Payton Russell

A conversation with writer, director, and producer, Taylor Blackburn.

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Huddled in the Joshua Tree desert, with the dry air cutting their lips and no cell service in sight, a ragtag student film crew shot what was, for some of them, their very first short. As hours dragged on and tummies rumbled, they turned to crafty to provide them some warmth, only to be met with an uninspiring stack of Costco deli meats.

For TV writer, director, and producer Taylor Blackburn, that shoot–her first time producing while earning her MFA in Writing and Producing for Television at LMU–taught her a valuable lesson: “Deli meats are bad for morale”. Ever since, Taylor’s insisted that good crafty’s a line-item worth fighting for.

Since graduating, Taylor’s career has really taken off. She co-wrote the film Mothertrucker with Transparent’s Joey Soloway and staffed on the final two seasons of Grown-ish. She’s also written and produced several shorts, each with far better lunches than her first time around.

In her free time, Taylor has found a passion for playing poker that fuels her creativity, friendships, and–thankfully–her bank account. It’s the subject of her newest comedy spec, which would film anywhere but the desert.

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Becoming a Writer

Payton Russell (PR): When did you first know you wanted to be a writer? 

Taylor Blackburn (TB): I grew up in the Bay Area in Northern California, and film was my first love. I went to Bates College, which is a small liberal arts college in Maine. They had a Film and Television Rhetoric major, which was kind of like critical media studies—looking at race, gender, and sexuality representation in media. All of that felt important to me. They offered one screenwriting class every other year, and I took that. I told my professor I was interested in writing, and he really encouraged me. Then, my undergrad thesis advisor connected me with one of his former students who had gotten a script on the Black List, and he helped me get my foot in the door with some internship opportunities. Between my junior and senior years, I spent my first summer in LA and interned at Ridley Scott’s company, Scott Free. I was like, “I love LA. I love this industry.”

So, even though film was my first love, everyone was telling me that TV is where the most exciting stuff was happening. So, I ended up getting my MFA in Writing and Producing for Television at LMU. I had kind of a weird way into LMU because I was a competitive debater—I did parliamentary debate and became the first woman to be national champion in the British Parliamentary Debate format on the American circuit. LMU said, “If you come coach our undergrads, we’ll give you a full ride to whatever program you want.” So, I applied to the MFA in Writing and Producing for Television, got in, and coached the debate team. It was a nice transition between these two things I love.

PR: Do you still find that debate finds its way into your writing or career?

TB: I think debate skills have helped me with absolutely everything in my life. I was amazed the first time I got into a writers’ room how much the skill set of debate overlapped with being a writer in a room. I’d talked to a bunch of writers who said that when they were in their first room, they woke up at 6 a.m. every day to research and come up with all their pitches ahead of time. It’s great to do all that prep, but debate really trained me to listen to another person, think about a response, and generate original material in real time—firing on all those levels at the same time.

Starting Out in LA

Payton Russell (PR): After finishing your MFA, what were the first steps you took to break into the industry as an assistant?

Taylor Blackburn (TB): The MFA was really useful in terms of being a space to build a portfolio of work, but it also gave me three years to intern around town. I was lucky to have interned at Scott Free, so I already had something on my résumé. Then, I interned at HBO in Films and Miniseries, at Amazon in Comedy, and at FX.

When I graduated from grad school, I told the assistant-level people and some of the execs I had gotten to know that I was looking for jobs. It was this random thing—Transparent was one of my favorite shows when I was in grad school–and a friend, who was a junior exec at Amazon, said, “Hey, Joey Soloway is looking for an assistant. Want me to submit you?” And I said, “Yes, that’s my dream show.” Her recommendation got me in the door. Then I met with Joey, and within a few months of finishing up my MFA, I started as Joey’s assistant.

PR: I read in The Wrap that you co-wrote Mothertrucker with Joey. How did you move from being Joey’s assistant to being a co-writer on that script? 

TB: I started at the company at an interesting time—when Transparent was coming to an end. Joey was preparing to do the musical finale, and they were in the midst of developing what would come next. Joey was great about just letting me jump in as much creatively as I wanted to, so I got to be super involved in developing those pitches and ideas. 

I was their assistant for under a year, and then one of those projects that we’d been developing got greenlit for a mini-room at Amazon. Joey and I had discussed that when I was done being their assistant, I’d move into a writers’ assistant role on whatever came next. When the pitch went well, I said, “I feel really invested in this project, and I think I’m ready. I hope you’ll consider me as a writer on it.” Joey said, “I was thinking the same thing.”

