Candidate for Council, Film/TV/Streaming Sector
WHO AM I?
I am an episodic writer (of mostly half-hour single-cam comedies) and author (of several humor books), who has been a member of the WGA since 1999 (I know… crazy, right?). I joined the WGAE as soon as I got a script deal based on my first book, HOW TO HEAL THE HURT BY HATING (written under my pseudonym, Anita Liberty).
The reason why I am running for a seat on the WGAE Council this year is simple: I believe in the power of our Union. I want to be in a position to work hard to hold the industry to account and make sure every writer has the opportunities their experience and talent should afford them. I want to help our Union do its best to serve every member.
Over the past 25 years as a working writer, I have watched our industry change drastically. The advent of streaming services, once seeming to herald a boon for original content, has turned the ability to make a sustainable living as a television writer into an unattainable goal. Room sizes, lengths of contracts, job security, upward mobility, meaningful residuals, and the development process have all been systematically chipped away by corporate greed and the AMPTP. At this point, too many production companies and platforms are owned by corporations that barely register the revenue from our content on their bottom lines (Disney, Apple, Amazon). Our work is not nearly as valuable to them as it once was — when networks relied on the quality of their programming to attract advertisers.
For the majority of my career, I was able to make a stable income pitching and selling shows (either original or based on my own IP). I would come up with an idea, my agent or manager would set meetings with producers, studios, and networks, I would go into a room with executives and, hopefully, end up with a script deal. I was very fortunate that this routine earned me enough money to live comfortably in New York City and have health insurance. (Health insurance so good that it paid for the entirety of the IVF treatment I needed to start a family. I am proud to say that my child is Union-Made.)
For writers today, relying on this type of career path and the income it brought is no longer possible. As we are all aware, it is increasingly difficult to craft a living from writing for film and television. As a Union, we need to do even more to help writers get compensated for their work, get decent representation, get their work in front of buyers, and provide support whenever work is unattainable or unavailable.
I AM A PROUD UNION MEMBER AND CAPTAIN
When I moved to Los Angeles in 2008 I transferred my WGAE membership to the WGAW. I got staffed on my first show (ANDI MACK for the Disney Channel) in 2016 and immediately volunteered to be the Room Captain. (I love a role with a title and just a whiff of authority). When ANDI MACK ended after three seasons, I continued on as a WGA Captain because, at some point, the WGA had made the decision to move being a Captain from a role in the writer’s room to a more fluid position. We got hats.
My work as a Captain out West provided an introduction to the staff and leadership of the WGAW. With their help and encouragement, I stepped up my role in the Union and was actively involved in helping to convince other writers to vote YES on the Strike Authorization Vote of 2017 — a show of solidarity which, I firmly believe, helped to avert a walkout that year.
I moved back to New York in the Summer of 2022 and immediately returned to the WGAE fold, just in time to start attending informational meetings for the 2023 MBA negotiations.
During our 2023 strike action, I showed up dutifully to picket lines, made sure people checked in, got to know the WGAE staff, worked closely with my fellow Captains, fixed signs, handed out waters, answered questions, arranged (and ate) snacks, hogged the bullhorn, and stepped up to defuse tension whenever there was a situation that seemed like it might get sticky. I also learned a lot about organizing and what it means to be a truly active and committed member of my Union under stressful and uncertain circumstances. I loved it (not the strike, obv, but the solidarity and the community and the organizing). I met a lot of people and made some actual friends. A few of those friendships organically evolved into mentoring relationships. I so enjoyed stepping into this role that I committed to continue mentoring once the strike was over.
The strike was epic and it took all of us working together in order for it to succeed. However, an earlier Union action — the Agency Campaign (April, 2019 – February, 2021) — was one of the most meaningful experiences I’ve had as a WGA Captain.
Surprisingly, whenever I mention the Agency Campaign, a lot of newer members aren’t even aware of it. In short, the WGA took a stand against what had become an accepted culture of talent agencies not upholding their fiduciary responsibility to us as their clients. The WGA formulated a plan to bring talent agency bottom lines back to being tied solely to their commissions off our earnings. In a last-ditch effort to force agencies to return to being incentivized to negotiate the best possible deal for us, we were all asked to fire our agents, some of whom we had worked with for decades, some of whom we called our friends. It was not easy, but it worked. Every talent agency now has to sign a “Code of Conduct” in order to represent WGA writers. As the WGA states on their timeline of the campaign, the Agency Campaign represented “an historic victory for writers and ensures that agent’s compensation is directly tied to the compensation they negotiate for their writer clients.”
The role of Captain really crystallized during this effort because of how important it was for the Guild to be able to count on as many members as they could to hold the line. People were conflicted and emotional. Meetings were messy. Every member needed to be heard. Captains could do that. The Guild — the staff and WGA leadership — relied on us to have personal relationships and conversations with our teams so that every single member’s concerns were considered. I believed fully in the importance of this Campaign and was very engaged in rallying the support of my fellow WGA members. It was hard work. Members were very divided about this action, but ultimately people came together and effected a major change to the industry, a change from which we all continue to benefit.
I AM A MENTOR
Volunteering to be a Mentor this year offered me the opportunity to work closely with nine new WGAE members, to form a relationship with each one, to build a community of people who support each other and share resources, to reinforce each new member’s commitment to our Union. It has been incredibly rewarding. My group bonded with each other through Zoom meetings and gatherings in real life. We can now check in with each other about anything that comes up around our work and our lives as writers. And that has been very reassuring, especially in this unpredictable time.
Mentorship is something I feel could be further emphasized in our Union. Sharing resources and experiences, building our community, strengthening our bonds, and making personal connections will only make our Union stronger. While it is true that each member’s experience is unique, there are likely at least a few other members who have had a similar struggle or situation, who can support and advise.
