Anna Ouyang Moench is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. Her plays have been produced at La Jolla Playhouse, Williamstown Theatre Festival, NAATCO/The Public Theater, the Geffen Playhouse, the Playwrights Realm, East West Players, InterAct Theater, Theater Mu, and many other theaters across the country and around the world. In television and film, Anna has worked with Apple TV+, HBO, A24, 3000 Pictures, Netflix, Fifth Season, UCP, eOne, PictureStart, and Universal. Anna was a member of the pilot cohort of the WarnerMedia Access Showrunner Program, wrote on Season 1 and 2 of Severance and is currently in the writers room for Beef Season 2.

Anna's website

Erin's website

Darcy Fowler is a writer, actor, and producer who co-created and co-wrote the animated horror comedy Little Demon on FX/Hulu, voiced by Danny DeVito, Lucy DeVito, and Aubrey Plaza, and executive produced by Dan Harmon. She was a writer on the last (and never aired) season of Netflix's Glow, and has developed, collaborated on, and sold shows to networks including Comedy Central, TBS, and AMC, as well as to studios such as Red Hour and Picturestart. Darcy and I actually go way back. We first connected in our early theater days in New York City and got reunited this year when I signed up for the amazing TV Writing workshops she leads. Darcy is generous, kind and full of so much wisdom when it comes to honing your original voice and crafting great stories for TV.

Darcy's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darfow/

Erin's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mallonerin/

Gina Fattore is a TV writer, producer, and showrunner. Some of her many credits include Dare Me, Gaslit, Better Things, UnREAL, Masters of Sex, Parenthood, Californication, Gilmore Girls, and my eternal favorite, Dawson’s Freaking Creek. Her debut novel The Spinster Diaries was published in 2020 by Prospect Park Books and is a total delight (a fun bonus - the audiobook is narrated by friend of the podcast Tanya Eby). I can't tell you how much fun I had spending time with Gina for this interview. She's generous and funny and has so much knowledge about how this industry works. Plus she was kind enough to let me completely geek out over Dawson's Creek and thank her for shaping my worldview on romance as a teen. I did not keep my cool and I'm totally okay with that.

Gina's Website: https://ginafattore.com

Gina's TED Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4nc6lYufVI

Erin Mallon's website: https://www.erinmallon.com/

This is our 40th episode and the end of Season One! This first year of the podcast has flown by. I'm so grateful to everyone who has tuned in, shared episodes, rated us, reviewed us... it's all meant so much to me. For this final episode of the season we thought it would be fun to go back in time and celebrate some of my favorite moments from this first year, so that's what we're gonna do!

Today we have Natalie Naudus on the show. Natalie is a brilliant Audie-Award winning narrator of over 400 books. We get into that a little in this interview. But mostly we talk about her writing and celebrate the release of her debut novel. It's called "Gay the Pray Away" and it is the #1 Best Seller in Coming of Age Fiction for Teens on Amazon this week. I loved talking shop with Natalie and getting to hear all about her process of bringing this book to life.

Today we have my friend Eliza Bent on the show. Eliza and I go way back. She is a playwright and a performer whose Bentertainments include solo works, plays, adaptations, and hybrid affairs. She makes short films. She speaks Italian. She has degrees in philosophy and playwriting and she's on faculty at Northwestern University’s Radio TV & Film department. She's a cool as hell person with a lot of weirdness and wisdom to share.

Today we have my friend Amy Staats on the show. Amy is an actor, writer, producer, director... you name it, she does it. This conversation was so much fun for me. We talk about Van Halen, understudying on Broadway, writing plays, developing projects for TV and film, and overcoming perfectionism. Amy's currently doing an experiment where she shares a piece of brand new writing every single day on social media. It was really cool talking about how this practice is affecting her as an artist. Be sure to hang with us until the end because Amy even busts out some artistic wisdom inspired by bird mating dances that blew my mind. Yup, you heard that right.

Today we have NY Times Bestselling Author Jodi Lipper on the show. Jodi is a Collaborative Writer, also known as a Ghostwriter. I've always been interested in how this process works but I thought it was super secretive and I didn't want to pry. Well Jodi let me pry for this podcast episode and I'm so happy she did. I'm amazed at how many skills it takes to be successful in this career. I already had a lot of respect for ghostwriters, but this conversation with Jodi has sent my admiration through the roof.