July 14, 2012 – Writing for TV

Three top television writers will give their insights into what it takes to make it as a writer on a television show.

All three writers will talk about their diverse backgrounds, how each of them broke into the television business, writing for commercial versus pay programs, writing adapted series, pilots, maintaing continuous story lines, and several other topics.

It will be a great day of invaluable information to push your TV scripts to the next level.

Kam Miller is a TV writer who has created pilots for FOX, CBS, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Television, and Universal Cable Productions. She wrote for the long-running show “Law & Order: SVU” as well as the shortlived show “Killer Instinct.”

Her first feature, “The Iris Effect,” was produced while she was at USC film school. She wrote and directed “Descendents of Eden,” a sci-fi short film that premiered at the San Diego Comic-Con Film Festival.

Currently, Kam is writing a pilot for the Syfy network called “Grave Sight.” It’s based on “True Blood” author Charlaine Harris’ Harper Connelly book series.

Kam is attached to another pilot with the producers of “Saving Grace” and “The Glades.” She is also finishing her first novel, “Myth of Crime,” which will be out this fall.

On her blog, “Glass half-full in Hollywood,” Kam talks with film and TV industry professionals about how they keep their glasses half-full in a town that can be draining. You can find it at kammiller.com.

A native of South Central, Los Angeles, LaToya Morgan received an undergraduate degree in Political Science from UC Irvine and post-graduation worked for non-profits to improve her community through the renowned AmeriCorps National Service Fellowship.

LaToya is a graduate of the American Film Institute Conservatory where she received a MFA in Screenwriting.

In 2011 she became an alumna of the prestigious Warner Bros. Writers’ Workshop.

LaToya got her first staff writing job on the Showtime series SHAMELESS and is currently writing for NBC’s PARENTHOOD.

William Rabkin has written and/or produced hundreds of hours of dramatic television.

He served as showrunner on the long-running Dick Van Dyke mystery series “Diagnosis Murder” and on the action-adventure spectacle “Martial Law.”

His many writing and producing credits include “The Glades,” “Monk,” “Psych, “Nero Wolfe,” “Missing,” “Spenser: For Hire,” “seaQuest 2032,” “Hunter” and “The Cosby Mysteries”. He has also written a dozen network TV pilots.  His work has been nominated twice for the Edgar Award for best television episode by the Mystery Writers of America.

He has written two books on writing for television, Successful Television Writing (2003), with Lee Goldberg and Writing The Pilot (2011). Bill is also the author of the novels “A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Read,” “Mind Over Magic,” “The Call of the Mild,”  “A Fatal Frame of Mind” and “Mind-Altering Murder.” He is the co-creator and co-editor of “The Dead Man,” a monthly series of supernatural action thrillers published by Amazon’s 47North imprint, and has written three installments.

He is part of the core faculty of the University of California, Riverside-Palm Desert’s M.F.A. in Creative Writing & Writing for the Performing Arts, and has lectured on television writing and production in Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands.