WRoberto Aguirre-Sacasa is an American playwright, screenwriter, and comic book writer best known for his work for Marvel Comics and for the television series Glee, Big Love, Riverdale and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. He is Chief Creative Officer of Archie Comics.
WZal Batmanglij is an American film director and screenwriter. He directed and co-wrote the 2011 film Sound of My Voice and the 2013 film The East, both of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as the Netflix series The OA, which debuted in 2016.
WLouis Székely, best known by his stage name Louis C.K., is an American stand-up comedian, writer, actor, and filmmaker. C.K. won a Peabody Award in 2012 and has received six Primetime Emmy Awards, as well as numerous awards for The Chris Rock Show, Louie, and his stand-up specials Live at the Beacon Theater (2011) and Oh My God (2013). He has won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album twice. Rolling Stone ranked C.K.'s stand-up special Shameless number three on their "Divine Comedy: 25 Best Stand-Up Specials and Movies of All Time" list and ranked him fourth on its 2017 list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time.
WLee Camp is an American stand-up comedian. He hosts the weekly comedy news show, Redacted Tonight with Lee Camp on RT America.
WDavid Khari Webber Chappelle is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer and producer. With his incisive observations, he has been described as "poetically unfiltered and sociopolitically introspective, with an ability to illuminate and interrogate agonizing and poignant topics." Chappelle is the recipient of numerous accolades, including four Emmy Awards and three Grammy Awards as well as the Mark Twain Prize. He is known for his satirical comedy sketch series Chappelle's Show (2003–2006). The series, co-written with Neal Brennan, ran until Chappelle quit the show in the middle of production of the third season. After leaving the show, Chappelle returned to performing stand-up comedy across the U.S. By 2006, Chappelle was called the "comic genius of America" by Esquire and, in 2013, "the best" by a Billboard writer. In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked him No. 9 in their "50 Best Stand Up Comics of All Time."
WStephen Tyrone Colbert is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is best known for hosting the satirical Comedy Central program The Colbert Report from 2005 to 2014 and the CBS talk program The Late Show with Stephen Colbert beginning in September 2015.
WRuth Cummings was an American screenwriter and actress active from the 1910s through the 1930s. She was married to actor-director Irving Cummings in 1917, and they had a son, screenwriter Irving Cummings Jr.
WWhitney Cummings is an American stand-up comedian, actress, filmmaker, and podcaster. Her credits include one comedy album, four stand-up specials, three Comedy Central Roasts, and numerous television series in which she has served various roles including producer, director, showrunner, and actress.
WHannah Margalit Fidell is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Her directorial debut was the drama film A Teacher (2013). She also wrote and directed the romantic drama film 6 Years (2015) and the comedy film The Long Dumb Road (2018).
WMary Claire Fuller was an American stage and silent film actress and screenwriter.
WKristin Carlson Gore is an American author and screenwriter.
WDebra Granik is an American filmmaker. She is most known for 2004's Down to the Bone, which starred Vera Farmiga, 2010's Winter's Bone, which starred Jennifer Lawrence in her breakout performance and for which Granik was nominated for Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, and 2018's Leave No Trace, a film based on the book My Abandonment by Peter Rock.
WMatthew Heineman is an American filmmaker. The Sundance Film Festival called Heineman "one of the most talented and exciting documentary filmmakers working today", while Anne Thompson of Indiewire wrote that Heineman is a "respected and gifted filmmaker who combines gonzo fearlessness with empathetic sensitivity." He recently received a nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First Time Feature Film Director from the Directors Guild of America for his narrative debut A Private War, making Heineman and Martin Scorsese the only filmmakers ever nominated for both narrative and documentary DGA Awards.
WWilliam Tefft Johnson, Jr., better known as Tefft Johnson, was an American stage and film actor, and film director and screenwriter. He appeared in 131 films between 1909 and 1926.
WAviva Kempner is an American filmmaker. Her documentaries investigate non-stereotypical images of Jews in history and focus on the untold stories of Jewish people. She is most well known for The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg.
WCarol Mendelsohn is a TV writer, notable for her work on the crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
WDavid Eugene Mills was an American journalist, writer and producer of television programs. He was an executive producer and writer of the HBO miniseries The Corner, for which he won two Emmy Awards, and the creator, executive producer, and writer of the NBC miniseries Kingpin.
WAparna Nancherla is an American comedian and actress. She has appeared on Inside Amy Schumer and has written for Late Night with Seth Meyers and Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell. Nancherla released her debut comedy album Just Putting It Out There through Tig Notaro's Bentzen Ball Records on July 8, 2016.
WSteve Niles is an American comic book author and novelist, known for works such as 30 Days of Night, Criminal Macabre: A Cal McDonald Mystery, Simon Dark, Mystery Society, and Batman: Gotham County Line.
WGeorge P. Pelecanos is an American author. Many of his 20 books are in the genre of detective fiction and set primarily in his hometown of Washington, D.C. He is also a film and television producer and a television writer. On television, he frequently collaborates with David Simon, writing multiple episodes of Simon's HBO series The Wire and Treme, and is also the co-creator of the HBO series The Deuce.
WZachary Pincus-Roth is an American entertainment journalist, author, and TV writer. In January 2016, he joined the Washington Post as pop culture editor.
WTimothy Darrell Russ is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and musician. He is best known for his roles as Lieutenant Commander Tuvok on Star Trek: Voyager, Frank on Samantha Who?, and Principal Franklin, a recurring character on the Nickelodeon live-action teen sitcom iCarly. He is also an astronomer.
WDavid Judah Simon is an American author, journalist, and television writer and producer best known for his work on The Wire (2002–08). He worked for the Baltimore Sun City Desk for twelve years (1982–95), wrote Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (1991), and co-wrote The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood (1997) with Ed Burns. The former book was the basis for the NBC series Homicide: Life on the Street (1993–99), on which Simon served as a writer and producer. Simon adapted the latter book into the HBO mini-series The Corner (2000).
WBurr Gore Steers is an American actor, screenwriter, and director. His films include Igby Goes Down (2002) and 17 Again (2009). He is a nephew of writer Gore Vidal.
WJustin Paul Theroux is an American actor, producer, director, and screenwriter. He gained recognition for his work with director David Lynch in the mystery film Mulholland Drive (2001) and the thriller film Inland Empire (2006). He also appeared in films such as Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997), American Psycho (2000), Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003), Strangers with Candy (2005), Wanderlust (2012), The Girl on the Train (2016), The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018), On the Basis of Sex (2018), and Lady and the Tramp (2019).
WEugene Luther Gore Vidal was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, patrician manner, and polished style of writing. Vidal was openly bisexual and his novels often dealt with LGBT characters, which was unusual at the time. Beyond literature, Vidal was heavily involved in politics. He twice sought office—unsuccessfully—as a Democratic Party candidate, first in 1960 to the United States House of Representatives, and later in 1982 to the U.S. Senate.
WJames Henry Webb Jr. is an American politician and author. He has served as a United States Senator from Virginia, Secretary of the Navy, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, Counsel for the United States House Committee on Veterans' Affairs and is a decorated Marine Corps officer.
WJosh Weinstein is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons. Weinstein and Bill Oakley became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans School; Weinstein then attended Stanford University and was editor-in-chief of the Stanford Chaparral. He worked on several short-term media projects, including writing for the variety show Sunday Best, but was then unemployed for a long period.