Paramount Global Announces Participants for 2025 Writers Mentoring Program (EXCLUSIVE)

Paramount Global has chosen the five writers that have been tapped for the Paramount Writers Mentoring program for 2025. Participants for the 21st year of the program are Patty Chavez, Rebekah Mueller, Lauren Muñoz Robinson, Luísa Parnes and Carla Olivia Torres.

The Paramount Office of Global Inclusion oversees the program, offering emerging television writers mentorship, career development opportunities and access to industry leaders. Each writer gets paired with two executives from CBS network and CBS Studios for regular meetings and creative feedback on their work. Workshop-style meetings with showrunners, executive producers, agents and managers will allow participants to make critical professional connections in their career.

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This year’s group of mentors include:

• Julia Behr, VP of current programming at CBS

• Victoria Vargas, director of current programming at CBS

• Marci Cooperstein, SVP of current programming at CBS

• Sam Campos, VP of drama development at CBS Studios

• Amanda Palley, SVP of current programming at CBS

• Rob Luchow, SVP of drama development at CBS Studios

• Carly Berg, director of comedy development at CBS

• Sean Kotzin, VP of comedy and animation development at CBS Studios

• Ariel Joseph, VP of current programming at CBS

• Michael Kaplan, VP of comedy development at CBS

This year’s participants were selected from more than 2,000 applicants. Out of the five chosen writers, previous credits include “The Penguin,” “The Terminal List,” “NCIS: Origins,” “What Drives Us,” “Grand Crew,” “Acapulco,” “Dexter: Original Sin” and the GLAAD-nominated series “September Mornings.”

“The Paramount Writers Mentoring Program is a best-in-class program that is revered within our organization and throughout the entire industry,” executive vice president and acting head of global inclusion at Paramount Tiffany Smith-Anoa’i said. “Our dedicated alumni network and passionate Paramount leaders are closely aligned as we prioritize our ongoing commitment to support writing talent.”

Past participants in the program that have gone on to successful careers include Angela Kang (“The Walking Dead”), Aaron Rahsaan Thomas (“S.W.A.T.”), Miranda Kwok (“The Cleaning Lady”), Lauren LeFranc (“The Penguin”), Gina Lucita Monreal (“NCIS: Origins”), Leonard Chang (“Snowfall”) and Zahir McGhee (“Queens”).

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