TV Writing Staffs Got More Diverse Even as Jobs Dwindled, WGA Study Finds

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As a passionate film enthusiast, I’ve noticed an encouraging trend in TV writing circles. Despite a seemingly shrinking pool of opportunities, as per a recent study by the Writers Guild of America, there’s been a significant increase in diversity among the staff writers.

As a passionate film enthusiast, I’m thrilled to share that a recent analysis has revealed an encouraging trend in TV writing diversity for the 2023-24 season. The report showed that a staggering 40.4% of TV writers during this period were Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), marking a significant increase from 32% three years prior. Simultaneously, the proportion of white staff members decreased from 54% to 45.4% within the same timeframe. This shift towards inclusivity is truly heartening!

The report emerges amidst a trend where significant film studios like Amazon, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Paramount are scaling back on their earlier pledges regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion. They’ve recently abandoned targets for hiring based on race and ethnicity. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has initiated probes into DEI policies at Disney and NBCUniversal.

In 2023-24, an uptick in diversity among TV staffing was observed, yet this period also saw a significant decrease in employment opportunities for writers of all racial backgrounds. The data from the guild revealed that only 673 BIPOC TV writers were employed, representing a 6.6% drop compared to 2020-21. Meanwhile, there was a more substantial decrease of 38% among white writers, with only 755 being employed during the same timeframe.

Previously, according to the Writers Guild of America, there was a significant decrease in job opportunities due to the strikes, along with a shrinkage of the entire industry. Additionally, they reported a substantial drop in overall wages.

In the world of film, the workforce continues to be less diverse than in television and is diversifying at a slower pace. Approximately two out of every three screenwriters are white (63.6%), while writers who identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC) make up 18.9%. The number of employed white screenwriters decreased by 14.5% from 2020 to 2024, going from 1,367 to 1,189. Conversely, the number of BIPOC screenwriters remained relatively stable, growing only slightly from 406 to 407 during this period.

In terms of the BIPOC demographic, the report highlighted that Latinos face the most substantial underrepresentation. The data revealed that only 4.5% of TV scriptwriters and 2.5% of film scriptwriters identify as Latino, while they constitute approximately 19.4% of the total U.S. population.

The study revealed that TV industry is more diverse than movies overall, but there’s a clear division of roles within writing teams. At entry-level positions, about 60.2% of staff members belong to ethnic minorities or people of color (BIPOC), while roughly 27.5% are white. However, when we look at executive producers and showrunners, the majority, around 56.9%, are white, with only about 25.2% being BIPOC members.

The TV industry has more diversity compared to films, but there’s a clear difference in representation between lower-level staff (where most are BIPOC or people of color) and higher-level positions like executive producers and showrunners (where most are white).

The research relies on information provided by members of both the WGA East and WGA West, with approximately 16% of writers choosing not to disclose their racial or ethnic background.

A previous study showed a significant shift since the year 2010, as 86.4% of television scriptwriters and 94.8% of movie scriptwriters identified as Caucasian back then.

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2025-05-22 04:00