Tanya Saracho Quotes

Latinos that are in the industry writing and producing, they can't be afraid to go out there and say, 'I want my lead to be Latino. And I want to talk about this, I wanna write about that.' And Latinos as a whole, as a people in America, need to go out and support.

You go to Los Angeles or New York or Miami or Chicago, and you see Latinos everywhere; they are involved in every part of American society. That's why they have to start being represented in Hollywood, because an 'Americano' can't walk down the street and not see a Latino.

One of the things that takes a bit of getting used to on an American series is having a different director, and often writer, every week.

If you're doing an hour-long show, you're working movie hours, doing a 12-15-hour day. We work three or four hours a day, and get every third or fourth week off to give the writers time to write. It's the cushiest job in Hollywood.

I am currently talking to one of the studios about making American Star as a TV series.

In the TV world, we are seeing a lot more power going to the writer. I sense it is a writer's medium.

In television writing, even if you're running the writers room, it's a writers room.

When I create a TV show, it's so that I can write it. I'm not an empire builder; my writing staff is usually a combination of two kinds of people - experts in the world the show is set in, and young writers who will not be unhappy if they're not writing scripts.

That's the hard part of television: When you walk into the network tests, you're signing away seven years of your life.

I'd never been around or seen a black showrunner, and in some ways you wish that it wasn't a big deal.

My first job in Hollywood was as a PA in the writers room of 'Dawson's Creek,' and from that early experience on, I've always had an intense appreciation for the energy, creativity and process of making television.

'Nathan for You' was my first time being in a writer's room, really.

I've always said at the beginning of every single season of the show when I was running the show in the writers' room, "This is the last season, so let's smoke 'em if we've got 'em."

As far as my contribution to this industry, I want to be like Dean Devlin, John Rogers, and Chris Downey. I want to give people jobs and put them on great shows. I want to create careers for people.

The industry just hasn't been thinking outside the box when it comes to Latina women.

I want to give black kids a new superhero.

Having brought diversity to the air in the way that we have with Kerry Washington and Viola Davis toplining their shows, and then shows like 'Fresh Off the Boat' and 'Black-ish,' have been very important. I look forward to continuing in that vein.

I feel like progress will be made in the landscape of Latino influence when we get to tell those murky, real, close-to-life narratives.

There's a certain order to network shows that doesn't exist so much in cable, which is, you know, if you want to change a line you've got to talk to the writer.

Here's the thing: I come from a filmmaking background, so this concept of sort of overseeing a television show but not directing was, in general, not weird, but I had to get used to what that felt like. My initial instinct was, 'I want to direct as much of this as possible.' But the logistics of making of TV, that's just not possible.

In lots of ways, I've been trying to tell stories this way since I started writing plays: a female-centered story with queer, Latinx gaze.

Doing a TV show is like temporarily getting married to it.

I finally achieved my dream by being a TV showrunner.

I'm trying to be a voice for the North African Arab community. We've got to continue to fight for our place in the industry.

Why aren't there films being made that tell ethnically diverse stories? Or why is it so impossible to allow a person of color to add their texture and their essence to a role that is not ethnically specific? I don't know why it's a novel or risky idea to consider making a film look like how our world actually looks today.