So, about a year after I started working as their assistant, I was a staff writer in that mini-room. Unfortunately, that show didn’t go, but that was my first time as a staff writer. After that, I was looking for the next thing. Mothertrucker was another project I’d been around during its early stages, and Joey asked if I wanted to come on. That was a lot of what I was doing during the pandemic.

Grown-ish

PR: And then, how did you end up on Grown-ish?

TB: One of the people who had been in that mini room, Zakiyyah Alexander, ended up taking over showrunning for season five of Grown-ish, and she was very kind to look out for me and brought me in as a staff writer.

PR: You joined Grown-ish in its fifth season, after four seasons had passed and with the legacy of eight seasons of Black-ish. How did you prepare to enter a room with such an established world and history?

TB: Frantically. I wanted as much context as possible before meeting with Zakiyyah because I didn’t assume it was a sure thing. I was actually in Toronto for a wedding when I got her email, and she wanted to meet in two days. So, I spent the trip in a hotel room, watching episodes on one-and-a-half speed. Sometimes I’d just watch the “Previously on…” and skip ahead—whatever helped me catch up faster. Thankfully, it’s a 22-minute show, so I could tear through it.

I knew season five was going to focus on Junior, so I researched which Black-ish episodes were most important for understanding his character. Even more important than knowing Grown-ish was knowing him. I also knew season five would introduce some new, blue-sky characters, so I came in with ideas about where the show could expand—what a new friend group might look like, that kind of thing.

I think I prepared more than I was ultimately asked to give in that interview because good showrunners know not to make you pitch the whole season for them. But it definitely made me feel more comfortable going in.

Self-producing

PR: I wanted to ask about your short film Where Things May Grow. What inspired that story, and where did it fall in your creative journey?

TB: I did three different shorts in grad school. Where Things May Grow was one I wrote during a short-film writing class in my MFA program. That script eventually became the seed for a feature spec I wrote in another class. I was interested in writing something contained—I’ve always liked post-apocalyptic stories—so I wanted to explore an interpersonal relationship drama set against that kind of backdrop.

There was this really talented undergraduate director, Zac Chia, who was also in that class—it was one of those electives that mixed undergrads and grad students. I’d met him during orientation at the 24-hour film project we did, and he was really nice and really talented. At the end of the class, he came to me and said, “I love your short. I’d love to direct it. Would you want to do that?” And I was like, “Sure! I’m here to make stuff.”

Zac was a production undergrad, so he knew how to actually use the equipment— they didn’t really let the writing grad students touch cameras since we didn’t know what we were doing. So, we made it together, and I produced it. I definitely produced it badly. I had no idea what I was doing.

PR: What are things you learned to do differently?

TB: Things like—you pay for good crafty. Don’t have people make their own sandwiches. We were on such a tight budget and out in the desert in Joshua Tree. I did this giant Costco haul trying to feed a whole crew for three days on a few hundred dollars, which was insane. But people were like, “I need hot food prepared by a restaurant right now.” And I realized—deli meats are bad for morale. I just didn’t know. I’d never produced anything before. I still feel bad!

PR: Are you interested in directing?

TB: Definitely. Ideally, I’d like to be writing and directing my own features, but I also love the writing side. One of the great things about Grown-ish was that it was a show where writers actually got to go to set. Our offices were over the stages where we were shooting, so over those two seasons, I got to produce four or five episodes. I covered my own, and then I became the person who filled in on set when the showrunner couldn’t be there—because I loved doing it and had an aptitude for it. It was great to get that real, professional set experience.

Poker Spec!

PR: I know you probably can’t share too many details about the poker film you’re taking out, but can you talk a bit about the development process so far?

TB:  It’s a spec, and it’s the first time I’ve co-written something with a friend. My friend Jamie Manelis—an awesome writer and hilarious person—was my coworker when we were both assistants at Topple. I was in a writing rut and wanted to feel excited about something again. I’d been kicking around an idea for a movie set in the poker world—because I’ve gotten really into poker—and I kept trying to make something work in that space. Most poker movies suck, for easy-to-see reasons.

So, I was talking about it with Jamie, who doesn’t play poker or care about it at all. I came up with a version that was a female buddy comedy and asked, “Is that something you’d want to work on together?” She said, “That sounds super fun.” I hadn’t written hard comedy before, and she’s one of the funniest people I know, so we started working on it in the spring and are preparing to take it out now.

We were also really encouraged that as we were finishing up our first draft, The Naked Gun was having this big moment again. Because we really went for it as a comedy, after The Naked Gun revival, the draft got significantly more insane. We were like, “Let’s just do it. Let’s not worry about being too off-the-wall.” It was exciting to us, and that was really encouraging.