Over the last twenty-two years, writing division students have launched their careers at First Pitch, an event that facilitates meetings with potential agents and managers. Matches made at First Pitch have become part of the lore of the John Wells Division of Writing for Screen & Television, with the circulating stories providing inspiration and encouragement to graduating writers each year.

Each year, First Pitch is hosted by an accomplished SCA graduate, and usually held at an off-campus location. However, this year, in celebration of the School of Cinematic Arts’ 95th anniversary, First Pitch was held on campus on DATE. Hosted by Ramses Ishak ‘YEAR, the dynamic agent at UTA behind hits like Hidden Figures, Ride Along and Straight Out of Compton.

The Wells Writing Division also unveiled a new format for its General Meeting Program, in which graduating students are recommended for one-on-one meetings with representatives. In a twist this year, the general meetings were organized to facilitate meetings with producers and executives, the folks who could immediately facilitate production on their scripts.

First Pitch is successful as a launch event because not only does it facilitate fruitful meetings between writers and representation, it also replicates the pitch situations graduating students will soon encounter as professionals. The result is that participants gain experience and confidence needed moving forward. Alumni of the program are currently working with CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, Showtime, Netflix, Starz, Apple TV and Amazon as writers and showrunners on series such as Grey’s Anatomy, Bridgerton, Only Murders in the Building, Gaslit, The Morning Show, Daisy Jones and the Six, Poker Face, Sweet Magnolias, Yellowjackets, Sex Lives of College Girls, among others. They are writing feature length motion pictures such as M3GAN, Avatar: The Way of Water, Air, Murder Mystery 2, Sick, Black Girl Missing and Scream 6.

It’s the perfect event to pitch the storytelling talent of SCA’s newest professional writers.