Hollywood Writers' Rooms Still Don't Reflect the Diversity of America

KQED's Forum

KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 20 September 2021

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In a new cover story for The Atlantic, writer Hannah Giorgis looks critically at Hollywood’s writers’ rooms and how most of them look nothing like America. Documenting the history of Black writers who have navigated predominantly white writers’ rooms -- often confronting implicit and explicit biases -- Giorgis reveals the renaissance of onscreen representation they helped bring to television. Still, Hollywood remains an industry dominated by white men, and that continues to impact the hiring of offscreen Black talent and who’s at the table. We’ll talk to Giorgis about whether the tide is really turning in Hollywood when it comes to diverse representation -- not only in the stories we tell, but who’s telling them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:35.7	From three-time Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown comes the story of
0:40.0	Leo and Lucille Frank, a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in Georgia. When Leo is
0:46.9	accused of an unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable test of faith, humanity, justice,
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1:25.2	Coming up on forum, last night's Emmys reflected both industry
1:28.5	progress and the work still left to be done, with all major acting awards going to white
1:32.8	actors, despite a historically diverse field of nominees from a broad range of boundary-pushing
1:38.0	shows. In a new cover story for The Atlantic, Hannah Georges looks at what it's taken to
1:42.8	get shows that look more like America,
1:45.0	specifically Black America, on television, from Sanford and Sun to today's insecure, documenting
1:51.0	the history and experiences of black writers in predominantly white writers' rooms.
1:56.0	We'll talk to Georges about whether the tide is really turning in Hollywood when it comes to diverse representation,
2:01.4	not only in the stories we tell, but who's telling them? Join us.
	...

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