Jesse Harris

Instructor Bio:

M.F.A., WGA member, Mr. Harris has written everything from the independent feature Surviving Guthrie to the Peabody Award winning Marvel’s Jessica Jones. He wrote and directed the short Sour Notes and developed a pilot with an Oscar winning director.

Instructor Statement:

As writers, our voice is our greatest tool. We can learn the craft of writing, read all the books by Stephen King or William Goldman we want, but our success hinges on whether we have something to say. It’s the thing that makes us stand out from the crowd. We hear time and again, “write what you know,” and I don’t take that literally. For me it means writing what only you can. As an instructor, I strive to help each individual find what their unique perspective is, and hone that.

I aim to make each class as welcoming and inclusive as possible. Like a writer’s room, a classroom is strongest when it’s comprised of people from a variety of backgrounds. Because as writers, we are creating work not for ourselves, but for an audience. What we want isn’t nearly as important as what the audience wants – and what the story requires. An inclusive room allows you to hear immediate feedback from people you wouldn’t necessarily interact with on a daily basis. It means learning about things that you might not have thought were offensive or controversial, and seeing the world from a point-of-view that you hadn’t considered.

I hope to make every class one where we learn all the ins-and-outs of television writing, from A to Z. Where we learn the importance of all those names we see in the credits and how a writer navigates the landscape from a blue sky pitch to production lock. Most importantly, I want to cultivate a classroom where you learn to make your stories truly yours.