In the same way that we are working to train writers to be ready to move into higher positions on writing staffs, we need to get more writers involved in our Union by encouraging them to take on leadership roles. We need more Captains and more Mentors. In my experience, the rewards of those positions far outweigh the time and effort they take. The strength of our community is everything. The more members who take on leadership roles in our Union, the stronger we will be and the faster we can coalesce and act collectively when needed.
I AM A FIERCE DEFENDER OF WORKER’S RIGHTS
Something my friends know about me is that it is not hard to get me fired up. When something feels unfair, I get activated. Recently, I have had several writer friends describe projects to me that can only be described as free work. It is maddening.
The demand for free work from WGA writers, both established and new to the Guild, has become untenable and unacceptable in recent years. This is one of the areas where I would like to focus my energies, should I be voted into a position on Council. I have been witness to some of my most successful, talented, experienced writer friends — TV writers who have had their own shows on the air — engage in a back-and-forth “conversation” with established producers towards preparing a pitch for a network or platform. This process can go on for months, sometimes even a year. There is always one more “conversation,” one more round of “notes,” another “take” to try. This is unpaid development. Plain and simple.
I also have friends earlier in their careers, who have gone into meetings and pitched an idea only to be told that it is “interesting” and “exciting” but maybe wink wink it would be better to have an actual script in hand? In other words, go do the work, unpaid, bring it back to us and then we’ll decide if we are interested. That never used to happen.
Today, the work that is being demanded of writers to even get into a room with a buyer is, in my opinion, a clear exploitation of a worker’s talent and productivity. And it cannot come down to each individual writer saying “no,” as that can threaten the writer’s reputation and put them in an uncomfortable position with potential collaborators. It has to be the Guild that steps up and states that this increasingly common practice is no longer acceptable for its members.
Writing and creating is our work. It is what we do. No one is doing us favors by letting us create without paying for it. The media and the AMPTP are acting in their own interest when they promote the idea that the industry is on its final footing, that writers are unimportant and not valuable, that A.I. can do what we do for less money, less time, and less hassle, that we should beg for the creative crumbs we are being tossed, that we should compete in “bake-offs,” or prove our commitment to a project by actually doing the work before we are compensated.
Simply put, companies need to start paying us for our ideas again.
I BELIEVE IN DIVERSITY (OF COURSE I DO)
When I got hired as a Producer on the reboot of LIZZIE MCGUIRE in fall of 2019, I thought I was looking at job security for at least 2-3 years. But it was not to be (DM me for details on that Disney debacle). However, what I did get from that short-lived experience was working in one of the most diverse rooms I could imagine, because the diversity was broad and intentional. It was not dictated by the network. The hiring of each writer by our showrunner was authentically based on what each writer brought to the room in terms of experience, age, race, background, sexual orientation, gender identity. The conversations and topics covered were thrilling and vast.
The writers in this room were able to inspire each other and provide insight and coverage for all the characters we were planning to create and service. It made me truly understand the need for broad diversity in every writer’s room. A room filled with talented and thoughtful people who bring different perspectives to their ideas make for shows that offer connection and representation to an expansive audience. It is something every showrunner should strive to achieve.
I would like to see more opportunities for all types of writers at every level to connect with showrunners. There are a lot of unrepresented writers who deserve to be read and considered. I am interested in finding new and sustainable ways to facilitate these connections. No one should feel marginalized or dismissed for any reason. We all have something of value to contribute, because each writer’s experience is unique and worth representation.
I KNOW WHEN TO END MY STATEMENT
Unions in today’s chaotic and class-driven world are more important than ever. Our Union is more important than ever. Being a Captain and a Mentor have been rewarding positions with high impact. Being a Council Member would further my ability to effect change for our Guild and its members. To me, it is political activism. It is grassroots organization. It is community-building. I want to be in a position to do the work. I want to collaborate with our leadership and the other members on the WGAE Council, to share ideas and resources with the WGAW, to strategize more ways to help writers find work (and get paid immediately and decently for it when they do), and to increase the Guild’s ability to provide targeted Union representation for each and every member.
Please feel free to reach out to me at anitaliberty@me.com for any reason whatsoever (maybe mostly focused on the WGAE and my candidacy for a seat on Council, but also happy to discuss current TV likes/dislikes or ideas for my first tattoo).
Thank you for your consideration!
Endorsements
Brooke Berman, David Blum, Micharne Cloughley, Patrick Coker, Sloane Crosley, Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, Hussein Darwish, Sara David, Nicholas Davis, Justin DiLauro, Christopher Eigeman, Dawn Ennis, Emily Flake, Barbara Garshman, Melissa Gibson, Jim Hart, Sheri Holman, A M Homes, Don P Hooper, Liz Hynes, Alex R Johnson, Tom Kemnitz, Jr, Christopher Kyle, Felipe Torres Medina, Terri Minsky, Becky Mode, Sarah Montana, Marygrace O’Shea, Anna Park, Taylor Phillips, Victoria Pollack, Joseph Randazzo, Celine Robinson, Lynn Rosen, Erica Saleh, Kadia Saraf, Terry Serpico, Sasha E Stewart, Lily Thorne, Katie Tibaldi, Louis Venosta, Adam Wiesen
WGAW: Rob Forman, Barbara Hall, Alex Herschlag, Jonathan Hurwitz, Mia Katherine Iverson, Shawn Ryan
Endorse Suzanne Weber for Council
Note: WGAW members who wish to endorse a candidate may follow the process outlined in section G.1.B of the 2024 Election Policy.
