In an effort to uplift often unheard voices in the entertainment industry, USC Annenberg’s Hollywood, Health & Society (HH&S) recently held the second in a series of events entitled “Do the Write Thing.”
At a mixer for creatives and those wishing to break into the industry, a panel discussion was held with the goal of providing information about workable career paths for traditionally marginalized groups, especially the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) community.
Led by Kate Langall Folb, Director of HH&S, the panel included two successful writer/producers including Gloria Calderón Kellett who co-created and served as co-showrunner of the One Day at a Time reboot; is the creator, showrunner and one of the co-stars of With Love on Amazon
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Calderón Kellett also worked as a writer and producer on numerous shows, including Devious Maids and How I Met Your Mother.
Joining Calderón Kellett in the discussion was Zoanne Clack, MD, who is executive producer for the ABC series Grey’s Anatomy, and is executive producer and showrunner of its spinoff show Station 19.
Prior to her television work, Clack attended medical school at UT Southwestern and completed her residency in emergency medicine at Emory University.
Hollywood, Health & Society is a program of the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center that provides entertainment industry professionals with free expert information on all aspects of health, safety and security, through expert consultations and briefings, panel discussions, tip sheets and more.
Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and several other agencies and foundations, the program recognizes the profound impact that entertainment has on behavior.
Calderón Kellett, who is of Cuban descent, began by talking about her early years in the entertainment business. “I started as an actress and every audition that I went on was, I wish I was joking, for gang-banger’s girlfriend or a gang-banger’s sister.”
She pointed out that, “There was a lot of gatekeeping and it was a lot of [well-educated] guys, and I bought the story [that], ‘I’m not good enough to be here.”
But she quickly discovered that as she says, ‘”We’re fine.” And she added that once she ‘decolonized’ her own mind to this way of thinking, she wanted to let others know.
“They need us [to tell our stories],” she added, to which Clack agreed, explaining, “We know their world, they don’t know our world.”
At one point in her life, Clack too believed she wanted to be an actress, but once she started writing ‘my stories,’ she knew that was her path, but not before she embarked in the medical career that helped in landing a job on ER as a medical consultant.
Calderón Kellett spoke about the importance of mentorship as well, saying that director Pam Fyman was the first person to champion her.
Fryman, a director for nearly three decades, helmed nine seasons of How I Met Your Father, among other series.
“She became the director of One Day at a Time, and she was the one who consistently pushed for me to take up more space. When we were looking for Latina directors [for the show], she said she had someone…”
It was then that Fryman pointed directly at Calderón Kellett and told her that she was the right person to direct. Fryman went so far as to tell the network she would be on-set every day to supervise Calderón Kellett, which turned out not to be necessary. This launched Calderón Kellett’s directing career.
Now Calderón Kellett acts as a mentor for Fawiza Mizra, a writer and director whose feature film debut The Queen of My Dreams will be shown at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Similarly, Clack is mentoring Emily Culver, a writer on Station 19, who is also working on a pilot.
However, Calderón Kellett wants to be clear that it’s not necessary to have a mentor to succeed.
“I feel like there’s a pressure that this generation feels — that if they don’t have a mentor, they can’t do it. I didn’t have a mentor for five years. It took me a minute. So, don’t feel like you have to have a mentor for this to work, just start just start on the journey.”
She explained that she’s a self-taught television writer, saying that she went to the library and the Museum of Television and Radio (now the Paley Center) and studied television episodes.
“There are ways to start on this work where you can serve as your own mentor,” said Calderón Kellett
And, because Calderón Kellett and Clack admit that as women of color they’re a bit overwhelmed by the number of people asking for them for mentorship, Calderón Kellett has created a video series to help those looking for guidance.
Explaining the origins of her Hollywood 101 YouTube series, she says, “I was approached by a company that does classes and they wanted to charge people for [this series] and I said that people from my community cannot afford to buy those classes. So, I went to Twitter, and said. ‘Hey guys, I want to do a masterclass series if somebody will produce it, I will volunteer my time and tell you everything I know,’ and so 11 episodes exist online, and it’s free.”
As the panel discussion concluded, Calderón Kellett offered one last inspirational thought, saying, “What I really hope events like this do is make you go home with a fire in your belly, saying, ‘I can do this.’”
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