Disney Entertainment Television (DET) announced on Thursday participants for its 2024-2025 Directing Progam and 2025 Writing Progam, as part of the company’s initiative to foster the next generation of creative talent by connecting emerging writers and directors with opportunities across DET’s scripted and unscripted television slate.
“We’re building on our collaboration with the Directing Program so that more emerging directors will receive the invaluable opportunity to learn firsthand from world-class creators, while also bringing their unique perspectives to some of our most beloved unscripted shows,” said Rob Mills, executive vice president, Unscripted and Alternative Entertainment, Walt Disney Television. “We’re excited to share their work with viewers at home when their episodes debut later this year.”
The 2024-2025 scripted directing cohort includes Karla Braun, Shawn Pipkin-West, Sarah Smith, Kate Sullivan, Ashley Williams and Kelly Yu. The unscripted cohort includes Jaclyn Amor, Ana Breton, Dara DiGerolamo, Tiana Gandelman and Roger Melvin.
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This year, the program adds the 20th Television produced ABC series “9-1-1” to its roster of scripted directing opportunities for participants and will see a significant expansion with its unscripted slate that will also include the ABC shows “American Idol” and “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” as well as Freeform’s “Project Runway.” Other directing opportunities include “The Chi,” “Dancing with the Stars,” “General Hospital” and “The Rookie.”
“This year’s cohorts have already begun making their mark with their creative vision and bold storytelling,” said Tim McNeal, senior vice president, Creative Talent Development and Inclusion, DET. “As part of the Directing and Writing Programs, this exceptional group of talent will have even more opportunities to shape the future of television, both here at Disney and across the industry.”
Since its launch in 2001, notable alumni from the DET Directing Program include Pete Chatmon (“Interior Chinatown,” “High Potential”), Ryan Coogler (“Black Panther” franchise, “Anthem”), Regina King (“Insecure”), Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr. (“Shōgun”), Amin Kaderali (“Grey’s Anatomy”), Jude Weng (“Only Murders in the Building”) and Hannah Fidell (“Pam & Tommy”).
As for the DET Writing Program, the 2025 cohort includes Monib Abhat, Mike Carreon, Jason Cho, Neda Davarpanah, Fatima Eldigair, Ananya Hegde, Andrina Smith and Alie Turfe. Eldigair has also been selected as the second annual FX Singleton Scholar, a scholarship that honors the life and legacy of legendary director, producer and mentor John Singleton by offering mentorship from FX and special staffing consideration on an FX series.
Since its founding more than 35 years ago, the writing program has helped launch the careers of numerous aspiring writers, including such notable alumni as Raamla Mohamed (“Reasonable Doubt”), Ayanna Floyd Davis (“The Chi”), Anthony Sparks (“Mike,” “Bel-Air”), Sabir Pirzada (“Ms. Marvel”), Janine Salinas (“Snowfall”), Tash Gray (“Reasonable Doubt”) and Luvh Rakhe (“Dave”).
The program provides writers with advanced creative workshops as they refine their portfolios, and meet and learn from DET creative executives, producers, showrunners and other program alumni. Each participant is a contract employee of Disney for one year, with weekly salary and benefits, or until they staff on a show and are compensated at WGA scale.
According to Disney, the program has maintained a nearly 100% annual staffing rate for more than a decade.