Disney Entertainment Television (DET) Writing Program
The Disney Entertainment Television (DET) Writing Program is a highly selective, annual TV staffing program. The goal is to staff emerging and diverse television writers on DET scripted series. Program Writers are contract employees of Disney for one year (or until they staff on a show), and receive mentorship, professional development, and unprecedented access to the company and its creative executives, producers, showrunners, and program alumni. In 2020, the Eunetta T. Boone Comedy Writers Scholarship was created to provide a dedicated writer within the program with special staffing consideration on a Disney Branded Television series. In 2024, the FX John Singleton Scholarship was created, providing one writer special staffing consideration on an FX Networks series.
Established in 1990, the one-year writing program is widely recognized as one of the entertainment industry’s most successful of its type. It has kickstarted the careers of many established and award-winning writers, producers and showrunners, including Saladin Patterson, Raamla Mohammed, Peter Saji, Zahir McGhee, Dailyn Rodriguez, Luvh Rakhe, Sierra Ornelas, and Claudia Forestieri, among many others.
The Program has had a nearly 100% staffing rate each year. It also has a long history of being the only staffing/writing initiative in the entertainment industry to employ its writers contractually as full-time employees prior to staffing.
2025 Disney Entertainment Writing Program
2025 DET Writing Program
For more than 35 years, the DET Writing Program has helped to launch aspiring television writers into successful careers through staff writing opportunities on Disney scripted series.
Throughout the program, writers participate in advanced creative workshops, refine their portfolios, and meet and learn from DET creative executives, producers, showrunners and program alumni. Each participant is a contract employee of Disney for one year, with weekly salary and benefits, or until they staff on a show and are compensated at WGA scale. The program has maintained a nearly 100% annual staffing rate for more than a decade.
The 2025 cohort includes Monib Abhat, Mike Carreon, Jason Cho, Neda Davarpanah, Fatima Eldigair, Ananya Hegde, Andrina Smith and Alie Turfe. Eldigair has also been selected as the second annual FX Singleton Scholar. The scholarship honors the life and legacy of legendary director, producer and mentor John Singleton by offering mentorship from FX and special staffing consideration on a FX series.
Notable program alumni include Raamla Mohamed (“Reasonable Doubt”), Ayanna Floyd Davis (“The Chi”), Anthony Sparks (“Mike,” “Bel-Air”), Sabir Pirzada (“Ms. Marvel”), Janine Salinas (“Snowfall”), Tash Gray (“Reasonable Doubt”) and Luvh Rakhe (“Dave”).
Mike Carreon is a Tejano comedy writer, director, and performer. He grew up on his great-grandparents’ South Texas goat ranch, and now lives in Los Angeles with his wife and freeloading pets. Mike is currently the Writers' Assistant for NBCUniversal’s LOPEZ VS. LOPEZ, where he wrote a top-rated episode and has been cast as a co-star multiple times. Mike also appeared on Apple TV's PUPPY PLACE and served as a Director’s Assistant on THE WITCHER and SHADOW AND BONE for Netflix as well as THE BOYS for Amazon Prime. He created the acclaimed live-show-turned-short-film HARD-ISH BODIES, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, produced HBO's bilingual comedy PEPITO, and delivered an award-winning performance in GUTS, a Fangoria Chainsaw Award-nominated short film. His queer crime comedy pilot, WELCOME TO THYSTLE, has earned multiple awards including a Top 1% spot on Coverfly’s Red List. Mike is a member of the WGA, SAG-AFTRA, IATSE, and adult ADHD. He’s Meisner-trained and studied comedy at Upright Citizens Brigade, The Second City, The Groundlings, and every improv theater Austin had to offer.
Neda Davarpanah is a first-generation Iranian-American drama writer, raised by a single mother who came of age in Revolutionary Iran. With her love of storytelling ignited by Persian epic poems and American cinema, Neda earned a BFA in Writing for Screen & Television from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. Since then, Neda has worked as the Writers' Assistant on ABC's THE ROOKIE and Netflix's THE RECRUIT. She joined the WGA after writing her first episode of television for THE RECRUIT's upcoming second season (Episode 205, “W.S.T.W.T.P.,” co-written with Maya Goldsmith and directed by Julian Holmes). Neda is an alumna of the Mentorship Matters BIPOC Writers Initiative and was recently selected for Women in Film’s WIF Writer Fellowship. In addition, she serves as the Director of Publicity + Partnership for the USC Women of Cinematic Arts alumnae organization. Inspired by the woman who raised her, she writes about rebellious women who fight the systems that silence them.
