FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Humanitas Unveils 2022 Awards for Emerging Writers
Organization announces New Voices Fellowship and College Screenwriting Awards Winners  

Santa Monica, CA – August 16, 2022 – Humanitas is pleased to announce the five fellows selected for its 2022 New Voices Fellowship, as well as the awardees of the Carol Mendelsohn College Drama Award and the David and Lynn Angell College Comedy Award.

Myra Aquino, Albert M. Chan, Shannon TL Kearns, Devon Kerr, and Maurizio A. Ledezma have been selected to receive Humanitas’s 2022 New Voices Fellowship, a four-month mentorship program for emerging television and screenwriters. As fellows, they will each be paired with award-winning writers or showrunners for one-on-one mentorship focused on their project and professional development. Fellows will also receive a $7,500 stipend, a suite of software including Final Draft 12, and access to classes through UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, Roadmap Writers, and MasterClass. Taylor Coriell, Alexandria Lane, Matheus H. Macedo, Julia Maddox, Jayne Maginot, and Miguel Orozco were selected as 2022 finalists for the New Voices Fellowship.

Hayley Tibbenham, a graduate student at the American Film Institute, has been awarded the Carol Mendelsohn College Drama Award. V Marks, an undergraduate student at the University of Southern California, has been awarded the David and Lynn Angell College Comedy Award. They will each receive a $20,000 cash prize, copies of Final Draft 12, and a professional script notes session with a writer in the Humanitas community. Harika Bommana, Carrie Finklea, Julia Maddox, and Dawana Speights were finalists for the Carol Mendelsohn College Drama Award. Katherine Anne Koury, Bridget Parker, Gabrielle Ruiz, and Helen K. Thomas were finalists for the David and Lynn Angell College Comedy Award.

“In an extremely competitive year, Myra, Albert, Shannon, Devon, and Maurizio’s work captivated our selection committee. We’re thrilled to welcome them to the New Voices Fellowship, now in its twelfth year, and are looking forward to working with them to envision the next steps in their careers,” said Daniel Plagens, Humanitas Program Manager. “It’s Humanitas’s honor to coordinate The Carol Mendelsohn College Drama Award and the David and Lynn Angell College Comedy Awards. Each year, our reading and interview committees are inspired by the work being done by college students across the country, and it’s always a great pleasure and privilege to bestow these awards to writers like Hayley and V.”

The New Voices Fellowship, Carol Mendelsohn College Drama Award, and David and Lynn Angell College Comedy Award will be presented at The 46th Annual Humanitas Prizes hosted event on September 9, 2022 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. As recently announced, Nkechi Okoro Carroll (All-American, The Resident, Bones) will lead the New Voices Fellowship and College Screenwriting Award presentations.

For more information on Humanitas, the New Voices Fellowship, The Carol Mendelsohn College Drama Award, and the David and Lynn Angell College Comedy Award, connect with Humanitas at www.humanitasprize.org or on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

About Humanitas

Since 1974, Humanitas has honored and empowered television and film writers whose work explores the human condition in a nuanced way. Humanitas distinguishes itself among artistic organizations by celebrating stories that explore the human experience, because we believe that the act of acknowledging our common humanity is transformational. 

About Humanitas’s New Voices Fellowship and College Screenwriting Awards

The New Voices Fellowship is a four-month mentorship program for emerging television and screenwriters. The program is committed to identifying and empowering five writers each year who are unrepresented and are currently working on a 30- or 60-minute pilot or feature film screenplay that upholds the mission of Humanitas.

The Humanitas College Screenwriting Awards recognize writers whose work advances the Humanitas mission and who are currently enrolled in a college or university program. Humanitas annually awards two prizes which recognize excellent student screen and television writing: The David and Lynn Angell College Comedy Award and The Carol Mendelsohn College Drama Award.

2022 Fellowship Partners include: WriterDuet, Fade In, WritersRoom Pro, MasterClass, UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, Coverfly, and Final Draft. Final Draft, a Cast & Crew Company, publishes Final Draft® software – the number-one selling screenwriting application in the world. Final Draft automatically paginates and formats your script to industry standards.

For media inquires, requests, and press credentials, please contact press@humanitasprize.org.