WeForShe
A women's advocacy group that finds practical ways to bring about a gender-balanced landscape in television.
Since the DirectHer Program was created in 2015, NINE out of the original ten participants have secured their first directing job in television. Most recently, Christine Lakin directed an episode of "The Goldbergs" on ABC - her first episodic television directing job. Annabelle Frost completed directing her first episode of television for Fox's "Gotham." And Mia Lidofsky had her series "Strangers" premiere on Facebook Watch. Lidofsky directed, created and co-wrote the series .
They join fellow WeForShe DirectHer Program participants Vanessa Parise, Rachel Goldberg, Maggie Kiley, Valerie Weiss, Anya Adams, and Marta Cunningham. These women have all secured and wrapped their first episodic television directing jobs on such shows as "Scandal", "Chicago Med", "Transparent", "Blackish", "Riverdale", "Scream", "American Horror Story", "Claws", "Pretty Little Liars" and have continued to book since then.
We are excited to introduce the latest group of participants in the DirectHer Program
and continue to work on their behalf to help create gender-balanced television.
WeForShe's DirectHer Program provides you with names of breakout emerging female directors who are partnered with veteran episodic directors set to guarantee their work. In the 2017-2018 television season, women comprised 25% of episodic directors for broadcast networks, cable (A&E, AMC, FX, History, TNY, USA, HBO, Showtime), and Netflix.* In speaking with showrunners, studio and network executives, agents and directors, we know the biggest hurdle to getting more women hired at the major episodic level comes down to the inability to risk an expensive episode on an unknown entity.
The DirectHer Program removes that risk.
The established episodic directors will guarantee the work of their teammate during key parts of pre-production and shooting. Our established directors are volunteering their time and the credit, fees, and work will truly be that of the new female episodic director.
We are thrilled to present more talented emerging directors with their guarantor supervising director below!
How does one become a part of the DirectHer Program?
Directors wishing to be one of the emerging directors must be nominated to the program. Nominators can be studio executives, directors, showrunners, or other industry professionals who know their work. Candidates must have directing experience, but have yet to direct in primetime (or a full-length digital episode) on an episode of television.
What are the eligibility requirements for the DirectHer Program?
In addition to an industry nomination, emerging director candidates must be female, should have a significant amount of industry experience (for example; 1st AD, editor, post production supervisor, network/studio diversity program participation, etc.) and have, at least, one episodic shadowing experience under their belt.
Is there a deadline for submissions?
The DirectHer Program is an ongoing initiative. While we most recently began major outreach on behalf of the first teams to emerge from our program, we will, on a continuing basis, be adding both emerging and established directors into our database and working to find the right pairings.
How does one volunteer to become a Supervising Director?
We are always looking for Supervising Directors (both male and female) willing to volunteer their time and expertise. We strongly encourage experienced television directors to reach out to WeForShe (writeherlist@gmail.com) directly, and we're happy to walk you through the program.