Alie Turfe is a Lebanese-American writer from Detroit, Michigan. He moved with his family to Houston, TX at the age of 8, and graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor's Degree in Finance. Alie was recently the Writers’ Assistant on Amazon’s currently-untitled Octavia Spencer and Hannah Waddingham action series. Prior to this, he was an assistant at ICM Partners and worked in Skydance’s TV Creative department. He has placed in several screenwriting competitions, including Austin Film Festival, BlueCat, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards, Emerging Screenwriters, and more. Alie loves to tell high-concept, character-driven stories about identity, family, and found-family, while also finding opportunities for funny dialogue. When Alie’s not writing, he’s traveling the country attending WrestleMania, or waving a Terrible Towel at a Pittsburgh Steelers game.
Monib ("Mo") Abhat is a first-generation Afghan-American writer. After graduating from the Stella Adler Academy of Acting & Theatre Conservatory in 2016, he began his career as an actor, appearing in numerous television projects, including roles in the NCIS franchise, SEAL TEAM, CRIMINAL MINDS, SWAT, FBI, and others. In 2017, Mo shifted his focus to creative writing and was accepted into UCLA’s prestigious Professional Program in Screenwriting at the School of Theater, Film & Television. Mo wrote and starred in the short film AMERICAN TYPECAST, which garnered several grand jury prizes and qualified for an Academy Award in the live-action short film category. He recently co-produced MÚSICA for Amazon Studios, a film that earned the esteemed Imagen Award for Best TV Movie. Unafraid to tell bold stories, Monib explores universal themes in his work, while championing a more authentic and nuanced representation of Middle-Eastern voices in film and television.
Jason Cho is a first-generation Korean-American drama writer who has lived in more places than he can remember. He was born in the South, raised in the Midwest, and has lived in Los Angeles for over a decade, with the exception of a year spent in South Africa. Jason was recently Script Coordinator for Season 2 of Netflix’s ONE PIECE, and was the Showrunner’s Assistant on Season 1. Jason cut his teeth in broadcast television, working for NBC and Dick Wolf’s CHICAGO MED, where he received multiple freelance writing credits. He lives an adventurous, action-centric life that reflects the type of stories he wants to tell, with a focus on Asian faces in new and exciting worlds and roles—without the burden of tokenism. When he’s not working in the city, you probably can’t find him, because he’s either solo backpacking in the backcountry or spearfishing somewhere in the ocean.
Ananya Hegde is a first-generation Indian-American dramedy writer and standup comedian based in Los Angeles. She enjoys writing about the love stories we often overlook: siblings, friends, and parental relationships. Raised in San Diego and Northern Virginia, Ananya is a graduate of the University of Southern California. While at USC, she interned in the Original Programming Department at Starz and the Motion Picture Talent department at CAA. She's since worked at Redefine Entertainment and Hisako Productions, and recently was the Writers’ Assistant on Netflix’s GINNY AND GEORGIA. She is currently the Writers’ Assistant on GREY'S ANATOMY, and is a 2024 CAPE New Writers Fellow.
Fatima Eldigair is a Sudanese-American “traumedy” writer based in Los Angeles. An alum of the Walt Disney Television Apprenticeship Program, Fatima has since worked as Assistant to Stefani Robinson on projects such as CHEVALIER, WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, and PEEP SHOW (pilot at FX.) She is currently the Writers' Assistant on Season 1 of FX's SNOWFLAKES. Fatima holds a B.A in Creative Writing from the University of Chicago. Her academic background in poetry shapes her dreamy and provocative voice.
Andrina Wekontash Smith is a Shinnecock storyteller, who grew up on a reservation in the Hamptons. A graduate of Emerson College, where she majored in Theatre Studies with an emphasis in SocialChange, her work focuses on the complexity of racial identity. Adrina was a New York Foundation of the Arts Grant Recipient for Screenwriting (2022), a Guild Hall Academy of the Arts Inductee (2022), and a Native American Media Alliance Fellow (2021). She was the sole writer on TIME Studios' Emmy-nominated immersive VR experience, MLK: TIME IS NOW. Andrina recently sold a show to ABC Network (via ABC Signature) under Kerry Washington's Simpson Street Banner. Currently, she lives in Brooklyn, NY, on the unceded territory of the Rockaway and Canarsie people.