News

TFT screenwriting alum turned “My Name Is Earl” writer-producer Danielle Sanchez-Witzel ’01 has, according to The Hollywood Reporter,

inked a second two-year overall deal with Universal Media Studios (UMS), becoming the first graduate of NBC’s diversity writing program to get a renewal at the company.

In her previous overall deal, the first to come out of the diversity writing program, Sanchez-Witzel worked as a co-executive producer on “Earl” at 20th TV and as co-exec producer on NBC/UMS’ upcoming multicamera comedy series “100 Questions.” She also penned two pilot scripts for NBC that didn’t go to pilot.

Getting another overall deal came as a surprise, Sanchez-Witzel said.

Once an aspiring sportscaster, Sanchez-Witzel switched career paths after taking a sitcom-writing class … at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. She spent a year writing comedy spec scripts and then, under NBC’s diversity initiative, landed a staff writer job on NBC’s short-lived comedy series “In-Laws” in 2002. That led to a story editor position on another new NBC comedy, “Happy Family,” the following year, then the writer-producer gig on “Earl.”

“Danielle is homegrown talent who has been at NBC since she was a staff writer,” NBC and UMS executive vp comedy programming Jeff Ingold said. “Now her sophisticated and funny voice is focused on creating the next generation of great NBC comedies.”