2023 Out Loud List
Congratulations to this year's honorees!
We are proud to announce this year's Out Loud List, elevating the voices and material of quality, industry-vetted writers. Below are this year’s honorees, featuring every genre from kids & YA to period, half-hour comedy, hour-long family drama, and even science-fiction. For the first time, the list also has a record number of unrepresented writers, demonstrating the power of digging into the queer community to find those who might not have made it through the industry’s more traditional avenues.
These writers are not ranked, but instead sorted alphabetically by last name. Please click on each to learn more information about them!
During the WGA strike, we understand it is against strike rules to meet these folk for staffing, take a general, or even read their material in consideration for development. That said, we strongly believe in continuing to highlight their voices and the stories they have to tell, and suggest reaching out once the strike is over.
Forced to move back in with her dad after a failed relationship, Nicki Rivera finds that the only way she can really grow is by dealing with her family business: both figuratively and literally.
Reps: Scott Perraud, Miro Terrell, Anna Flickinger, & Cara Alpert (UTA)
Eva Dickerman (Range Media Partners)
This story focuses on ALTAR--a dramatic, deceptive and tenacious drag queen--and Altar’s chosen family--a coven of novice witches who run queer nightlife in the Biible Belt, operating the effervescent Trance Nightclub--while secretly practicing witchcraft to enrich their lives and community with magical extravaganza. But when a homophobic serial killer stalks their city, the fun-loving witches must get deadly serious: unraveling a twisted supernatural mystery, clashing with witch and human law enforcement alike, and becoming unlikely heroes in a centuries-old struggle with Satanic forces.
Reps: Alison Mann & Claire Jennings (Fourth Wall Management)
A 10-year-old genius who secretly runs the world’s largest environmental non-profit must use all her high-tech resources to win over her true love.
Open to representation
Queer college best friends Althea & Josh turn to the underground world of "sugar baby" relationships to make fast cash. But when Althea starts an anonymous blog chronicling the duo’s sugar adventures, she must navigate running an unconventional business with her bestie...AND viral internet fame.
Tyler open to representation
Reps for Misha: Maude Reilly (APA)
Molly Mandel & Tovah Silbermann (Mosaic)
In an age of extreme decadence and political unrest, a rebellious teen empress sets her sights on one of Rome’s holiest--and most untouchable--of women, setting off a chain of events that threatens to tear down the most powerful empire in the world - if her own family doesn’t destroy her first. Based on the incredible true story of Rome’s first and only trans female ruler, Elagabalus.
Open to representation
Blood is thicker than politics and religion in a small North Carolina town when personal crises throw a brother and sister together not understanding that each has more to offer the other than they would otherwise believe.
Rep: Robin Budd (Viewfinder Management)
This script is a queer teen romance set in the South Bronx, with sci-fi simmering at the edges. At the center is Aaron Soto, a Puerto Rican teen on a quest for happiness who wears his vulnerability on his chest. After his girlfriend leaves for a summer arts camp, we’ll watch as Aaron and his new friend Thomas plummet into a secretive summer of star-crossed love. Based on the novel by Adam Silvera (he/him)
Rep for Dan: Austin Denesuk (CAA)
Reps for Jeremiah: Dani Potter & Ryan Draizin (WME)
Inspired by true events, an undercover Israeli case officer extorts gay Palestinian informants for crucial intel in the West Bank. When he falls in love with his most dangerous asset to be, the enemies-turned-lovers must work together when their countries and allegiances turn on them. Full of action and twists-and-turns, but also pain and coming-of-age tenderness, this first of a kind, genre-bending espionage drama is currently in development with a prominent studio and showrunner as an EP for the American market.
Reps: Trent Anderson (Anonymous Content)
Lucy Tashman (APA)
Following a group of East LA 20-somethings attempting to reinvigorate queer nightlife post-pandemic: as each member of the group begins to fall on hard times, they collectively come up with the only logical solution: performing a ritual sacrifice of their one cis straight friend...which goes horribly awry.
Open to representation
Welcome to the wild world of sorority hazing. When a starry-eyed freshman lusts after a senior sorority sister during rush, she begins a journey of power plays, parties, and passionate romance. But will joining the most elite house on campus, notorious for its hazing, be worth it or the worst mistake she's ever made?
Reps: Allie Cohen, Tony Etz, & Laura Gordon (CAA)
Ariel Meislen & Hannah Ozer (Kaplan/Perrone)