Adriana Maggs
Age: 30
Residence: St. John’s, NF
Agency: vanguarde artists management
Buzz: Cocreator of upcoming CBC comedy series pilot Rabbittown

Before Adriana Maggs attended York University’s screenwriting program, she claims she was feeling lost. She knew she wanted to write, and hoped York would help nudge her in the right direction. It did, and now Maggs can add cocreator and writer of a CBC television pilot to her resumé, which also includes a couple of short films and awards.

Originally from Corner Brook, Maggs returned to Newfoundland after university and was immediately embraced by the Newfoundland Independent Filmmakers Cooperative, through which she produced her first short film, So It Goes (2002). Maggs wrote and directed the film about a woman sharing childhood memories with her little boy.

‘NIFCO gave me all the opportunities, help and support, and they’ll give it to anyone who wants it,’ says Maggs. ‘I’m really grateful to them.’

Maggs followed up So It Goes with a second short, I Dare Not Go, which won the outstanding writing award at the 2004 Atlantic Film Festival.

She says she always tries to find truth in whatever story she is telling.

‘A writer has a responsibility to face as much truth as they can and put it on the screen, whether it’s through comedy, drama or whatever,’ says Maggs. ‘I like the real gutsy truth of things.’

CBC has given the go-ahead to Rabbittown, a series pilot Maggs created and wrote with her best friend Sherry White (The Breadmaker). Maggs admits it’s a semi-autobiographical account of their friendship – two women who feel like big fish in a small pond, living and working in an insular Newfoundland community. The lead characters are based on Maggs and White, who actually live six houses apart from each other.

Newfoundland producer Jennice Ripley (Random Passage) is handling the series through Kickham East Productions, and is also looking for a coproduction partner for Maggs’ first feature film script, Summer Trade. The script is adapted from an Al Pittman short story about confronting a bully, set in 1950s Newfoundland.

Rabbittown will begin shooting in September for a November delivery to CBC. In the meantime, Maggs is developing a dramatic series with White called Atlantic Sound for CBC and RTE in Ireland. She is also continuing work on a feature script called Wishbone, with funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, as well as contributing to and performing in Mary Walsh’s new CBC comedy series Hatching, Matching & Dispatching. Dustin Dinoff

Jesse McKeown
Age: 26
Residence: Vancouver
Agency: Harrison Artist Management
Buzz: Leo Award winner for Robson Arms

Jesse McKeown got an early break when he landed an internship on the TV drama Da Vinci’s Inquest in 2001. At the time, the Toronto-born, Vancouver-raised filmmaker was finishing his creative writing degree at the University of British Columbia.

‘That introduced me to the world of a real production and working with real writers,’ he says. ‘Once I was there, I was able to weasel my way into writing assignments here and there.’

He impressed to the point that he was hired back as a story editor and writer on the series full-time. He continued working on other projects through 2002, including writing for YTV’s teen adventure program Guinevere Jones.

He also penned two episodes of CTV’s dramedy Robson Arms, which only recently went to air, and made the short The Big Charade. The latter won him the award for best young western Canadian short film director at the 2003 Vancouver International Film Festival, and it took a pack-leading nine Leo Awards in 2004, including best direction and screenwriting for McKeown. This past May, he picked up another Leo for his Robson Arms script ‘The Tell Tale Latex.’

He says the screenplays he wrote for the series proved challenging.

‘They were stand-alone stories,’ he explains. ‘You have to tell a story in under half an hour while meeting new characters each time, whereas with Da Vinci’s Inquest we could take our time with the stories, build them over an hour and meander where we needed to. So that was a good exercise for me in terms of quick, powerful storytelling.’

McKeown has since been appointed executive storywriter and editor for the Da Vinci spin-off Da Vinci’s City Hall. He also hopes to direct the feature The Two Parrots of Bushwick, which he has written, next year. Funding is currently being finalized. Samson Okalow

Shelley Scarrow
Age: 34
Residence: Toronto
Agency: The Characters
Buzz: Assuming creative producer role on Instant Star

Shelley Scarrow can tell you anything you want to know about teens – and a few things you don’t. A top writer for Degrassi: The Next Generation (Epitome Pictures and CTV), Scarrow doesn’t write from the viewpoint of sanitized nostalgia. Her raw, jarring topics, including self-mutilation and teen sex parties, expose the sometimes dark and confused world adolescents inhabit.

Scarrow’s scripts disturb, illuminate and draw acclaim. She shared a 2004 Gemini Award nomination for ‘Accidents Will Happen,’ a two-part script on teenage abortion, but the nod was bittersweet as ‘Accidents’ was banned by U.S. broadcaster The N due to its sensitive subject matter.

‘It’s a shame, and I hope they change their mind and air it, because it’s a really relevant piece that had such great reception from our viewers,’ Scarrow says.

American fans bombarded chat rooms with queries on where to download the ‘missing’ episode.

‘It was amazing – and overwhelming – how quickly fans reacted,’ she notes. ‘The censorship got us more exposure. Tell kids they can’t and they will.’

A York University theater grad, Scarrow began her career as an assistant to Garth Drabinski at Livent. Landing at Toronto’s Epitome, she decided to test the writing waters and found her niche crafting scripts for young adults. She recently completed her fourth and final season with Degrassi, which culminated with a three-episode guest appearance by American indie filmmaker Kevin Smith.

This season sees Scarrow moving over to the creative producer role on Instant Star (Epitome/CTV/The N), which follows a young female rocker coping with newfound fame.

‘I’m still writing teenage girls, but this time I have more leeway, since I’m not restricted to the school halls,’ she says. ‘I’m looking forward to taking [lead character] Jude to a new phase-one where she has to fight for her career.’

Scarrow is also working on a rewrite of The Baby Game, an MOW drama about fertility for Savi Media and CTV. Tracy Nita Pender