2013 Funny Women Awards finalist, Sex Education and Ms Marvel writer Bisha K Ali is launching a screenwriting fellowship with Netflix and Sky. The fellowship will give six people from under-represented communities a year’s salary as part of a drive to make the TV industry more inclusive. The fellowship will offer a bursary which will give time for successful applicants to work on original ideas, as well as mentorship and a TV credit. What’s more, the writers will get to keep their ideas with no obligation to let Sky or Netflix take ownership.
Bisha K Ali is hopeful that the fellowship will help reduce the: “sense of clawing financial instability” faced by many new writers, in addition to taking down the barriers that people of black, Asian and other minorities often deal with as well as mitigate the effects of the pandemic on new talent in the TV industry.
A recent Ofcom report on diversity found that when it comes to TV employing a diverse range of people “progress is still far too slow”. Ali has based the fellowship on her own experience trying to crack the industry, during which she struggled to survive financially making the move from her work as a domestic abuse support worker to TV writer. Through the process Ali says she felt a: “kind of isolation in the industry on my way up … I feel like it’s inherently hostile with the way it’s set up.”
When Ali was starting out, any meetings with production companies meant extra costs such as “getting the tube into London, finding somewhere to set up camp for the day – if you don’t want to sit in a cold park – paying your way between meetings if you’re not getting paid by whoever you’re meeting with, [and] getting time off work at short notice because this really cool producer can meet with you tomorrow.
“That’s just not possible for the majority of people, so we can talk about diversity in terms of inclusion and getting more voices on screen and that kind of thing, but how can we get more voices if those barriers are just not being looked at?”
Having found success in TV writing, Ali wants to help other new writers get ahead without being held up by issues such as low income or difficulty booking time off from a ‘day job’, factors that disproportionately affect women of colour.
While there are funding schemes available Ali believes the answer lies in more active support: “Hire us, commission us, pay us … it is not rocket science. We can do studies, we can look into it as much as possible, [but] commission us and if you fear it because it’s a risk, surround us with people that you know. I’m not a commissioner [so] what I can do is try to give us more opportunity to be undeniable.”
Pre-pandemic, Ali was in talks with Netflix’s vice-president of original series Anne Mensah about the issues facing new writers. Once the pandemic took hold the pair didn’t let it stop them and got Sky involved. Worried that the pandemic would make the TV industry less keen to take risks on new voices, Ali realised one challenge for this fellowship would be to make its writers seem less of a risk: “How you make us less risky is by building credibility, so that’s why the fellowship will get you your first television credit … plus mentors, connections … [and] hopefully creative partnerships that can go on into the future.”
Applications for the fellowship are open until 18th June, with a September start. You can apply here!
