INDUSTRY 101 EVENT SERIES
Break Into TV Writing
On Campus at SMC
Santa Monica College Center for Media & Design
Building C, Theatre 180
1660 Stewart St, Santa Monica, CA 90404
Monday, March 9, 2026 | 6-7:30 PM | SMC
Co-hosted with Santa Monica College, this conversation brings together writers and support staff to talk about entry-level pathways and how they actually broke into TV writing.
Cesar Mazariegos
Cesar Mazariegos is a DC native, NYU Film School graduate, and current Co-Executive Producer on The Simpsons. He is an alum of the WB Writers Workshop, and was on Variety’s 2020 “Latinx to Watch” list, back when putting Latino's on a list didn't sound so scary. He has been nominated for a Humanitas Prize, a WGA Award, and an Emmy, but hasn't won any of them. He did get a Peabody for his work on the show, but he had to pay for the actual statue, so that doesn't really count. He says he's trying to write a movie, but that's all talk until he actually sits down and does it.
Stephanie McFarlane
Stephanie McFarlane is an NAACP Image Award nominated writer/producer currently working as a Co-Executive Producer on FBI for CBS with her writing partner, Bryce Ahart. They previously staffed on Average Joe (BET+), Heels (Starz), Me (Apple TV+), First Kill (Netflix), and Legacies (The CW). Bryce and Stephanie completed the 2018 HBOAccess Writers’ Fellowship, and their pilot Sterling was selected by the 2018 HBOAccess Directing Fellowship to be shot as a pilot presentation. It premiered at SXSW to rave reviews.
Rebekka Pesqueira
Rebekka Pesqueira is a Latina TV writer, based in LA, currently working as a staff writer on Abbott Elementary. While her parents hail from California, she grew up in Southeast Michigan, meaning she says soda over pop, but in a Midwest accent. After graduating from the University of Michigan, Rebekka wrote for a sketch house team at UCB, before working as an assistant for Justin Halpern and Pat Schumacker at Delicious Non-Sequitur. While being their assistant, she was able to write two episodes for Abbott Elementary before being promoted to staff.
William Yu
William Yu is a Korean-American screenwriter who left his advertising career behind after creating #StarringJohnCho, a viral, award-winning social media project where he Photoshopped hit movie posters with actor John Cho’s face to spark a global conversation about Asian representation in media that was covered by The New York Times, BBC, and CNN, among others. Yu now writes stories about ambitious outsiders upending the systems that have held them back. Selected to the Sundance Episodic Lab, the NBCU Launch TV Writers Program, and the Rideback RISE Fellowship, William most recently staffed on The ’Burbs, a Peacock mystery comedy based on the 1989 Tom Hanks film and starring Keke Palmer; Brilliant Minds, an NBC medical drama starring Zachary Quinto; and Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist, a Peacock limited series starring Kevin Hart, Samuel L. Jackson, and Don Cheadle. On the feature side, he wrote a romantic comedy screenplay that was named to the prestigious annual Black List and set up with Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu’s company Electric Somewhere, and is currently adapting a coming-of-age heist comedy for major Korean studio CJ ENM. William is repped by Bellevue and is based in Los Angeles.
MODERATOR
Jackie Penn
Forced to fend for herself at an early age, Jackie Penn found comfort in either reading or watching TV. After several years as a Spanish teacher, Jackie left teaching to pursue a career as a TV writer. Now an LA-based drama writer, Jackie’s writing focuses primarily on diverse female-driven stories that explore friendship, found family, identity, and love. She was an assistant on several shows including Siren and Ginny & Georgia before her first staff writing job on Turner & Hooch for Disney+. She was most recently a story editor on the CW’s 4400 and a WGA Strike Captain. She was selected for Coverfly's 2023 Next List and is currently a member of the Rideback Rise Circle cohort.
SERIES SPONSOR
EVENT & COMMUNITY PARTNER
Supported in part by the City of Santa Monica Organizational Support Program.
