The Writers Guild Foundation, in partnership with Storyline Partners, hosts this conversation on contextualizing pregnancy and abortion storylines in the current political and social climate. The panel will explore how writers approach these storylines holistically by addressing how public policies—or lack thereof—can create disparities in access to healthcare, childcare, and workplace flexibility.
Panelists include:
Elena Crevello - American Auto
Steph Herold - Researcher, Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH)
Charlotte Stoudt - The Morning Show
Moderated by Vicki Shabo, Better Life Lab at New America
Panel starts at 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time.
RSVP for free or with a suggested donation of $10. All donations go towards producing future panels and events. After signing up, you’ll receive information on how to access the Zoom panel.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us at events@wgfoundation.org.
Our Event Partner
About the Panelists
Elena Crevello is a TV writer, actor, director and producer whose most recent credits include writing/producing for Peacocks' Ted S2, NBC’s American Auto, Netflix’s Grace & Frankie, and for Vida on Starz. Elena has a pilot currently in development at Amazon and has developed pilots for NBC, ABC, MGM & more. Elena recently made her directorial debut with her short film Blessed, which was inspired by her first year of motherhood. She was a part of the Sundance episodic lab with her pilot Faux-Ever and is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a B.F.A in Drama and a B.A. in English Lit. Elena is also a graduate of The Groundlings and UCB where she honed her improv and sketch writing skills over the years and is currently on a Harold team at WGIS (World's Greatest Improv School). In 2012 she made a video called, “Shit People Say in LA” which garnered a million views in three days and launched her career as a TV writer leading to a sale of her first pilot to NBC in 2013.
Steph Herold, MPH is a researcher with Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), where she studies the portrayal of abortion on television and in film in the Abortion Onscreen program. She has co-authored a dozen peer-reviewed papers on abortion stigma, abortion storytelling, and abortion in popular culture. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, The American Prospect, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and many other outlets. She serves on the Board of Directors of All-Options, an organization that uses direct service and social change strategies to promote unconditional, judgment-free support for people in all of their experiences with pregnancy, parenting, abortion, and adoption.
Charlotte Stoudt is currently running THE MORNING SHOW at Apple TV+ and recently received Variety’s Showrunner Award at SCADTVFest. She has built a career in premium drama, from HOMELAND to HOUSE OF CARDS to FOSSE/VERDON, which won a WGA Award for Best Adapted Long Form. Other tv credits include the Netflix limited series PIECES OF HER, produced by Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories and developed with Amazon. Upcoming development for Apple includes MURDER ROOM, based on an extraordinary real-life criminal psychologist. Her VR film, DINNER PARTY, was developed at the Sundance Institute and premiered at Sundance, SXSW, and Tribeca in 2018 and continues to play at venues worldwide. She has written on the arts for the LA Times, the Village Voice, and Variety, as well as helped to develop new theater works that have appeared on Broadway, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Kennedy Center. Charlotte holds a doctorate in English and Modern Languages from Oxford University.
About the Moderator
Vicki Shabo is a gender equity expert, policy strategist, and coalition builder, who has helped to win paid leave, paid sick time, equal pay, and pregnancy fairness policies affecting tens of millions of people. Shabo also recently founded an initiative called Re-Scripting Gender, Work, Family, and Care, which marries policy, research, and narrative expertise to resource TV, film, and pop culture creators with the information they need to tell more authentic and aspirational stories about work-family justice, gender equity, caregiving, and an inclusive economy.
Shabo has testified in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, state legislatures, and before the Democratic Party’s platform committee. Her opinion pieces have been published in outlets including The Boston Globe, CNN.com, The Hill, New York Daily News, New York Times, Romper, Roll Call, and USA Today and her observations have been featured widely in national, regional and state news stories. She holds degrees from Pomona College (B.A., summa cum laude), the University of Michigan (M.A. in political science) and the University of North Carolina School of Law (J.D., high honors), where she served as editor-in-chief of the North Carolina Law Review. She lives in Washington D.C. with her husband, teenager, and two cats.