Pathways to Staff Writer

This is the third installment of Pathways to the WGAE

TV writers Naomi G. Davis, Kathy Dobie and Bren Thomas will discuss how they made the leap from disparate backgrounds — as assistant, journalist and playwright — into TV writers’ rooms. We’ll talk about the various pathways to those coveted jobs, including support staff roles, fellowships and contests, personal connections and sheer luck.

This is the third installment of Pathways to the WGAE, a series of events designed to help our WGAE and Pre-WGA colleagues find their way to jobs in TV and screenwriting. The program is co-created and co-hosted by TV writers Brandon K Hines (currently staffed on Showtime’s FELLOW TRAVELERS) and Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, WGAE vice president (currently on NBC’s THE ENDGAME).

Meet our panelists:

Born and raised in the Bronx, Naomi G. Davis is a writer currently staffed on NBC’s THE ENDGAME. She received her first credit on Netflix’s rom-com DASH & LILY and quickly followed that up with the animated action-adventure SPLINTER CELL with the writer of “John Wick.” Naomi graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and worked as a production coordinator and AP in branded content and design, working for clients such as WB and Universal. Her claim to fame so far is coordinating the design rebrand of the NBA and a car of the future for Toyota. Naomi pivoted from branded content to scripted television as a Writers’ PA on THE GET DOWN and the writers’ assistant of the first Emmy award-winning seasons of THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL.

Kathy Dobie was a journalist for 30 years, writing for the Village Voice, GQ, Harper’s, Vibe, The New York Times Magazine and California Sunday magazine before joining the writer’s room of LAW & ORDER: SVU in 2019.  She is the author of the memoir “The Only Girl in the Car.”

Brenson Thomas is a Black and queer writer, actor, and theatre-maker from Georgia, but currently rooted in Philadelphia. A graduate of the Sarah Lawrence College MFA Theatre program, Brenson most recently wrote for season 2 of Emmy Award–winner Lena Waithe’s TWENTIES (currently airing on BET). Brenson’s plays include: how i got over, or…red Kool-Aid stains on bubblegum lips, What We Lost & Never Knew, and How We Return. When he’s not hunched over his laptop crying about blank Google docs, Brenson enjoys long walks around his beloved Philly, doing bad accents, smashing patriarchal white supremacist structures, and Beyoncé.