To Diversify TV Staffs, Database of Minority Writers Is Unveiled

An online database of more than 800 television writers of color was unveiled by the Creative Artists Agency on Thursday, intended to serve not just as a resource but also as a rejoinder to the common Hollywood refrain that qualified diverse writers are hard to find.

The list, called the Amplify Database, is made up of 815 writers and is searchable by gender, genre specialty, ethnicity and experience, and, according to its creators, will be available free to studios, showrunners and networks. The list includes name writers (like Mindy Kaling and Al Madrigal) and those little known outside the business (like Shernold Edwards of “Killjoys” and Bentley Kyle Evans of “Family Time”). While the database is expected to grow, membership currently stands at 46 percent black, 28 percent Asian, 23 percent Latino and 3 percent Native American.

To qualify, writers had to have at least one television credit on a broadcast, cable or streaming service show in the last five years. Writers represented by agencies other than CAA are also included.

The site was unveiled at the second annual CAA Amplify conference in Ojai, California, an invitation-only gathering focusing on diversity in the entertainment, media and technology industries. Attendees this year include Valerie Jarrett, the activist DeRay Mckesson, and the lawyers Nina Shaw and Tina Tchen, who are both involved in the Time’s Up initiative to combat sexual harassment.

Despite increased pressure on Hollywood to put more minorities on-screen and behind the camera, and the success of shows like “Atlanta,” “Insecure” and “black-ish,” television writing rooms remain overwhelmingly white. According to a report released last fall by Color of Change, a civil-rights advocacy group, more than 90 percent of showrunners are white, and two-thirds of shows had no black writers at all.