In celebration of Women's History Month, please join us for a panel with three amazing television writers! Hear what it's like to break into scripted television from Ana Lydia Monaco (BFA 18 Film), Crescent Novell, and Dawn Kamoche, as they discuss navigating the various stages of their careers through television industry ups and downs, including the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike. Each panelist will share her personal and creative journey from the lens of her respective identity in dialogue with moderator Elizabeth Gray Bayne (MFA 11 Film).

DEI Artist Talks | Inside the TV Writers' Room
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
4 – 6pm
ArtCenter Library, Hillside Campus

Ana Lydia Monaco is a multiracial Mexican-American filmmaker who writes, directs, and produces heartfelt character-driven dramatic stories that straddle divergent cultures while challenging and satisfying audiences with political and social subtext. She has been staffed as a Writers Assistant, Researcher and Script Coordinator. She is also in the process of selling a show and has been a finalist for AFF, BlackList/WIF and Stowe Story Labs for her TV scripts/teleplays.

Crescent Imani Novell has a variety of works in her writing portfolio, including Six Letters In Harlem (which played to sold out audiences in 2012), Love, Lia (a live-action comedy-spec), and Paris (an hour-long drama spec). Her staffed writing credits include the animated shows: Rugrats, Barbie, Fright Krewe, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, and freelance episodes for a couple PBS shows. After winning the Nickelodeon Writing Fellowship in 2018, Crescent has worked for Disney, Mattel, Dreamworks, Hulu, and Netflix. Currently freelancing, she's also a Creative Producer for a new independent film company.

Dawn Kamoche is an award-winning writer/director from Buffalo, NY. She graduated cum laude from Cornell University, and has an MFA in Film Directing from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. Her thesis film, Daughter of Fortune, was a finalist in the DGA Student Film Awards in 2013. Over the past nine years, Dawn has written for several television series, including HBO’s Sharp Objects, Marvel’s The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, Starz’s The Serpent Queen, and Netflix’s Painkiller. Dawn and her writing partner, Ariella Blejer, are currently adapting Raybearer, a bestselling NYT Afro-Fantasy novel, for Netflix and supervising a pilot for Amazon’s FreeVee.

Elizabeth Gray Bayne earned her MPH from Yale University and MFA from ArtCenter College of Design. She has worked at the intersection of social impact and film for over ten years, starting with a fellowship at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where she assisted on The Ad Council’s Childhood Asthma Campaign. This experience allowed her to combine behavioral science with art, and she has gone on to produce over 300 online videos, 5 PSA campaigns and 5 short films with a focus on community outreach. She is a grant recipient of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Glassbreaker Films and the Center for Cultural Innovation. Elizabeth recently premiered her first feature-length documentary, Chocolate Milk, at the 2024 Pan African Film Festival.

Hosted by ArtCenter Library and the Center for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at ArtCenter College of Design