Comedy Central Teaming Up with Sundance Institute for Two Fellowships
$10K, customized mentorship, and a “year round ecosystem of support” will go to two lucky recipients of the newly minted Comedy Central Fellowship (one will be for the Sundance Institute’s Episodic Lab and one for their Screenwriters Lab) over the next couple of years.
If this sounds pretty nice to you, get all the details here.
Continuing in the direction of making the landscape of television less male and white, both NBC and HBO have just announced programs designed to find diverse talent.
More specifically, NBC has partnered with the legendary Second City to find new sketch talent (via The Wrap) in the form of fellowships, scholarship awards, and a festival. Hopefully, this will help them avoid such things as having to hold a “secret” audition for a new black female cast member for SNL.
HBO has launched their own HBOAccess Writing Fellowship that will search for unrepresented writers from “diverse backgrounds” (via Deadline). If accepted, you’ll get a week long intensive, 8 months writing/development period with HBO top brass, and a live table read. With Girls, Silicon Valley, Veep, The Comeback, and Togetherness, we’re HBO would like to continue their hot comedy streak.