2022 Los Angeles Cohort
7th Annual Entertainment Lab
Application Closed for 2025
Our thoughts are with those affected by the LA Fires. If folks need additional time beyond our extended deadline, please email Lab@DisabilityBelongs.org or call 323-607-0039.
Since 2019, the Disability Belongs™ Entertainment Lab elevates disabled creatives, focusing on building community, networking, and career advancement.
We are excited to announce some new changes to our Lab programs for 2025! Please read all details carefully below before applying, as timing and formats have changed from previous years.
2025 Entertainment Lab Dates:
Virtual Lab: May – September 2025 (Tuesdays)
To better support our growing alumni network of 228 Fellows, we also are offering two intensives that are exclusively open to Lab alumni and other disabled creatives by recommendation:
- TV Writing Intensive (June 2025)
- Unscripted Intensive (August 2025)
2025 Virtual Lab
2019 Entertainment Lab Alumni visiting The Walt Disney Company Lot in Burbank, California
The 2025 Virtual Entertainment Lab is a five-month program (May – September 2025) where up to 20 Fellows will meet weekly on Tuesday afternoons. In between sessions, Lab Fellows will have time to put the information they are learning into practice. There will be optional sessions on Thursdays that will cover additional topics that may be of interest to smaller groups of Lab Fellows.
The Disability Belongs™ Entertainment Lab is for disabled creatives working in development, production and/or post-production, and careers as writers, directors, producers, cinematographers, animators, and other production roles.
During the Lab, Fellows will enjoy:
- Interactive presentations, roundtables, and other workshops with high-level executives and talent from major studios, networks, and production companies
- Informal networking with your cohort and alumni from previous cohorts
- Opportunity to pursue an independent creative pursuit (script, short film) and receive feedback through mentorship, project workshops, and table reads
Since 2019, the Disability Belongs™ Entertainment Lab has been achieving two goals:
- Create an ecosystem of disabled creatives supporting each other by developing and elevating a community of disabled entertainment professionals working behind-the-scenes in television, film, and streaming.
- Connect disabled creatives to studio executives and other decision makers who will provide mentorship leading to higher employment rates among the talent pipeline of alumni. No one should have an excuse that they could not find a disabled writer, director, producer, or any other creative professional.
2019 Summer Lab alumni learning from Jonathan Murray
Lab alumni currently are working at Disney, Netflix, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and more.
View previous speakers by viewing past years’ programs on the Entertainment Lab 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, and 2019 pages.
Disability Belongs™ provides ASL interpreters and captioning for all events, and welcomes other accommodations requests.
For questions pertaining to the Entertainment Lab, please contact Isabella Vargas at Lab@DisabilityBelongs.org or 323-315-5718.
Important Details for Lab Applicants
- Fellows should exhibit leadership skills to complete their own projects.
- A bachelor’s degree is not required.
- Commit attendance for all Lab sessions, with exceptions for medical reasons.
- The value of this Lab is thousands of dollars. However, there is no cost to apply for or participate in this competitive program.
- While people at all income levels are encouraged to apply, extra consideration will be given to people on SSI, SNAP, and TANF.
- Up to 20 candidates will be selected for the Virtual Lab. Up to 5 candidates will be selected for each LA-based intensive.
- Your application materials will be evaluated by Disability Belongs™ staff members as well as industry advisors who are experts in each field.
Disability Belongs™ Labs are supported in part by The Golden Globe Foundation
Recipient of The Roddenberry Foundation Impact Award
Entertainment Lab Programmatic Team
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| Lauren Appelbaum SVP, Entertainment & News Media, Lab Founder |
Lawon Exum Entertainment & News Media Director |
Lesley Hennen Senior Associate of Entertainment Pipeline Programming, 2020 Lab Alumna |
Isabella Vargas Entertainment Media Coordinator, 2022 Lab Alumna |
2024 Industry Advisors (2025 to be added soon!)
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| Aisha Becker-Burrowes Disability Belongs™ Advisory Council Co-Founder, FEMINIST |
Christine Cadena Disability Belongs™ Board Vice Chair DEIA Expert |
Stacie de Armas Disability Belongs™ Advisory Council SVP, DEI, Diverse Insights, Intelligence & Initiatives, Nielsen |
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| Nicole Go Disability Belongs™ Advisory Council DEIA Content & Production Manager, Amazon MGM Studios |
Karen Horne Disability Belongs™ Board Member Senior Executive/Diversity Equity + Inclusion Pioneer/Expert |
Noriko Louison Sr. Research and Curriculum Manager, 9 Story Media Group |
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| Kristen McGregor Showrunner / Director / Writer of Kids and Family Content |
Deirdre Morales Children’s Media Writer / Supervising Producer at The Loop Lab |
Roc Su Head of Cultural Consulting, Gold House |
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| Nathan Varni Disability Belongs™ Advisory Council Executive Director of Current Programming, ABC |
Delbert Whetter Lab Co-Founder & Disability Belongs™ Board Vice Chair COO & Head of Business Affairs, Exodus Film Group |
Toby Wong Disability Belongs™ Advisory Council Marketing & Business Executive |
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| Alexander Yellen Director, Daruma, and Director of Photography |
Alumni Reviewers For 2025 Virtual Lab Applications
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| Nasreen Alkhateeb 2019 Entertainment Lab, LA |
Ariel Baska 2022 Entertainment Lab, Virtual 2024 Documentary & Unscripted Intensive, LA |
Asha Chai-Chang 2021 Entertainment Lab, Virtual 2022 Children’s Content Lab, NYC |
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| Jacqueline Gerdne 2022 Entertainment Lab, LA |
Eden Hadad 2022 Entertainment Lab, LA |
Tyler Hoog 2019 Entertainment Lab, LA 2022 Children’s Content Lab, NYC |
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| Jeremy Hsing 2022 Entertainment Lab, LA 2024 Drama Writing Intensive, LA |
Peter Lee 2022 Entertainment Lab, LA |
Toj Mora 2024 Entertainment Lab, Virtual 2024 Documentary & Unscripted Intensive, LA |
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| Ava Rigelhaupt 2020 Entertainment Lab, Virtual 2024 Comedy Writing Intensive, LA |
Diana Romero 2020 Entertainment Lab, Virtual |
Maddy Ullman 2024 Entertainment Lab, Virtual |
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| Diane J Wright 2021 Entertainment Lab, Virtual |
Archive
- 2024: Faculty Advisors and Speakers | Fellows
- 2023: Faculty Advisors and Speakers | Fellows
- 2022: Faculty Advisors and Speakers | Fellows
- 2021: Faculty Advisors and Speakers | Fellows
- 2020: Faculty Advisors and Speakers | Fellows
- 2019: Faculty Advisors and Speakers | Fellows
Screenwriting software Final Draft, which forged a multi-year partnership in 2020 with Disability Belongs™, provided free licenses of Final Draft 13 for all 2024 Virtual Lab Fellows, as well as other educational resources.
