Longtime collaborators Elisa Zuritsky and Julie Rottenberg have worked behind the scenes of Sex and the City, Smash, Odd Mom Out, and most recently And Just Like That. Hear about how they first came to work on Sex and the City, their writing process, and what they love about seeing their characters come to life in front of the iconic backdrop of NYC. Moderated by Giselle Bailey, Director and Executive Producer (HBO's Seen & Heard).
Julie and Elisa have been collaborating since they were nine years old, when they met at a Saturday morning acting class in Philadelphia. A few years later, they became writer/producers for HBO’s Sex and the City, where they earned three Emmy Award nominations and three Writers Guild Award nominations for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy. Since then, they’ve gone on to write for Smash, Divorce, and Odd Mom Out, where they were co-showrunners, and were writers/Executive Producers on HBO’s And Just Like That... where Julie also directed. They’re currently writing for Amazon’s Every Year After, based on the best-selling Carley Fortune novel Every Summer After. They’re finally writing a screenplay based on their lifelong friendship and partnership, entitled Ampersand, and Elisa is working on her first novel. They both live in Brooklyn; each has one husband and two children.
Moderator: Giselle Bailey, Director and Executive Producer (HBO's Seen & Heard)
Giselle Bailey is an award-winning Jamaican-American director. Rooted in the spirit of her Jamaican heritage, she gravitates to stories about subcultures, rebellious spirits that shift the status-quo, and icons of pop culture.
Giselle’s work moves across documentary, conceptual art, branded content, and visual effects— allowing her to shape stories as a director, creative director, producer, and writer. Her recent projects include the HBO 2-part documentary Seen & Heard; Netflix’s Ladies First; Hulu Hair Tales; the HBO feature The Legend of the Underground, and the video installation Shadow Work, exhibited at Fort Mason’s Gallery 308.
She was named to DOC NYC’s celebrated 40 Under 40 list and is an alum of the Concordia Fellowship. Her work has been recognized by the IDA, NAACP, Critics’ Choice Awards, and supported by organizations such as Firelight Media, the Ford Foundation, and Sundance among others. She has been featured in outlets including The New York Times, Vogue, Rolling Stone and Good Morning America.
Presented with the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and SVA Theatre.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
The Center's programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Accessibility: Center for Communication provides reasonable accommodations to students with disabilities. Requests for accommodations for Center for Communication events should be submitted at least two weeks before the date of the accommodation need. Please email community@centerforcommunication.org for assistance.
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