Variety: Inevitable Foundation and WME Announce Partnership to Expand Opportunities for Disabled Writers
Image Description: A blue box, framed with black, with bold black text that reads “Inevitable Foundation”
Inevitable Foundation, an organization that helps disabled screenwriters reach their full commercial and creative potential, has announced that they are joining forces with WME to expand opportunities for disabled writers.
WME, named one of Fast Company’s most innovative companies, is an entertainment organization that represents a variety of creatives across the industry. Teaming up with the Inevitable team, the two entities promise to blend their varying expertise, resources and relationships to continue to push the scope for disabled writers.
“We are thrilled to partner with WME to help disabled writers build creative power in the film and television industry,” said said Inevitable Foundation co-founders Richie Siegel and Marisa Torelli-Pedevska. “Disabled writers represent only 0.15% of first-look and overall deals, 3% of upper-level television writers, and less than 1% of the WGA. Having an industry power broker like WME put their strength behind radically reshaping how the entertainment community values disabled people will make a meaningful difference in this fight.”
With access to WME’s portfolio of TV and motion picture literacy agents, Inevitable is committed to providing more access to developmental and staffing positions for disabled writers. Inevitable’s Accelerate Fellows program will inherently benefit from the partnership, accumulating the amount of industry-leading mentorship opportunities from WME creatives.
“There is simply not enough access for writers from underrepresented groups, and that is even more apparent amongst the disabled population,” said Ari Greenburg, president of WME. “Richie [Siegel] and Marisa [Torelli-Pedevska] have put together a thoughtful plan to address this issue, and WME is proud to support them and the Inevitable Foundation in providing more opportunity for disabled writers to see their stories come to the screen.”
Since being founded in 2021, Inevitable has granted over a quarter million dollars directly to disable screenwriters through their Accelerate Fellowship, Elevate Collective and Elevate for Podcasters programs. The foundation is supported by Netflix, Disney, AMC Networks, Spotify, Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and Nielsen Foundation, among others.
