RespectAbility Entertainment Professionals Lab 2024
David Dineen-Porter
David Dineen-Porter (he/him) is a multiply neuro-diverse writer, musician, and comedian from the maple drenched shores of Toronto. Unlike most screenwriters, he studied Assyriology at the University of Toronto, where he translated five-thousand-year-old Babylonian tablets for four years. His darkly comedic writing focuses on misfits struggling to conform to systems which have rejected them, a thread drawn from his own life dealing with disability.
He studied improv at Second City Toronto, and began a career in comedy, winning Now Magazine’s Best Male Standup award twice in a row in 2013 and 2014. He appeared in several Canadian shows, including Much Screwed Over, Prank Science, and Undercover High before relocating to the United States to join the inaugural writing team for The Late Late Show with James Cordon on CBS. He then co-created the show Magic for Humans with Justin Willman, which ran for three seasons on Netflix. He’s produced and directed content with Nathan Fielder, Reggie Watts, and Sarah Silverman.
In 2023 Dineen-Porter became an Accelerate Fellow with the Inevitable Foundation, a foundation whose mission is to elevate and support disabled screenwriters.
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After an extensive search and interview process, 5 individuals were invited to participate in an intensive session for disabled drama writers, taking place June 20-28, with additional virtual sessions taking place in partnership with the virtual cohort, May – September 2024. Participants include people with a variety of disabilities ranging in age from the 20s through the 40s. This intensive elevates disabled creatives, focusing on building community, networking, and career advancement. This intensive is in collaboration with ABC Entertainment.
