Meeting fellow Filipino writers was like a reunion with family you never knew existed.
(First of two parts)
LOS ANGELES—Someday, it will be considered historic: Filipino TV writers in Hollywood recently met for the first time at the Kimpton Everly Hotel in Los Angeles. While the meeting, arranged by Bernard Badion and Grace Moss, was a step toward more representation of Filipinos, it was a “reality check” for Rene Gube, writer and supervising producer of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.”
“Attending Grace and Bernard’s mixer and learning that there are only 25 Filipino writers in the WGA (Writers Guild of America) was such a reality check for me,” said Rene, whose other credits include “Brockmire” and “Ground Floor.” “I always had this fantasy that after enough hard work, a Filipino Greg Daniels (writer—‘Saturday Night Live,’ ‘The Office’ and ‘The Simpsons’) would deem me worthy and reach down from the heavens to mentor me as we made all my dreams come true.”
“That person doesn’t exist, and there’s just us. It’s such a powerful reminder of the work that’s left to do in terms of representation, and the critical role community will play in getting it done,” added Rene, who’s part of the writing team that showcased a Filipino family for the first time in a prime-time mainstream American television show, “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.”
Also an actor, he plays Father Brah in the series that stars Rachel Bloom and Vincent Rodriguez III, the first Fil-Am actor to play a leading man role (Josh Chan) in US prime-time TV. Rene also has a recurring guest role in “Camping,” Lena Dunham and Jennifer Konner’s upcoming adaptation of the British series.
Below, in Bernard’s words, is how the historic meeting happened:
“I’m an assistant to a great comedy writer (Sanjay Shah — they started working together on ‘Fresh Off the Boat,’ also a pioneer in showcasing an Asian family in a major network), who’s also a great boss and mentor to me. I always tell everyone that other than being a writer, this is probably the best job I could have. However, the end goal is to become a television comedy writer, so I try to meet everyone I can in television comedy.
“I’m always setting up coffees/lunches/dinners/drinks with people from all over the industry. It’s really great to meet everyone, but I found that anytime I’d meet a fellow Filipino in the industry, it was always different. I became aware of this when I met with writer Dennis Saldua. I’m a fan of his writing on ‘Atypical.’ When we met up for coffee, which is usually a 45- to 60-minute kind of a thing, we ended up hanging out for over two hours. He was actually the one who was like, ‘Hey, maybe we could get more Filipino writers together, because this is cool.’
“I’m paraphrasing, obviously, because Dennis said it way better than that, but that’s when the idea for the meetup was born. Our initial goal was to find at least four Filipino writers or assistants. We thought that would’ve been dope!
“I agreed with him and started to connect the dots of people I knew. I already had a pretty regular lunch with writer Thomas Reyes and actor Eugene Cordero and brought it up to them. They thought it was a dope idea, too. So we brainstormed together about all the people we knew. Then, I just so happened to have a meeting with Grace Moss at NBC Universal a week later. I brought it up to her. She loved the idea, and from then on, she spearheaded the event with me. A couple of months later, we finally made it happen.”
For Bernard, the June 26 gathering also impacted him in a personal way. “Growing up, like a lot of us, I was surrounded by people who worked in the medical and technical fields, like nurses, engineers and other jobs in those areas. I never knew television writing was even a thing people did until I was much older, but it was something that felt impossible once I learned of it.
“On that June night, I met a group of people who looked like me who have those impossible jobs. Finding like-minded people who look like me really affected me in a great way. It’s like we were all on separate journeys to get to that room and, somehow, we found our way. Like a reunion with family you never knew existed. It’s going to be fun seeing what everyone’s writing in the next five to 10 years.”
Grace, the other Fil-Am who arranged for the get-together to happen, was also thrilled. She said, “As a network executive (director, talent development and inclusion) at NBC, part of my job is to know the TV industry’s top emerging writers and directors. Growing up in a fairly diverse community (Diamond Bar, California) and attending a university with a strong Filipino-American presence (UCLA), I’ve always felt connected to my heritage and carried that cultural pride with me throughout my career.”
(To be continued tomorrow)
E-mail rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com. Follow him at https://twitter.com/nepalesruben.