CBS Announces Writers for 2016-17 Writers Mentoring Program Initiative

CBS today announced the writers selected for its 2016-2017 Writers Mentoring Program Initiative. The Initiative provides mentorship, career building strategies and opportunities for emerging writers.

The participants selected this year include Sabrina Almeida, Morgan Faust, Cynthia Furey, Michael Gemballa, Howard Jordan Jr., Paula Sabbaga, Joshua Troke and Julie Wong, who were selected from a pool of over 1,100 applicants.

The eight-month mentoring program consists of two distinct phases. For the first four months, writers will be supervised by a CBS executive mentor to develop a new piece of scripted material. Following the mentorship period, they will participate in a 16-week workshop designed to prime the mentees for the industry business and provide them access to executives, agents, managers, writers rooms and, most importantly, executive producers and showrunners.

"The Writers Mentoring Program provides mentorship and access for emerging writers to secure jobs where they will thrive and grow. The goal of program is to help new diverse voices break into the business and, more importantly help launch and groom future content creators," said Tiffany Smith-Anoa'i, Executive Vice President, Entertainment Diversity, Inclusion and Communications, CBS Entertainment.

Now in its 13th year, the CBS Writers Mentoring Program initiative has helped launch the careers of 54 writers, including Jessica Chou ("No Tomorrow"), Lauren Goodman ("American Gothic"), Grete Heinemann (NCIS: NEW ORLEANS), Daniel K. Hoh (PURE GENIUS), Damir and Dario Konjicija (THE GREAT INDOORS), Gina Lucita Monreal (NCIS), Denise Thé ("Person of Interest"), Aaron Rahsaan Thomas ("The Get Down," "Sleepy Hollow") and Chantelle Wells ("Jane the Virgin").

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