EXCLUSIVE: In a preemptive buy, Fox has given a pilot production commitment to Greatest American Hero, a single-cameRick Famuyiwara comedy inspired by Steven J. Cannell’s 1981 cult classic. It hails from Dope writer-director Rick Famuyiwa, Phil Lord & Chris Miller– the directing duo behind the successful Fox logofeature franchise based on another ’80s TV series by Cannell, 21 Jump Street — and Cannell’s daughter, television director Tawnia McKiernan. 20th Century Fox TV, where Lord and Miller are under an overall deal, is the studio.
Women Mostly Shut Out Of Directing Television’s Most Popular Shows
A BuzzFeed News analysis found that women directed 12% of the highest-rated scripted shows, even as advocates say women and men are graduating from film school at the same rate. “It’s absolutely a problem,” one director said.
Women have largely been shut out of directing the most popular television shows of the past several years, according to a BuzzFeed News analysis, underscoring the American Civil Liberties Union’s recent call for government investigations into the film and television industry’s hiring practices.
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Women directors are rare in Hollywood, but is gender bias in play?
Women directed only 4 percent of top-grossing films over the last dozen years. While it is a shame, is it also illegal?
Melissa Goldman, director of the LGBT Gender and Reproductive Justice Project at the ACLU of Southern California, is weighing this very question. She’s calling on state and federal agencies to investigate the hiring practices of major Hollywood studios, networks and talent agencies to see whether gender discrimination is in play when recruiting and hiring female directors.
Goldman and television director Tawnia McKiernan both join host Alex Cohen to discuss the issue of gender bias in Hollywood.
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Five Acres – Fostering Heroes PSA
TNH Member, Tawnia McKiernan, shares with us about her latest philanthropic passion and exciting projects she is undertaking.
Five Acres is a privately owned adoption agency that for 125 years has cared for vulnerable children and their families. Originally founded in downtown LA as an orphanage, their initial mission was simply to provide safety to children who had no home… [read more]
Emmy Magazine
Watch out for the upcoming issue No. 6 of the Emmy Magazine featuring an interview with Tawnia.