This spring four new faculty members join the TV Writers Studiosm – and if you’re interested in learning from people who wrote HOUSE OF LIES, or MURPHY BROWN, or MAX PAYNE, you’re in the right place.
Barbara Nance
is teaching our Building a Career class.
Barbara Nance has written extensively for television, both as a writer/producer for series such as HOUSE OF LIES, THE LIZZY BORDEN CHRONICLES, THE CLIENT LIST, IN PLAIN SIGHT, and FLASH FORWARD, as well as long form television movies such as I WAS LORENA BOBBITT, and an upcoming movie for Lifetime. She has been a professor of television writing at USC, Stephens College’s M.F.A. program, and at Florida State University. She also teaches internationally for Amazon and Netflix.
Beau Thorne
is teaching our Original Pilot class.
As a professional screenwriter, Beau Thorne has written for major studios (Warner Brothers, Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox) and top producers in the international film industry (Dan Lin, Michael London, Neal Moritz), as well as developing television pilots for Academy Award-winner Oliver Stone’s company and the former head of HBO dramatic series programing. He was awarded sole screenplay credit on MAX PAYNE, a $35 million feature film that debuted at number one on 3,376 screens. Born in North Carolina, Beau spent twenty years studying and teaching film at The University of Texas in Austin, TX before moving to New York in 2021.
Sofía
Quintero
is teaching “Brilliant But Cancelled,” leading students in conceiving a re-boot of a great show that was cancelled after one season.
Sofía Quintero is a Gen-X Afro-Latina screenwriter and novelist. Raised in a working-class Puerto Rican-Dominican family in the Bronx, the self-proclaimed “Ivy League homegirl” graduated from Columbia University and began her first career as a policy analyst and advocate working for various nonprofit organizations and government agencies including the Vera Institute of Justice and the Hispanic AIDS Forum. After years of working on diverse policy issues, Sofía turned to cultural work with the intention to meet audiences where they are, yet take them someplace better.
Sofía wrote her debut novel Explicit Content (Penguin 2004) under the pen name Black Artemis, and has since published six more novels and twice as many short stories and novellas with every major house and across genres – young adult, “chick lit”, erotica and hip-hop noir. She's presently producing adaptations of her own work for TV and film as well as developing original series for others. Sofía has an MFA from the TV Writers Studio at Long Island University and was an inaugural Made in NY Writers Room Fellow with a TV pilot based on her novel Burn. Inspired by the #SayHerName movement to demand justice for Black girls and women murdered by police, her seventh novel #Krissette will be published by Knopf Books for Young Readers in 2023. Sofía is also the co-author of Miss Me With That, a collection of essays by the first Black Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay which was published this January.
Alana Sanko
is teaching History of Television Writing.
Alana Sanko is an award-winning television writer and Executive Producer who has written and developed for comedy, drama, kids and animated series, as well as TV movies and network and cable pilots for ABC, CBS, Bravo, MTV, HBO, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Nick at Nite, to name a few.
Her credits include: Creator/Executive Producer of the ABC comedy pilot SEE JAYNE RUN; Head Writer for MTV’s Annie Nominated series SPY GROOVE; the Disney Channel Original Movie GET A CLUE, starring Lindsay Lohan, the Nickelodeon series she created, JUST FOR KICKS, with Executive Producer Whoopi Goldberg, which earned her a WGA Award and staff writer on the acclaimed television series MURPHY BROWN, which was named on the WGA’s list of 101 Best TV Series. In addition, Alana has written for numerous children’s series, including Cartoon Network’s ANGELO RULES, Disney Channel’s LITTLE EINSTEINS, PBS’ DRAGON TALES and HBO Family’s A LITTLE CURIOUS. Recently, she acted as a Consulting Producer for Half Life, the limited series winner of the NYC women’s initiative screenwriting competition #GreenlightHer!
LaVarro Jones
is teaching – for the second time – our Post Production class.
LaVarro started his professional career at BET (Black Entertainment Television) working as a camera operator and assistant editor on various shows, promos, and television specials. As his career progressed LaVarro worked as an editor for other networks including VH1, Bravo, HGTV, History Channel, And Viceland. Currently, through his production company, LaVarro Productions, he writes directs, and edits web series, short films, music, and promotional videos. The company’s first web series, “Love And Money,” won 4 best acting awards at the 2013 LA Web Fest. The latest web series he directed and edited “Bubbly Brown Sugar” won best web series at the Newark International Film Festival. His short film “Fade” is making the rounds on the festival circuit being accepted to 7 film festivals so far. LaVarro is currently in development on the Feature-length version of “Fade.”
