To help you get to know some of the amazing men and women who teach our workshops, we've included a little information about a few of them below. All of our instructors are professional screenwriters and WGA members.

TONI ANN JOHNSON

Toni Ann Johnson won the 1998 Humanitas Prize and the Christopher Award for her critically acclaimed teleplay, Ruby Bridges (ABC) about the young girl who integrated the New Orleans public school system. Many students are familiar with the film as it is regularly shown in elementary schools and used to expose children to the civil rights movement and racism. Ms. Johnson was honored with a second Humanitas Prize in 2004 for her Showtime teleplay, Crown Heights, which tells the story of a youth group formed in the wake of a riot between Hasidic Jews and African-Americans in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Ms. Johnson has also written a movie for Lifetime, starring Vanessa L. Williams called, The Courage To Love, a period piece set in mid 19th Century New Orleans. She was a contributing writer on the Paramount hit film Save The Last Dance, and she wrote the television pilot of the same name, produced in 2002 for Fox Television. She also wrote the 2008 summer release Step Up 2 The Streets. Ms. Johnson has been commission to write films for numerous studios and networks, including Warner Brothers, Touchstone Pictures, Caravan Pictures, Paramount, HBO NYC Productions, Lifetime, Showtime, Disney and Fox. Ms. Johnson is also a produced playwright. Her plays have been produced by the Negro Ensemble Company and The New York Stage and Film Company. In 1999 her play, Gramercy Park is Closed to the Public received a main-stage production at Vassar College. The play also won Ms. Johnson a fellowship to the Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab. She has been a member of the WGA since 1994.

MONIQUE N. MATTHEWS

Monique N. Matthews is a Los Angeles based writer/director. Prior to filmmaking, this Harlem, USA-native, was an entertainment journalist and managing editor of a national hip-hop magazine. Monique’s work has appeared in Vibe, The Source, Slam, TV Guide, and Rap Pages, among others. Monique transitioned into filmmaking after graduating from the UCLA School of Film and Television. She has written for several studios including MGM, Walt Disney Pictures and Paramount Pictures; worked with a variety of production companies including 3 Arts Entertainment, MTV Films, Simmons-Lathan, and with various producers including Stephanie Allain, former Columbia-Tristar Chairman Mark Canton, and Oscar-winner Wendy Finerman.

Monique has received several accolades including Daily Variety’s “10 Writers to Watch” and was selected to participate in both Film Independent’s (formerly ifp/west) prestigious Directors and Writers Labs. Recently, Monique wrote/directed “It Looks Just Like You,” an awareness commercial about breast cancer that ran nationally in 2006.

In her spare time, Monique -- an avid hip-hop aficionado -- enjoys running, hiking, reading, and working with the Writers Guild Foundation to facilitate screenwriting workshops for high students in the Los Angeles area.

KENDELL SHAFFER

Kendell Shaffer has had a multifaceted career in television, most recently joining the WGA in 2007 when she sold a TV pilot, Downtown to ABC Studios and a TV movie, Team Julia to Lifetime Television, both of which she wrote with her writing partner, Jefferson Eliot. Team Julia is slated as Lifetime’s 2009 annual breast cancer awareness film.

Shaffer has been Associate Producer on Sirens for Showtime; King of the World for ABC; Nash Bridges, Orleans, and Texarkana for CBS, She’s worked as Graphics Supervisor on CSI:NY, and Visual Effects Supervisor on VR.5, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Titanic, the CBS mini- series. She put in her time with Roger Corman in the art department of four Concorde-New Horizon movies, and was set decorator for various music videos and commercials. She is a voting member of the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Shaffer is a graduate of New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. She is a former dancer and grew up in Baltimore, the daughter of two ballet dancers.

 

FREDERICK RAPPAPORT

Frederick Rappaport has been writing for TV since the early 1980's. His most recent credits have been for the new Twilight Zone series (2002-2003) and for The 4400 (2004-2007). See his entire imdb bio here.

Visit the WGF Highschool Workshop Blog - to read about these instructors experiences teaching the workshops.

Because of the busy schedules of our instructors, we often look for qualified WGA members to become part of our team of instructors. We look for WGA members with current or recent credits, high school teaching experience, and ideally a California teaching certificate. If you meet these requirements and would like to interview to be a workshop instructor, please contact Adam Huss at 323-782-4679.

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