Mike Gauyo, writer and founder of Black Boy Writes Media, joins Cheddar News to talk about the new class of mentees for his Black Boy Writes/Black Girl Writes Mentorship Initiative. 

Between Bells

Black Boy Writes/Black Girl Writes Mentorship Initiative Announces Second Round of Writers

Welcome back to Between Bells everyone. One of Hollywood's emerging creative minds known for his writing roles on HBO's insecure and Netflix's ginny and Georgia is working to give creatives of color a shot in the writer's room. Mike Goyo created the Black Boy writes Black Girl writes mentorship initiative in order to help black writers build a path in Hollywood. And joining us now to talk more about this is Mike Goya himself, writer, actor and founder of The Black Boy Writes Black Girl writes mentorship initiative, Thank you so much for joining us. You just announced the second round of your mentorship program, Congratulations on this kind of walk us through what you were seeing as a writer and creative in this industry that motivated you to kind of reach back and create this opportunity for other aspiring writers. Absolutely. And asian first, thank you so much for having me on your platform. Um yeah, I mean I always felt as though there were people that helped me along the way get to where I'm at and it's only right for me to be able to look back and help others as well, you know, especially as I'm climbing, I think a lot of the times it feels as though people are, I have to wait to be at a certain level before they can reach back and help, but I don't think that's the case as long as you have the access and the and the platform or the capability to help. Um I don't see why not do that. So that's what I took it upon myself to do with the blackboard rights and black or rights mentorship initiative, which is now, as you said, it's in the second year. I love that sentiment just overall and there is incredible demand out there for this mentorship initiative. You had 829 applications from 21 different countries. You have to narrow that down. I believe the number is 14 writers. So can you talk a little bit about that process in selecting who makes it into this initiative? Yeah, we had 129 applicants, 129 scripts and bios and essays. Um, well our first Year men teeth, the men teeth from the 2021 class are actually the ones who helped read the submissions For the 2022 class. I always felt like I wanted the program to feel like a tribe to feel like a community and that you're being welcomed into a family into a community of your peers. So of course I wanted the, the alumni mentees to be able to read the new mentees, um, to gauge whether or not, you know, who should be in the program. But the thing is they're all deserving and that's 100 and 29 very talented, um, writers, very talented people who want to break into the industry or who want to continue to move up and we really just wanted to, you know, provide them with that. Um, that access and that capability. But yes, 129 went down, I'm sorry, 829 went down to 14 and it's a great 14. We're really excited to have them. I was gonna say thank you for clarifying because big difference 829 and 129. I do want to talk about this initiative though. It's really incredible. Something that sticks out to me, of course, is you mentioning access, what are the other ways that this program is going to help prepare these writers for working in this industry? Well, there's a lot that, you know, you aren't able to be prepared for unless you're talking to someone who's been through it. So we have features of the program that allow you to talk to other established writers who have been, where they want to be, who have been in the rooms that they want to be in, and just learning how they navigated um those spaces, you know, to help the ones coming up be able to do the same thing. So it's really always been about creating a sustainable pathway program. And in order to do that, it's really about creating access and allowing these new young writers um the ability to talk to other established writers to figure out, okay, like how do I want to navigate this, this um this terrain as it were sometimes. Um but but yeah, it's it's it's been, you know, great. The program has been fantastic. and that's what we aim to do with it. It's really helped provide access something. I also love that you said is the mentees from the last program getting involved with this initiative. Can you talk about some of those accomplishments that you're really proud of to see them reach and get, Oh absolutely. The I mean the program is meant to be able to prepare you for staffing on shows, prepare you for other fellowships, prepare you for um meetings with managers and agents and general meetings and things like that. So it's been great that we were able to accomplish so much with the 2021 Class of Men Teeth, which was our inaugural class. One of them did get representation through the program, Joshua. Myers got representation through the program. Another fantastic writer Blake Williams went on to do uh Lena Waste program, the Hillman Grad program. Um So you know, and I also was able to staff through my own show that you know, was sold last year and you know, look out for that later on this year. It's called Send Help. Um I was able to staff a couple of the my mentees on that show, you know, and give them an opportunity to co write episodes. Um you know, and that's really what it's been about. And another one of our fantastic mentees, you know, is now has a short film that's going to be on B. E. T. Plus, you know, so it's really about creating um opportunities for people and I'm glad that in the inaugural year of the program we've been able to do so much Congrats on your show upcoming as well. I have like 10 seconds left with you, but I have to ask about ginny and Georgia, anything you can tell us about your involvement in the second season, what fans can expect. I think it's filming right now. Right? Yeah, we're we're filming now, we're we're gearing up to end production soon. Um it'll be an editing for a while. The show is slated to come out later this year, that's all I can say about that. But yeah buckley and it's gonna be a really good feeling. Yeah, we'll have to have you back a million questions I didn't get to. That's mike go yo writer, actor and founder of The Black Boy writes, Black Girl writes mentorship initiative.