Shanice Williamson: A Writer's Story of Reinvention and Pursuing Dreams

Photo courtesy of Shanice Williamson

A true “cultural shapeshifter” from both Queens and Dallas, Shanice Williamson, a Writers’ Access Support Staff Training Program alum, followed a unique path to become a writer. Her unconventional journey took her through fifteen years as a paralegal, life as a single mom, and a stint as a manager for male strippers before she committed to pursuing a career in entertainment. Most recently, she worked as a script coordinator on an upcoming Bosch spin-off. Her path has not only shaped her as a writer, but also fueled her passion for crafting characters who, like herself, have learned to pursue their dreams. With a life story as diverse and compelling as the scripts she creates, Williamson is a testament to the power of reinvention and an unwavering dedication to chasing one's dreams. 

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and your journey as a writer?  

I’m originally from Queens, New York, but I was raised between Queens and Dallas, Texas. With each of my parents being single parents, I was raised between those two places. I like to consider myself a cultural shapeshifter because of that. You could drop me anywhere and I’ll be able to function.

Most of my years have been spent in Atlanta. I was a paralegal for more than fifteen years. I worked at law firms. I worked for the federal court system. I worked for state court systems. Mostly, I worked in clerk’s offices. I loved that and had plans to go to law school. While working for the law firm, though, I wrote and directed a short film and a comedy web series. I loved it. Then I was a background actor for Captain America: Civil War. While everyone else was trying to get on camera, I was following around the crew to try and figure out what everybody did. I completely fell in love with it. I went back home and started researching how I could transition into a film and television industry job. Atlanta offered a program called the Georgia Film Academy where I went to school at night after work to get a film production certificate. From there, I got an internship on a show and worked my up from there. I was an office PA, I worked in accounting, and then I landed in the art department. I mostly worked in props and set dec until I got into the Writers Guild Foundation’s Writers’ Access Support Staff Training Program.  

Can you tell me a bit about what you write?  

I write mostly about black women finding themselves and their places in the world. They’re always trying to make themselves better. I consider what I’m doing the second act of my life, having raised sons and been a paralegal before this. So my characters tend to come from a place of feeling stuck. They’re all trying to get themselves unstuck and figure out what they want to do, what their purpose is. I put them on a journey of not only going after a physical goal, but they’re also on a journey of internalizing permission. They all have to give themselves permission to be.  I took way too long to give myself permission to make a film and to pursue a dream that was different than what my parents told me to do. My characters carry that. They carry the weight of general expectations of where they should be while striving to find where they want to be.  

I mostly write comedies, but I will say one of my more celebrated scripts is a drama. I just recently coined the term—it’s all me, not even in the dictionary—that I’m a dual-genre writer. I do write both, but most of my samples are comedies. I think that’s good training because even in a drama room, I can bring some levity. I’m always going to try to make somebody laugh. I’m going to be the silliest person there. My humor is all very self-deprecating. You’re going to giggle even if you read a drama of mine. I can get dark. We’ve all got that trauma we can pull from, but the cure to trauma is laughter. 

Being a former paralegal, have you ever written a show that takes place in the world of the legal system? 

I finally did. I’d go into generals and they’d ask if I had a legal script. I’d be like, “Oh, oh no I don’t. I’ve got my strip club one. I’ve got this. I’ve got that. How about the one with the swingers?” While I was working as a paralegal and raising my kids, I took a bit of detour and managed male strippers. The script that has gotten me the most generals is a workplace comedy about two very different black women trying to run a male strip club in Atlanta. 

Anyhow, there were these lawyers I worked for in Georgia. I loved the guys, but they were all very cis-het, white, male, conservative Southern lawyers. With my cultural shapeshifting, you can throw me in there and I’ll get along, but you can also throw me in a strip club, and I’ll get along. While working for them though, I realized I was up against their mindset. Not the people, but the mindset. From that, I wrote a half-hour workplace comedy called Insubordinates about a paralegal working in a law firm who is trying to affect change from within. I’m working on a legal drama as well. It’s in the vein of Reasonable Doubt with the tiniest smidgen of Ally McBeal.  

You touched on this a bit with being a background actor in Civil War, but was there a TV show or movie that made you want to specifically be a writer? 

