These showrunners, producers, and writers will be reading our semi-finalists' pilot scripts, and they're looking for emerging talent.
Our prestigious panel of judges for the 2024 Moonshot Pilot Accelerator serves two purposes. The judges use their trained eyes to spot the best talent. They also further our mission of helping to hire underrepresented voices, because many of these judges are in a position to hire or refer writers for staffing and support staff positions.
The writers who are selected as semi-finalists for the Moonshot Pilot Accelerator — about 24 in total — have their TV pilot scripts read by at least two industry judges. That's right: Showrunners, executive producers, and successful TV writers will be reading your work!
Over our past two accelerators, several judges have asked to meet with the writers whose work they judged — even when those writers don't make it to the final stages. This is significant because while we need to keep the pool of selected fellows small, we are able to help so many more writers through this process.
Here is are the impressive bios of our judges. Let us know in the comments if any of them have written or created some of your favorite shows!
Felischa Marye is a writer, producer, director and showrunner. A graduate of the MFA screenwriting program at UCLA, Felischa transitioned into the film industry after a successful career in public relations in Chicago, where she was born and raised. While still in film school, she sold her first comedy pilot script to HBO. After writing on two seasons of the Netflix hit drama series "13 Reasons Why," Felischa created the cult-favorite comedy series, "Bigger" for BET+, produced by Will Packer. Felischa has been in a deal with BET Studios.
Tracey Deer is a Mohawk filmmaker whose two decades of experience includes co-creating, directing, and co-showrunning five seasons of groundbreaking series Mohawk Girls. After co-executive producing on Netflix/CBC series Anne with an E, she filmed her semi-autobiographical debut feature, Beans, which premiered at TIFF 2020 to critical acclaim. A sought-after TV director, Tracey has directed on NBC’s Rutherford Falls, Amazon’s Three Pines, and Starz hit Outlander. She is currently set to direct Thorpe, a biopic of famed Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe.
Pam Davis is an award-winning television writer/producer. She’s sold several pilots and written and produced on a number of critically acclaimed series (House, On Becoming a God In Central Florida, Secrets & Lies, Extant, etc. ). She believes strongly in uplifting the community and has been a Sundance Lab Advisor, and a mentor for the WGA, The Writers Guild Foundation and the Canadian Film Centre. Currently, she’s in development with John Wells Productions and WB.
Anita Kapila is one of Canada’s most experienced comedy writer/producers, with over 100 episodes of produced prime-time comedy under her belt. Anita has served as Executive Producer on a variety of popular sitcoms, including four seasons of CTV’s Children Ruin Everything, and two seasons of CBC’s Strays. She served as Co-Executive Producer on a number of CBC’s award winning series, including Kim’s Convenience, Son of a Critch and Mr. D. Winner of a Canadian Screen Award and a Writer’s Guild Award, Anita is passionate about writing character driven comedy, with a particular focus on female and BIPOC characters.
Shernold Edwards has written for a number of streaming, cable and network series including Sleepy Hollow, Anne with an E and Washington Black. She received an NAACP Image Award for her adaptation of the acclaimed novel A Day Late and A Dollar Short by Terry McMillan. Currently, she’s in development with AMC and is a Co-Ep on Station 19. Previously, Shernold was an exec at CTV Network (Canada) where she shepherded award-winning TV movies and series like Degrassi: TNG. She attended the Canadian Film Centre and has a Screenwriting MFA from Columbia University.
Rachelle Williams-BenAry is a writer/showrunner/executive producer. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Rachelle graduated from Boston University with a B.S. in Film and Television. Rachelle first staffed on season 3 of the Starz comedy series Survivor's Remorse and continued on as a story editor for the show's fourth and final season. She (along with co-writer Lauren Houseman) won the 2017 Women's Image Network Award for Best Writing for her season 3 episode of Survivor's Remorse.
Rachelle served as showrunner/executive producer for the 2nd season of the Starz's comedy Run The World and as co-showrunner/executive producer for season 2 of the critically acclaimed HBOmax original series Love Life. The latter of which, she was nominated for a NAACP Image Award for her writing.
Marissa Jo Cerar is an NAACP Image Award and Humanitas Prize winning Showrunner who has spent her career exploring the intersectionality of the human experience through female-forward stories, such as her ABC series Women of the Movement and her Hulu series Black Cake. Her WOTM script won the NAACP Image Award, the Humanitas Prize, and the series received honors from the African American Film Critics Association and The Gracie Awards. Black Cake was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award, two NAACP Image Awards and was honored as “The Best in TV” by the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (CAPE). (Photo: Matt Sayles)
Georgia Lee is an award-winning writer and filmmaker. She created Netflix’s “Partner Track”. Georgia is currently on Amazon’s upcoming “God of War”. Previously Georgia wrote on Amazon’s “The Expanse” as well as the CW’s “The 100”.
Georgia’s first short film caught the attention of Martin Scorsese, and she became his on-set apprentice on “Gangs of New York”. Georgia then wrote and directed her first feature “Red Doors” which won numerous awards on the festival circuit including the Tribeca Film Festival
Georgia holds a BA in Biochemistry from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is obsessed with figure skating.
An experienced TV writer/producer known for her character-driven storytelling,
Alessia Costantini just completed two seasons as Co-EP on Paramount+'s The Game. Previously, she was Number 2 on CBS' MacGyver and critically-acclaimed Netflix dramedy Gentefied. After launching her career on Scrubs, Alessia went on to
serve as Co-EP/Head Writer on CMT’s Still the King and Netflix's Club de Cuervos, nominated for an international Emmy.
Alessia's background as an industrial engineer has allowed her to create a
unique methodology for story breaking and develop pilots with multiple outlets. Alessia is an alum of Fox's extremely competitive Writers Lab, won a spot on the Young & Hungry List, and is a graduate of the WGA Showrunner Training Program.
Kathleen Jordan is a television and film writer and showrunner based in Los Angeles. She is the creator and executive producer of the critically beloved comedy Teenage Bounty Hunters on Netflix. Her next series, The Decameron (starring Tony Hale, Zosia Mamet, Saoirse-Monica Jackson) is a darkly comedic limited series set in fourteenth century Italy; it airs on Netflix in the summer of 2024.
Taylor Orci is a non-binary latinx TV/film writer from Los Angeles.
They were on the writing staff of Vida (GLAAD-winning, Starz) and Kipo (Emmy-nominated, Netflix), and during the pandemic they wrote a live action comedy feature for New Line Cinema. Most recently they were the head writer on BE@RBRICK, which will premiere on Apple TV in Fall 2024. Taylor wrote and created the viral video, "Bitchy Resting Face," which got the phrase in the dictionary. Their professional writing career started after they were a journalist with NPR. They carry a B.A. in International Development Studies from UCLA.
Nikita T. Hamilton came to Los Angeles to earn her PhD and discovered that she didn’t want to teach about television and film, she wanted to make them. Nikita worked as a writers' assistant for FX Networks and Marvel and as a showrunner's assistant for ABC Studios while completing her doctoral dissertation. In 2019, she staffed on Freeform’s The Bold Type and has since written on ABC’s A Million Little Things and worked on projects for HBO Max and Amazon. Nikita is currently a co-producer and is in development on some of her own projects.
Submit your pilot script to the Moonshot Pilot Accelerator by April 14, 2024
Make sure you apply by the final deadline, April 14 (before midnight Pacific time) for this chance to have your TV pilot script read by these amazing writers.
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