Breaking into TV Writing with Evan Iwata

Show notes

Evan Iwata is a TV drama writer who recently sold his original high-concept crime procedural ON THE CLOCK to ABC with Lionsgate Television and Alexi Hawley’s Perfectman Pictures. He was previously a staff writer on the HBO Max sci-fi thriller SUBJECT TO CHANGE from J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot, and has also developed a YA action-adventure series for DreamWorks Animation. He began his career in the writers room, working in support staff roles on series including Starz's OUTLANDER, CBS's CSI:CYBER and PURE GENIUS, and ABC's THE FIX and EMERGENCE. An alum of the Warner Bros. TV Writers’ Workshop and the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
Today we are getting into how Evan went from being rejected from USC film school to a WGA writer selling his own show, what it was like working directly with JJ Abrams ona series for HBO and the three typical expectations most writers have that are completely incorrect.

Breakdown

1. 13:46Evan’s work on a potential Dreamworks show
2. 18:26Pitch vs. pilot vs. series bible
3. 23:18How to get paid before you start writing the pilot
4. 28:41From Oshkosh to USC / underGRAD
5. 31:41Megan Niquette
6. 33:21Namrata
7. 34:11Evan McGahey, Monisha Dadlani, Ethan Welling
8. 41:41Signing with reps
9. 42:24Writers’ Assistant Program, Conrad Sun
10. 46:41Knowing when to add an agent to the team
11. 46:41Kat Reilly
12. 50:41Warner Bros. TV Writer Workshop + Covid
13. 51:26Jennifer Yale
14. 52:01Getting in the writers room on JJ Abrams show
15. 59:21Starting as support staff (CSI: Cyber, Outlander)
16. 1:06:11Wrong expectations as writers
17. 1:17:41Getting a WGA card
18. 1:18:11Adapting a true story from an article
19. 1:24:36TIME CAPSULE

Keep Up With Evan

@iwhata