Hollywood Diversity: Most Writers White, Male

Hollywood actors routinely talk about tolerance, the need to be diverse and the desire for equal opportunity for all.

It’s a shame their industry practices very little of those notions.

Older actresses face career termination for daring to show wrinkles and crow’s feet. Black actors oh, so rarely walk away on Oscar night holding that coveted statuette, let alone other people of color. High-profile film projects are rejected for being “too gay.”

And now we learn women, older Americans and minorities are rarely the ones writing the stories that power the industry.

The research shows minority and women writers have made incremental gains in employment over the past decade-plus period, but current TV staffing levels still continue to be widely disproportionate to actual minority demographics of the U.S. population….

A number of writing staff remain dominated by white males. Roughly 10 percent of TV shows in the 2011-12 season had no female writers on staff; and nearly a third had no minority writers on staff. In the 2010-2011 television season, only 9 percent of pilots had at least one minority writer attached, while just 24 percent of pilots had at least one woman writer attached.