Penny Gives SCA Writers the First Spot
by Benjamin Pola
Emmy-nominated producer, writer, director, and SCA alumnus, Prentice Penny ‘95 returned to SCA this year to help usher a new wave of writers of color into the entertainment industry. Under his multimedia production company, A Penny For Your Thoughts Entertainment, Penny launched the First Up Program, to give BIPOC writers from SCA an opportunity to develop their skills as professional writers.
First Up began in summer 2022, with three SCA students of color in their final year of undergraduate or graduate studies selected to participate in the year-long program. Students were not required to be enrolled in classes in the John Wells Division of Writing for Screen & Television to apply but had to demonstrate their goal of pursuing a professional writing career.
The program is designed to provide BIPOC writers with opportunities to have their work seen and to gain real-world work experience. The selected students are working directly with executives from A Penny For Your Thoughts to develop an original film or TV project, navigating all stages of the development process along the way.
Inagural First Up program cohort.
Left to Right: Vincent J. Walker, Tiffany Shinn and Christine Carmelo
Next year they will pitch to networks and studios through Penny’s overall deal at Disney/Onyx Collective, which includes all the subsidiaries under the Disney umbrella including Hulu, FX, Disney Plus, Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, ABC, Fox, ESPN, Fox Searchlight, National Geographic, and 20th Television.
In addition to running the First Up program, Penny will also create a database for participating students’ work, similar to Franklin Leonard’s “Blacklist,” which will allow agents, managers, showrunners, and executives to access the projects.
Penny plans to choose another three writers next summer.
Here are the First Up Program’s
first writers.
Christine CarmelaMFA, Writing for Screen & Television ’23
Hometown: Las Vegas, NV
Project: Pretty Privilege
Synopsis: A trans girl returns to her junior year of college post-transition and discovers that for the first time in her life, girls keep calling her pretty, boys keep calling her sexy, and, most horrifyingly of all, she’s being taken seriously.
Career Goal: Bring more queer and trans joy and laughter to the screen.
Vincent J. WalkerBA, Film & Television Production ’23
Hometown: Detroit, MI
Project: MYTHOPOEIA
Synopsis: A genre-bending anthology series based on folktales and myths from the Motherland.
Career Goal: Create a show and become its showrunner.
Tiffany ShinnBA, Film & Television Production ’23
Hometown: Bay Area, CA
Project: BANANA
Synopsis: After going to an all-white school her whole life, an Asian American high school freshman must figure out how to fit into her new culturally abundant and predominantly Asian public school.
Career Goal: Become a TV comedy writer and director.