Join award-winning screenwriter, producer, and author Neil Landau as talks with ISA's Creative Executive, Shayna Weber, about the ins and outs of writing for TV in "an on demand world." He will cover everything from how to make your TV pilot the most marketable to how the global TV landscape has changed and where it's going.

Neil’s former students have catapulted to success as writer/producers and showrunners, including Steven Canals (Pose), Francesca Sloane (Mr. & Mrs. Smith), Justin Hillian (The Chi), Kiley Donovan (Grey’s Anatomy), Davita Scarlett (The Good Fight), Noga Landau (Nancy Drew), Gaia Violo (Star Trek: Starfleet Academy), Boey Yeon Kim (Star Trek Discovery), Marion Dayre (Echo, Better Call Saul), Yvonne Hana Yi (Mr. & Mrs. Smith), Shoshana Sachi (Dead Boy Detectives), and many more.

Neil Landau is an award-winning screenwriter, creative producer, author, and professor of Screenwriting in the MFA in Film, Television & Digital Media Program at the University of Georgia. His writing and producing credits include the cult teen comedy Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991) and the 2024 remake; Idols as Co-Executive Producer (for 4 Cats Pictures/Warner Bros.); and Flinch, with DGA Award-winning director Allison Liddi-Brown (Transparent, Friday Night Lights, Grey’s Anatomy) attached to direct.

Neil’s TV credits include Melrose Place, The Magnificent Seven, Doogie Howser, M.D., The Secret World of Alex Mack, Twice in a Lifetime, MTV's Undressed. His animated movie credits include Tad, the Lost Explorer (aka Las Adventuras de Tadeo Jones), from Paramount, for which he earned a Spanish Academy “Goya” Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (2014); Tad2 (Tadeo Jones and the Secret of King Midas), from Paramount, and Tad3 (Tadeo Jones and the Emerald Tablet) from Paramount. He also co-wrote the Goya-award-winning animated feature Capture the Flag (Paramount) and served as Co-EP on Mummies for Warner Bros. (2023) and head writer and co-EP on Finnick (Golden Eagle Award winner, 2022) from Petersburg Animation Studio; Sheep & Wolves (Cristal nominee, Annecy International Animated Film Festival, 2016) for Wizart Animation Studios. Neil’s new projects include co-writer/co-EP on Buffalo Kids (for 4 Cats Pictures/A3/Artresmedia/Warner Bros.); and co-writer/co-EP on Dreams for 4 Cats Pictures and Warner Bros.

Neil served as an Assistant Dean of Special Projects at UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television and Co-Director of UCLA’s MFA Screenwriting Program for many years; in 2021, he was awarded UCLA TFT’s Distinguished Alumni Award. Neil served several years as Executive Script Consultant for Sony Pictures Television International. He’s the author of seven books on the film and TV landscape, including the bestsellers 101 Things I Learned in Film School (Putnam/Random House/Crown) and The TV Showrunner’s Roadmap. His latest book, TV Writing On Demand 2nd edition: What’s Now + What’s Next (Routledge/Taylor & Francis/Focal Press) was published in September, 2024.

Neil gives lectures worldwide on the art and craft of screenwriting, including keynotes in Copenhagen, Milan, Rimini, Rome, Seoul, and Sochi. He’s lectured at USC School of Cinematic Arts, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, La Femis and Milles Sabords in Paris, Met Film School in London, University of the Andes in Santiago, Alexander Mitta Film School in Moscow, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Shanghai Film Art Academy, Starlight Media in Kyiv, and Accademia Nazionale del Cinema in Bologna, Italy, and more. He’s a member of the WGA West, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and PEN West and served two terms on the Board of Directors for OUTFEST Los Angeles (2019-23) where he sat on the Screenwriting Lab committee sponsored in part by Netflix. He earned his BA at UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, and his MFA in Screenwriting at the University of Georgia.

Shayna Weber is a screenwriter, producer, and director originally from Bend, Oregon. She started out assisting in casting for music videos in the early 2000’s where she would often jump out of the car and ambush cool-looking strangers on the street to be extras. After that, Shayna began a 15-year deep dive into human psychology and behavior by producing unscripted television. Her roster of shows include: So You Think You Can Dance, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Weakest Link, and the Miss Universe Pageants. Shayna also produced on the award-winning, horror/comedy, Lunch Ladies, and then directed its follow up, A Very Important Film. Shayna and her partner, Clarissa Jacobson, co-directed a hybrid-documentary titled Butts, which follows a day in the life of their 3’11” friend Kent who lives with brittle bone disease. They also sold a horror feature script, Bruha, that is currently in production.