WGA East Names 23 Graduates for Support Staff Training

Twenty-three emerging writers are heading for the engine room of television.

The Writers Guild of America East has named the graduates of its 2026 Support Staff Basic Training program, a virtual bootcamp to help underrepresented writers break into support-staff roles in television, as reported in an exclusive by Deadline on 6 October 2026.

The program runs in two tracks. The writers' assistant track, meaning the staff who sit in the writers' room to take notes, edit scripts and handle research, graduated 12 people. The script coordinator track, meaning the staff who format and proof scripts and check story documents for continuity, graduated 11 people. Those two jobs are often the first paid seats in the room where a series is written.

The 2026 edition was produced by Ian Olympio, a co-executive producer on P-Valley. Instruction came from P-Valley staff writer Sheli Paige Frank and Elsbeth staff writer Matthew K Begbie. Participants in each track worked through a mix of roundtables, lectures, independent work and interactive workshops.

Places were reserved for emerging, diverse writers based in the eastern half of the United States. That includes writers who are BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled or over 40, with eligible bases including Chicago, Atlanta, Miami and New York. Applicants must not have previously worked as a writers' assistant or script coordinator on a scripted television series, so the training is an entry point rather than a refresher.

The writers' assistant graduates are Adriana Kyncl, Alia Carita Tompkins, Andrea Fernandez Henao, Caroline Fanelli, Charu Sinha, Connor Smith, JoAnna "J." Izon, Krysana Maragh, Marisa Arohi, Sam Shane, Shadé Quintanilla and V Marks.

The script coordinator graduates are Alexandra Bianco, Becca Carter Freeman, Cynthia He, Emma Fiske-Dobell, Kenny Beckford, Olivia Olsher, Ridley Randolph, Roxanne Lim, Savannah Summerlin, Suzanne Griffin and Sydney Giacomazzi.

The organiser is the Writers Guild of America East, the labour union representing writers and creators in motion pictures, television, news and online media. It runs the training alongside other early-career schemes, including a Staff Writer Bootcamp and a Showrunner Academy.

What makes this stand out is access. A support credit puts a new writer inside the production machine, alongside a crew that can run to 200 people. For viewers, that is where a story either gets finished or does not.