Disney Writing Program Unveils 2023 Participants (via Deadline)
Screenshot of Deadline’s Article reporting the Disney Writing Program 2023 Participants! Kirby is the fourth picture in!
I claimed 2022 as the year of the fellowships, and Y’ALL, I booked the HARDEST FREAKING one!! The Disney General Entertainment Writing Program is an ultra-competitive, highly selective, annual TV staffing program that’s entire goal is to staff emerging TV writers on DGE shows. And out of the thousands of people who applied, you know who got in? ME!
The same kid who cancelled plans with friends for a new episode of “Kim Possible,” the same one who got her first laptop and immediately wrote her own season of “Suite Life of Zack and Cody” and a version of “High School Musical 2” because I was convinced I knew how the sequel would go. (I was very wrong, but the tone is spot on!) It’s always been my dream to work for and write for Disney, and half of that just came true. The other half (the writing half) still TBD, but that’s what this year is for! Staffing in 2023 baby, let’s get it!
Thank you, thank you, thank you to the entire DGE CTDI Team. Thank you to my friends and family. Thanks for your enthusiasm, hope, and rocking with me on this journey. I can’t wait to see what happens now that I’ve got the Mouse on my side. ✨
Check out our 2023 DGE Class in Deadline, or read my bio below!
Kirby Marshall-Collins is a Black TV writer who amplifies the voices of Black and queer people through fun and fantastical coming-of-age stories. Originally from Chicago, Kirby spent her teen years pursuing theater in Pleasanton, California before focusing on film and TV. She is currently in the highly competitive Disney General Entertainment Writing Program for 2023! In 2022, Kirby excelled as Writers’ Assistant on NANCY DREW (CW). Her grounded yet fantastical soulmate pilot, THE UN-LOVEABLES, earned her space in two fellowships — the Disruptors Fellowship and Black Boy Writes & Black Girl Writes. She was an Outfest Screenwriting Lab Semi-Finalist. When she’s not writing, Kirby crafts curriculum for Made in Her Image, a non-profit that trains young women and non-binary youth to work in film and TV. Her greatest accomplishment is the fact that she helped her nephew make Christmas stockings last year.
