While Richie Siegel and Marisa Torelli-Pedevska are quarantined in New York in 2020, they come together over their shared vision of helping disabled creatives achieve financial and creative freedom and destigmatizing disability and mental health via film and television.

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How Inevitable Foundation built a nonprofit to serve Hollywood's biggest underserved creative community

Around this time, the foundation begins building relationships with core individuals and institutions at the intersection of entertainment and disability. Virtual panels and podcasts begin with allies and collaborators like the Writers Guild of America West’s Disabled Writers Committee, The Black List, Easterseals Disability Film Challenge, Disability Philanthropy Forum, and disability leaders, like Judy Heumann and her Heumann Perspective Podcast, alongside a growing list of showrunners and executive producers.

With the establishment of its flagship program, the Accelerate Fellowship (formerly known as the Screenwriting Fellowship), Inevitable delivers its first major artistic and financial investment in disabled writers. The fellowship includes an unrestricted grant, bespoke mentorship, and access to high-touch workshops with industry leaders. With the early financial support of industry entities like Amazon, Netflix and Warner Bros., as well as a later major investment by Netflix that dramatically expanded the program beginning in November 2022, the Accelerate Fellowship — also home to Inevitable’s discussion series, Writers Therapy — quickly grew to a $40,000 grant per fellow.

The dynamic way Inevitable Foundation serves Hollywood’s disabled creative community earns the nonprofit its first major grant to support disabled writers and their stories, a sizable and ongoing investment from the Ford Foundation. That is followed by a similarly considerable multi-year grant from the MacArthur Foundation, with other major funders from within the nonprofit disability and industry entertainment spaces following suit in support of our general operations, programs, funds, and more, such as Disability Inclusion Fund, Nielsen Foundation’s Data for Good Grant, and a number of major, influential individual donors within the spheres of entertainment, disability and philanthropy.

As a burgeoning industry leader in disability, Inevitable begins developing new relationships and directly engaging studios and networks through virtual panels, such as the Closing the Disability Representation Gap in Kids’ & Family Television panel with Nickelodeon, service days at Paramount and Searchlight Pictures, and company briefings at Participant Media, Rideback, and Disney.

Led by Inevitable’s own Creative Executive and funded by industry institutions including Disney, Starz and Lionsgate, Inevitable’s curated service features a roster of professional disabled writers, their writing samples, and experience – all made directly available to other creative executives, showrunners, and producers via a personalized, high-touch selection process. Since launching, the Concierge has facilitated more than 700 submissions and 150 networking introductions for disabled creatives on projects with leading studios and streamers.

This first of its kind research into the actual finances of creating accessible sets and writers rooms on TV and film productions, the Cost of Accommodations Report was launched alongside a groundbreaking suite of tools and resources that make navigating the process of budgeting accommodations on TV and film projects quicker and easier for producers, executives, and showrunners.

President Richie Seigel took the stage at The Hollywood Reporter's inaugural luncheon alongside fellow industry members Troy Kotsur, Geena Davis, and Wilmer Valderrama, in a speech that emphasized the need for Hollywood to finally invest in disability representation as part of its push for authentic and diverse storytelling and hiring. Designed to bring together those dedicated to celebrating diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, the event helped situate Inevitable Foundation as an important leader in Hollywood’s inclusion efforts and marked the first of the nonprofit’s major industry appearances, including Starz’s #TaketheLead Summit in May 2022.

Inevitable creates the first known billboard campaign to be produced by an all-disabled team, who came together from five different countries. Appearing across print, digital, audio and billboard placements in 16 cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Atlanta, the Disability is Diversity campaign secured upwards of $4 million in pro bono ad space in its first 18 months from companies like JCDecaux, Lamar, Clear Channel, Tiffany & Co., Caruso, Simon Property Group, Becker Boards, Capitol Outdoor, Intersection, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and Kevani. It has since earned the praise of industry leaders, including Geena Davis Institute and Titling the Lens.

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An all-disabled team quietly built one of Hollywood’s loudest calls for inclusion

Inevitable Foundation brings the discussion around the state of disability representation on- and off screen to the most influential entertainment convention in the U.S., the International Comic Con in San Diego. Featuring Jillian Mercado, Josh Feldman, and Lauren Ridloff, along with Inevitable Foundation Accelerate Fellows Greg Machlin and Aoife Baker, the panel marks the first time the organization — focused predominantly on supporting disabled writers — engages with the general public and wider disability community on a major live platform.

