Non-white people were increasingly represented among employed television writers from 2020 to 2024, while the screenwriting landscape remained largely the same, per a new report from the Writers Guild of America.
The guild released data Wednesday comparing employment data for both television writers and screenwriters between 2020 and 2024. Despite a sharp decrease in the total number of jobs, the WGA did find that the percentage of BIPOC writers increased by 8.5% to represent 40.4% of total employed TV writers during the 2023-24 season.
Also, white writers made up 45.4% of series employment in 2023-24, an 8.6% decrease. It is worth nothing that 14.2% of series writers did not report an ethnicity.
In all, 45.0% of series writers were women, nearly the same as in the 2020-21 season, while 52.5% of series writers were men, a 1.9% decrease from the 2020-21 season.
The WGA, which combined employment data from both the East and West for this report, also included similar data on employed screenwriters in 2020 and 2024. The guild found minimal change over that four year period, and in 2024, 66.4% of screenwriters in 2024 were men and 32.6% were women, while 63.6% of screenwriters were white and 18.9% were BIPOC.
On the TV side, breaking the data down even further, the WGA found that BIPOC women represented 22.2% of series writers, while BIPOC men were 17.4% — marking approximately 4% increases in both groups from the 2020-21 season.
Black writers represented the largest group of employed writers other than white writers during the 2023-24 season at 16.5%, an increase from the 2020-21 season. Indigenous and Middle Eastern writers had the lowest representation, less than 1% each, remaining stagnant over the four-year span.
Mid-level BIPOC women and lower level BIPOC men expanded their presence in writers rooms, per the report, which also broke its data down by individual job title.
BIPOC men accounted for a range of 15.5% to 32.7% of jobs ranging from Staff Writer through Supervising Producers. At the upper level, they represented 18.3% of Co-EPs, 11.7% of EPs, and 6.5% of showrunners. This demographic saw its largest gains at the staff writer and story editor levels with an 18.5% increase in BIPOC men hired as executive story editors.
BIPOC women, on the other hand, accounted for a range of 32.4% to 41.3% for job titles from Staff Writer through Supervising Producer. At the upper level, BIPOC women were 18.0% of Co-EPs, 9.3% of EPs and 8.1% of showrunners. The largest gains were in hiring at the producer, co-producer and supervising producer levels.
As for new members, BIPOC women accounted for 21.2% of new members in 2024, and BIPOC men represented 20.5%. White women represented 19.2% of new members in 2024, and white men represented 25.5%.
In addition to ethnicity and gender, the WGA’s report also includes data on employment for writers based on sexual orientation, age, and disability status, though the gains in those areas were much smaller.
Read the full report here.
The post TV Writers Of Color Gained Increased Representation In 2023-24 Season, But Screenwriting Diversity Remains Stagnant, WGA Reports appeared first on Deadline.
