Red Sea Labs announces first edition of SeriesLab Program 

Red Sea Labs announced the first edition of the SeriesLab Program, designed to train and support local writers to create compelling film and TV series. Eight Saudi nationals and residents have been selected to participate in the Program, which consists of six workshops running between June to December, successfully wrapping up the 2nd workshop which took place in Los Angeles, and included site visits to Walt Disney Studios, the Writer’s Guild of America, and the University of Southern California. The workshops included some of the biggest names in American writing and filmmaking, including Guy Ferland, Tom Desanto, David Isaacs, Marc Cherry and Joe Peracchio. By the end of the Program, the participants will have crafted their own TV series pilot, under the mentorship and guidance of the Program leads.

The SeriesLab tutors and mentors included David Janollari, who is responsible for developing and producing some of the most popular and critically acclaimed series of the last two decades, including “Six Feet Under” and “Friends”, Zac Hug (UCLA), a television writer, playwright and essayist who has worked for a decade as a Digital Media Executive for Bravo, The View, and ABC Family, and Kelly Edwards (exHBO), an accomplished media executive and producer with a career spanning both TV and film. Edwards has held executive roles at Disney, Sony, NBCUniversal, FOX, and UPN, co-founded Colour Entertainment, and graduated from Vassar College and Emerson College. She is also a 2019 Sundance Episodic Lab fellow and Annenberg Inclusion Board member.

 

As well as the mentors and tutors, the SeriesLab writers benefited from workshops from special guests, such as Tim McNeal, VP at Disney, Guy Ferland, who has directed over 150 episodes of television, including the series Mad Men, House, The Shield, Walking Dead, Mentalist and The O.C., Marc Cherry, a writer and producer best known for his work on Desperate Housewives and Devious Maids, Tom Desanto, known for his work on the blockbuster films X-Men (2000), X2 (2003) and Transformers (2007), Joe Peracchio, adjunct professor of screenwriting and TV drama writing at USC, David Isaacs, who has produced over 800 episodes of TV comedy in his 40-year career, and JaimeMoyer, an actress and Second City alumna who writes for the Nickelodeon animation Lego City Adventures. 

Ryan Ashore, head of Red Sea Labs, welcomed the selected writers: “Writers are the unsung heroes of the shows. They create compelling stories, craft characters that inspire us, and build magical worlds. We look forward to working with you to help build Saudi Arabia’s film and television industry.”

 

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