The Pacific Screenwriting Program (PSP) has launched a pitch-training initiative for underrepresented writers based in British Columbia.

The eight-week Pitch Accelerator Program, presented in partnership with Break the Room (BTR), is for seven mid-career television writers of diverse backgrounds in B.C.

BTR’s Sameer Gardezi (Modern Family) created the program, which provides “advanced insight into the creative process, pitching and sales skills while adding momentum to participants’ individual projects and IP,” according to a news release.

BTR program coordinator Amanuel Desmuke is helping lead the program, which includes participants Miriam van Emst, Norman Yi Li, Ambika Vas, Qaseem Fazal, Neesa Aref, Alysson Hall, and Manny Mahal.

The PSP started in 2018 and is a collaboration between Netflix, the B.C. producers branch of the Canadian Media Producers Association, the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) and Creative BC. It aims to build a vibrant and diverse screenwriting community in B.C. that reflects the province’s population as a whole.

Other PSP programs include the Scripted Story Lab, the Story Department Internship and professional development opportunities for screenwriters who are further along in their careers.

The Pitch Accelerator program is supported by the Canada Media Fund’s Sector Development program and is sponsored by the non-profit Collective Bunch Society. The program aims to bring mid-career writers to the next stage of their career.

BTR has collaborated with companies such as Netflix, Telus and WarnerMedia internationally to work with underrepresented voices and writers.

In 2019, BTR also incubated a writers’ room in Vancouver with Black, Indigenous and people of colour writers in partnership with Storyhive.

The new program “took inspiration from the 2021 report issued by the WGC Diversity Committee which highlights gaps in terms of representation in TV writers’ rooms in relation to our local population,” said PSP co-founder and chair Brian Hamilton in a statement.

Photo L-R: TOP: BTR program facilitator Amanuel Desmuke; participants Miriam van Emst, Norman Yi Li, Ambika Vas; BOTTOM: Qaseem Fazal, Neesa Aref, Alysson Hall, and Manny Mahal.