Nigerian writer Mike Gauyo is making room for the next generation of storytellers. Gauyo, known for his work on Insecure and Gina & George, has just announced the new cohort for the mentorship initiative he created in 2020.
This program connects creatives from underrepresented backgrounds with experienced writers from projects such as Insecure, This Is Us, Soul, and One Night in Miami.
Black Boy/Girl Writes hosts monthly Writer Roundtables with established writers and industry leaders as well as writing workshops, and notes sessions to help prepare mentees for fellowships and staffing opportunities.
The new cohort includes Abraham Adeyemi, David Anthony Barbier Jr., Deion Higginbotham, Devin Githara-Pipkin, Ivan Rome, Paige Elson, Randi Tyre McCray, Semi Oloko, Talia Caldwell, and Tito Kolawole.
Once upon a time, Gauyo was just like those young film lovers who lacked connections in the TV industry but he knew it was his true passion. Initially, his parents had encouraged him to be a doctor, so it wasn’t until after college that considered the arts as a viable career path. After spending some time working in the corporate world, he decided to go back to school—this time majoring in Theater with a concentration in Creative Writing.
“It’s always been a hobby of mine,” Guao told the Huff Post. “So, I went back to school for theater, concentration in creative writing, intending to become a playwright, move to New York, live that bohemian starving-artist lifestyle. But, I took this production internship at school and realized, oh, TV’s where it’s at.”
After a stint with American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, he realized that if he wanted to transition from reality writing to scripted content, he would need to be more intentional about networking.
Through his hard work, he eventually was connected with Issa Rae, who brought him onto the production of a podcast called Fruit. Gauyo continued building relationships with industry veterans and found a mentor in Ben Cory Jones, who later introduced him to Claws, showrunner Janine Sherman Barrois.
Opportunities continued to open up for Gauyo, but he consistently noticed a problem—there weren’t many people who looked like him in these rooms. Across various settings, actors, writers, and producers have expressed how much Hollywood operates on a “who you know and who knows you” basis. However, just because something has been done a certain way for generations doesn’t mean that new, innovative approaches can’t be created to break that stigma.
That’s exactly what Mike Gauyo is setting out to do—open the door for a new wave of storytellers who will bring fresh, innovative stories to life.
Photo Credit: Eric Strong
