Join writers Liz Meriwether ('Dying for Sex'), Mfoniso Udofia ('Lessons in Chemisty',), expert Vicki Shabo ('New America') actor/comedian Steve Way ('Ramy') and expert Lydia Storie (Caring Across Generations) for a lively conversation moderated by WGAE Women's Salon Co-Chair Sasha Stewart ('Dying for Sex') on writing and performing holistic, authentic stories and characters that complicate traditional gender roles and capture people’s real lived experiences managing work, family, and care.

The discussion will examine how stories grounded in shared values and relatable experiences around family, love, care, and support can actually help unite us. Exploring these themes authentically across all genres can ignite drama, spark laughter, curiosity, and compassion, and catalyze engagement and excitement across a diverse range of audiences. Caring Across Generations and New America will share insights from their respective research to help frame the conversation, while WGA East and SAG-AFTRA members will share how these themes are woven into their most recent work.

This topic is critical to storytellers at a time when dominant political narratives about “family values” and a cultural fascination with “trad wives” conflict with the vast majority of people’s lived experiences managing work, family, and care. This event features panelists whose work illustrates the way that storytelling rooted in care can bring people together and move our culture towards greater understanding and empathy amid a time of great divisiveness and disruption.

Liz Meriwether is an Emmy® Award-nominated and Critics Choice Award-winning writer and producer, best known for her work as the creator and showrunner of FOX’s comedic juggernaut, NEW GIRL. Her credits include the Hulu docudrama THE DROPOUT, which won Amanda Seyfried the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series, and the Natalie Portman comedy NO STRINGS ATTACHED, which originally made The Black List in 2008. Meriwether continues to make 20th Television her home, where she has been for the last decade. (Photo credit: Emma Trim)  

Mfoniso Udofia, a first-generation Nigerian-American storyteller and educator, is the recipient of the 2024 Steinberg Playwright Award, the 2021 Horton Foote Award, the 2017 Helen Merrill Playwright Award, the 2017-18 McKnight National Residency and Commission and is a member of New Dramatists.

Since 2018 Mfoniso has been working extensively in television. She is currently co-writing YOU MADE A FOOL OF DEATH WITH YOUR BEAUTY with Oscar winner Tarell Alvin McCraney as a feature for Outlier Society and Amazon. She previously developed features at HBO and Legendary. In TV, Mfoniso was most recently a Co-EP for the Emmy Award-nominated and WGA Award-nominated LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY (Apple). Previously, she wrote on LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (Showtime), A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN (Amazon), both seasons of LITTLE AMERICA (Apple), AWAY (Netflix), PACHINKO (Apple) and 13 REASONS WHY (Netflix). She has developed TV projects with Apple, UCP, and HBO among others. (Photo credit: Billie Weiss)

Vicki Shabo is a gender equity expert, policy strategist, and coalition builder, who has helped to win paid leave, paid sick time, equal pay, and pregnancy fairness policies at the federal, state, and local levels affecting tens of millions of people. She works closely with policymakers, advocates, researchers, and the private sector, and is a trusted issue expert resource for journalists. Shabo founded and directs an initiative called Re-Scripting Gender, Work, Family, and Care, which advises entertainment-industry creatives and executives on telling stories that provide visibility to people’s experiences with and aspirations for better work-family supports and gender equity—and partners with storytellers on amplifying strong stories.

Steve Way is a 34 year old actor, comedian, speaker, and producer with Muscular Dystrophy. He can be seen in the Hulu show RAMY and has recently produced the movies GOOD BAD THINGS and DISPOSABLE HUMANITY.

Lydia Storie is the Director of Culture Change for Caring Across Generations, overseeing the organization’s work across a variety of pop culture sectors.  As the Hollywood lead, Lydia consults on film & TV storylines and oversees social impact campaigns that amplify visibility for aging, disability and child care.  She brings people with diverse care experiences together with screenwriters and other creatives through briefings and other industry-facing events. She is the co-author of “Make Care Pop,” the first comprehensive study of long-term care representation on TV by Caring Across Generations and the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, and the creator of the Care Inclusion Playbook.  Prior to joining Caring Across, Lydia spent over a decade as a development executive in film and TV, ushering dozens of projects through the creative process. 

Sasha Stewart is a Writers Guild Award nominated TV writer, producer, and creator who creates work that elicits joy, has a positive impact, and gives her an excuse to eat craft services. She most recently staffed on the critically-acclaimed limited-series dramedy DYING FOR SEX (FX). Available to watch now on Hulu (U.S.) and Disney+ (Worldwide). TV credits include: AMEND: THE FIGHT FOR AMERICA (Netflix), THE FIX WITH JIMMY CARR (Netflix), and THE NIGHTLY SHOW WITH LARRY WILMORE (Comedy Central).