The Creative and In-Demand Work of Film and TV Writer Disha Manocha

If anyone could map out exactly how to become a professional writer for the entertainment industry in Hollywood, her name would most likely be Disha Manocha. She is a writer from Mumbai, India, who, if you look closely at her achievements and jobs in the writing world you would be able to clearly see a trail leading to a highly successful career in one of the most competitive fields in the world. The map begins in 2017 with Disha working in India as a Creative Management Intern for The Walt Disney Company, India. Not a bad start for anyone who is just beginning what will definitely be a long term creative and working relationship with some of the most well-known studios in Hollywood. In 2019, we see Disha working as a Creative and Development Intern for Fox Star Studios, a Disney company located in Mumbai, India.

 

She then comes to the United States, enrolls in the famous Chapman University, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts and begins working at Gray Matter Productions as a Development Intern. We can only guess how much sleep this driven and highly goal oriented and intelligent young woman gets on a nightly basis. We are betting on four hours maximum, if that. While she is working hard at attaining her MFA in Television Writing and Producing at Chapman, she goes over to Mandeville Films and TV in 2020 to 2021 and becomes their TV Development Intern. Now we’re changing our original nightly sleep estimate to three hours a night.

 

She is then hired as a writer at Disney Television Discovers: Talent Showcase 2021, and among other things, pitches scenes to ABC casting executives. She also participates in a writers’ room and brainstorms pitches and scenes for the showcase. She works at this job from July to December of 2021. Disha is the writer and Executive Producer for the short film Divine Intervention, which is completed in April 2021 and receives her MFA from Chapman in May of 2021. This ten-minute film was shot on a $5,000 budget and was her graduate thesis Pilot.

 

CBS Television Studios employed Disha as a Writer’s PA (Production Assistant) where she worked on the CBS series Good Sam and managed the writers’ room office. She did all of this in four short years. This is the map to become a successful writer in the entertainment business. Several things are very clear: You have to work extremely hard; you have to want it very badly and you have to be able to get along without much sleep.