Andraéa LaVant, Brandon Sonnier, and Sinéad Burke join existing board members Richie Siegel, Marisa Torelli-Pedevska, and Rebekah Kondrat, as well as future board member Lauren Ridloff, in extending Inevitable’s mission of being a majority disabled organization to include the board of directors. All working professionals, the group offers a new approach to nonprofit board management, leaning on their strategic and lived experience over traditional governance and fundraising support — a shift that alleviates what can often be a hurdle to achieving a more inclusive board composition.

Through its $5,000+ professional development grants, Elevate Collective focuses on boosting the creative careers of disabled writers by alleviating financial challenges, generating mentoring opportunities, and providing coaching. The offerings, supported during various granting rounds by organizations including The Loreen Arbus Foundation, Starz #TaketheLead, and Caring Across Generations can go towards career coaching, script analysis, optioning IP, networking, and work-from-home setups.

Inevitable Foundation institutes its Healthcare Program, to serve as a bridge to Writers Guild of America healthcare for Accelerate Fellows who are not yet on WGA plans or have fallen off of them. This marks a major milestone for Inevitable’s programs and the beginning of a larger integration of healthcare support into its fellowship opportunities, with 80% of participants satisfied with the health insurance provided and 100% saying they'd recommend the insurance program to other Accelerate Fellows.

To affirm its commitment to the fair and equitable compensation of disabled people and continue ensuring Inevitable Foundation’s team can manage cost of living increases, the nonprofit introduced a quarterly inflation reimbursement policy. Combined, full-time employees have received upwards of $15,000 since the policy was enacted, alongside other policies like quarterly office closures and unlimited PTO — reinforcing that the value of employees’ labor doesn’t artificially decrease over time due to inflation within the larger economy.

Precluded by a industry-shifting call to move away from the “consultant trap” in a Hollywood Reporter guest column, Inevitable Foundation initiated this multi-pronged advocacy initiative, which included the "Hire Disabled Writers, Not Just A Disability Consultant" billboard campaign across digital and print media in industry centers like Los Angeles and New York, and an open letter signed by nearly 40 entertainment industry leaders such as Marlee Matlin, Ramy Youssef, Lauren Ridloff, Paul Feig, Ryan O’Connell, and Ali Stroker.

Launched as part of Inevitable’s Hire Disabled Writers Campaign, the Disabled Consultants Futures Fund directly addresses Hollywood’s consultancy trap by giving creatives the tools, information and support to leverage an underpaid consultancy gig into their desired roles, with the help of a series of contract, negotiation and workers rights tools and resources.

Created following Inevitable Foundation’s report analyzing the potential impact of a WGA strike on disabled writers, and launched days after the union’s first work stoppage in 15 years, the Emergency Relief Fund assisted disabled union and non-union writers alike through $500 unrestricted, responsive cash grants, financially supported in part by industry members like Damon Lindelof, Julie Plec, Hart Hanson, Rachel Bloom, Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. The outcomes of this support were measured in Inevitable’s 2023 Emergency Relief Fund Impact Report, which revealed that the assistance helped the overall financial security of 95% of grantees, with 96% stating the fund alleviated their strike stress.

On May 8 in Culver City, Inevitable supports an intentionally accessible picket line for WGA and pre-WGA writers to promote more inclusive strike policies and provide snacks, shaded seating, and accessible bathrooms to those striking. Throughout the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, Inevitable returned to the picket lines multiple times with cooling stations featuring mist fans and free cooling towels, sporting the slogan "The Future of Disabled Creatives is Non-Negotiable," and offered to picketers in the California heat.

As part of Inevitable’s commitment to supporting the equitable treatment and career growth of the disabled workforce, the company introduced annual coaching stipends worth between $1,500 and $5,000 per person, allowing employees to expand their professional skills in relevant areas. Alongside the stipend, a new sabbatical program was introduced, granting employees with five vested years in the organization the chance to take a four month leave to facilitate professional development and prevent burnout.

Created with support from collaborator LaVant Consulting, the social media campaign used memes and graphics to publicly highlight the necessity for alternatives to ableist language within media and reporting about disability. The ableist language campaign was also used to brief leaders at agencies, studios, and other entertainment workplaces, where the campaign earned praise from the industry’s DEAI leaders.