A Latina writer’s group created LaListaTV.com to amplify their presence in the industry and it has quietly been growing and gaining momentum in Hollywood
Because WGA writers had to fire their agents due to the packaging battle, Latina TV and feature writers, a group traditionally underrepresented in Hollywood, were in danger of losing ground. Enter LaListaTV.com, a volunteer-run peer-to-peer group that mentors Latina TV and feature writers from staff to executive producers. LaListaTV was started by Judalina Neira and Diana Mendez after Mendez worked with Nkechi Okoro Carroll and heard about the Black Women Who Brunch (BWB) group. The Latina writers group membership has now swelled to over 125+ writers and continues growing.
“Latina writers are among the least represented group in Hollywood and our group is more critical than ever,” says Judalina Neira, who is a Co-Executive Producer on Netflix’s The Girls on the Bus.
“LaListaTV is one of our most successful initiatives,” Neira continues. “Every week we receive requests from showrunners, producers, and executives eager to access our spreadsheet of Latina writers.”
La Lista’s members desire and need to educate and assist each other with projects, advice, mentorship, and workshops that have helped to amplify these women writers and fill in the gap when it comes to finding writing talent. The group meets several times a year, “And we have our upper-level writers available to advise lower-level writers on anything from how to handle politics in the room to how to write and sell a pitch to how to find a good accountant,” says Mendez currently co-developing a pilot for Gaumont Television. “This group is about sisterhood and it’s about survival – helping each other stay in the game long enough to level up to creator and showrunner so that we can help other writers level up too.”
“With the statistics from the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative highlighting the need for more inclusion, and the WGA stating that less than 5% of writers are Latinx, LaListaTV wanted to do what we do best once again: Help each other rise up,” says Emilia Serrano, currently a Co-EP on High School Musical | The Musical: The Series? on Disney+.
“We’re constantly brainstorming ways to show the industry that we’re here at every level, and we’re never giving up.”
For more information, please email LaListaTV@gmail.com