Candidate for Council, Film/TV/Streaming Sector
Responses to Candidate Questions
1. What do you think is the most pressing issue facing the Guild and what steps will you take to address it?
We still need to constantly defend our industry’s existence, fight to preserve and expand the gains we won during our strike, and protect ourselves against the ever-quickening creep of AI. But now it’s not just our industry under attack — it’s the very concepts of organized labor and freedom of speech. The annihilation of these principles is being directly facilitated and accelerated by big tech companies, many of whom we sit across at the negotiating table. They’d love to trawl and thieve our art, regurgitate it back on a format that gives us no residuals, no pension, and no healthcare, all while catering to an administration that wants to censor us from making any new, challenging art. Anything to artificially prop up the economy for a few tech billionaire grifters who are baffled by the thought that their business model should include paying for labor & raw materials. For all the talk of the industry’s death, people are still consuming the things we make all the time, in record numbers — companies have simply found pathways around payment. We need to claw back what we’re owed, and stay loud, present, and on the radar of future guild members, ensuring everyone understands how much richer a writer’s career is, and how much more secure their future is, as a member of the Guild.
2. WGAE is divided into three sectors: Film, Television, and Streaming; Broadcast, Cable, and Streaming News, and; Online Media. How will you work with and represent all Guild members, including those outside of your own work sector?
As a late night writer working under FTS, I’m constantly consuming and citing work done by our BCS & OM colleagues. It’s also not uncommon for late night writers to have backgrounds writing for online media outlets and/or broadcast news. Our struggles are naturally linked. The chilling effects of a hostile, anti-union, pro-censorship environment will be felt by all of our members — in our newsrooms, in our digital shops, and in our scripted writers’ rooms. AI also remains a threat to all three of our sectors. Our sectors have collaborated constructively on these issues in the past, and we’ll continue to hold the line for one another going forward.
3. What qualities or characteristics do you look for in a Guild leader?
Curiosity, humility, unwavering solidarity, ability to compromise & the awareness that there are some issues on where there can be no compromise. But most importantly: a willingness to yell and be yelled at.
4. What do you think WGAE’s role should be in the broader labor movement?
The current president has happily celebrated the cancellation of one WGA-covered late night show that criticized him, and is calling out exactly who he thinks should be next on the chopping block. The companies we negotiate against have zero qualms about sacrificing countless jobs and half our constitution on the altar of a merger. That’s where your union comes in. Organized labor is our best and only hope against fascism. During an hour where this country’s leadership is happily dragging us into hell, and our so-called opposition party is happy to compromise us into purgatory, I draw strength from our union’s steadfast refusal to accept our own annihilation. We will never concede on very basic tenets: that workers deserve to enjoy the fruits of the labor they create, that they deserve healthcare, that they deserve eventual retirement, and that, as writers in particular, they deserve to speak freely without fear of retaliation or censorship. As a union of writers, I consider it our direct responsibility to show up and defend our members, sister entertainment unions, and all other workers against the most anti-labor administration this country has ever seen.
Endorsements
Sofia Alvarez, JD Amato, Johnathan Appel, Nick Bernardone, Larry Cohen, Nicole Conlan, Kevin Cortez, Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, Sara David, Devin Delliquanti, Ariel Dumas, Glenn Eichler, Jo Firestone, Kaitlin Fontana, Christopher Gethard, Jason Gilbert, Elizabeth Godvik, Tian Jun Gu, Hallie Haglund, Dru Johnston, Barry Julien, Michael Kayne, Tom Kemnitz, Jr, Penelope Koechl, Mark Kramer, Christopher Kyle, Sofia Manfredi, Pratima Mani, Sarah Montana, Carley Moseley, Taylor Phillips, Michael Pielocik, CQ Quintana, Celine Robinson, Joanna Rothkopf, Erica Saleh, William Scheft Jr, Oriana Schwindt, Katherine Sidley, Brian Stack, Sasha Stewart, John Thibodeaux, Felipe Torres Medina, Jill Twiss, Suzanne Weber, Colleen Werthmann, Alison Zeidman, Moujan Zolfaghari
Endorse Liz Hynes for Council, Film/TV/Streaming Sector
Note: WGAW members who wish to endorse a candidate may follow the process outlined in section G.1.B of the 2025 Election Policy.