Oh, yes. The TV show that inspired me to start writing was the first iteration of Roseanne. In the last season, it was revealed that Roseanne had made up all of the show by going downstairs every night, after taking care of her kids and her family, and writing. She’d go down in the basement and write. In the last episode, it’s revealed that nothing had changed with her kids yelling and running around upstairs. The only difference though was she had finished her manuscript. When I saw that, I said to myself, “Shanice you have no excuse” because I have kids as well. So, I started writing. Roseanne is the show that inspired me to get up off my behind and do something instead of telling myself that I lost that time to go chase that dream.  

What show, past or present, do you wish you could’ve been in the room for?

The show that I wish I had created, if I had I to pick a favorite show of all time, it would be Six Feet Under. For a show that is currently going, I’d say Reasonable Doubt. I do also enjoy adult animation. I thoroughly enjoyed Praise Petey, and Harley Quinn is so good it's going to force me to write an animation pilot. Of course, Abbott Elementary is great. I do love writing workplace. How I Met Your Father... I would’ve loved to have been in the room for that.  

What was your most recent entertainment job?  

I was a script coordinator for an upcoming Bosch spinoff about J. Edgar. Fortunately for me, the showrunner, Larry Andries, is magnificent. He allowed me to be in the room from day one and allowed me to pitch. I was a script coordinator, but I also got to take on researching. I got to create a style guide, a bible almost, because we didn’t have one for Bosch. That was really fun.  

I’m also an assistant to a writer/producer in animation. Before that, I worked in the art department for The Morning Show. I was a director’s assistant on Candy, a Hulu limited series. I was the assistant to the producing director, Michael Uppendahl. I love him and that was, perhaps, my favorite job I’ve ever had. Then I was a producer’s assistant for Bullet Train. I was the art department coordinator for Grand Crew. I was the set coordinator for Roar. Before that I was in Atlanta and worked on a lot of BET shows like The Bobby Brown Story and American Soul.

How did the Writers Access Support Staff Training Program prepare you to be a script coordinator?  

Clay, Debbie and Kira are the most magnificent people that I’ve had the pleasure to meet in this industry. The program was fantastic. It was efficient. If you know Debbie those words are synonymous—Debbie and efficient. I was able to take that job as a script coordinator with no stress because I felt so thoroughly prepared. We went over Final Draft and Scenechronize. Our homework was great. We had to turn around a script multiple times. For writers’ assistant training we had to take notes over Zoom with everyone watching you. Clay and Debbie sprinkled in stories about their experiences. 

It’s hard to pick which was the most helpful. My first thought is always the training, but really the stories were the most helpful. They made me feel not alone—like whatever I was going to encounter in that room, I would be able to text Debbie, Clay, or our Slack about. I have emailed Debbie after 10 P.M. and she gets right back to you because [she] understands what it means to be a script coordinator, to be a writers’ assistant, to be support staff. We also have a network of all the other [program participants] that came before us. We can go in[to the Slack] and ask a question. The best benefit of the training is that you get out and don’t feel alone. It doesn’t feel like the end of training. It’s a community and you cannot survive in LA without community. You cannot survive these jobs without community. For [Debbie, Clay] and Kira to give so much of their time is invaluable.

This is a very competitive industry, and I’ve been lucky to have run across people who are so great. There’s absolutely no way I would have come into my script coordinator position as comfortable as I did without Clay, Debbie, Kira, and the WGF. I would not have been anywhere near ready had I not gotten into the Writers’ Access Support Staff Training Program. It was an honor to be selected, and that is something that I take very seriously. It’s something that I will continue to give back to as long as I can. It’s just that important. It has reshaped my entire view of being out here working.  

How does your view of your career look different before and after the program? 

Before the program, I did not think that I would ever get into a support staff position. My showrunner found me via the WGF website. There’s so many people that want these jobs. Even with my experience as an art department coordinator, I don’t think I would have gotten the job without the program. My outlook looks more positive now towards the path of being a writer than it would have if I didn’t get into the program.  

Last question: when working in entertainment there’s always talk of “getting your foot in the door” and breaking in. Do you think you’ve broken in yet? 

No, but I feel blessed. I feel lucky. I feel closer. Breaking in would be a showrunner giving me a script. This is my first script coordinator job, so I don’t even expect it, but I feel closer. I am lucky to be here. I know there is still work to be done, but right now I am absorbing, appreciating, and trying to prove myself as support staff.

This interview has been edited and condensed by Kera McKeon.