including ROMANCE IS DEAD, and CHORUS BOY have been honored by multiple TV fellowships and contests.
As a writer, Tommar considers himself the lovechild of Barry Jenkins and Bryan Fuller,* creating rich, grounded characters navigating life through heightened, and sometimes fantastical, realities. (*Cannot confirm this parentage) He is particularly interested in drama that centers gay, Black protagonists, and exploring important issues like mental health, addiction, and the elusive human connection, while leaving plenty of room for joy and humor.
Tommar is a graduate of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, and the UCLA Professional Program in TV Drama Writing.
Ida Yazdi
Ida Yazdi is a Muslim Iranian American writer who was raised between Isfahan, Iran and Birmingham, Alabama. She is a former architect having worked within renowned architecture studios around the world before deciding to embark on a career in television writing. Her work often explores themes of cultural identity, alienation, and otherness. She builds narratives that examine both the humor and pain that comes with starting over in life, specifically through the lens of Muslim and Middle Eastern women.
Her most recent short film, LESSONS, screened at Maryland Film Festival and Atlanta Film Festival. Her pilot, ANDI, TODAY was a finalist for the 2021 Stowe Story Labs Fellowship and the Almanack Episodic Lab. It was also featured on the 2022 Black List x Muslim List, which highlights the best unproduced scripts written by Muslim writers. She was recently accepted into the Starz #TakeTheLead Writers’ Intensive and the 2022 Women in Film Writers Mentorship Program.
She received an MFA in Screenwriting from Columbia University where she was awarded the 2020-2021 Screenwriting Teaching Fellowship. She has worked as a Script Coordinator for shows like City on Fire on Apple TV+ and The Girls on the Bus on HBOMax.
Margot Ye
William Yu
William Yu is a Korean American screenwriter and Asian American advocate who tells subversive stories that tackle difficult cultural conversations while winking at you with a hopeful smile.
William's feature romantic comedy IT WAS YOU was recently selected to the Black List - the buzzy compendium of the year’s most-liked unproduced Hollywood screenplays - and also attached Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu as an executive producer. Yu's half hour dramedy pilot GOOD BOY was selected for the 2020 Sundance Episodic Makers Lab and was named to the 2020 CAPE List as a top screenplay by an AAPI writer.
He was also selected to the inaugural cohort of The Thousand Miles Project, the story incubator program run by Soo Hugh, the creator of Pachinko on Apple TV+.
William is the creator of #StarringJohnCho, the viral phenomenon that used photoshopped movie posters to spark a global conversation about Asian American representation in media and that had a wide-ranging impact on Hollywood.
Yu brings a global perspective, with family roots stretching as far as Seoul and Jamaica. He was born in Philadelphia, raised in Hong Kong, grew up in Boston, seasoned in New York, and now resides in Los Angeles.