EXCLUSIVE: Fox Leisure has chosen the 4 Fellows for its 2025 Fox Leisure Writers Incubator, an initiative designed to nurture and supply assist to 4 writers of all genres, together with comedy, drama and animation.
Chosen from over 1000 submissions, Melissa Kong, Sagar Vasishtha, Julia Bianco and Nage Gibson-Thompson had been named because the 2025 FWI Fellows.
Marking its fourth yr, the Fox Leisure Writers Incubator initiative is a rigorous three-month workshop targeted on remodeling their materials, honing writing expertise, skilled improvement and an exploration of the media and leisure enterprise. It additionally supplies its Fellows with one-on-one mentorship alternatives with Fox executives and staffed writers.
Following profitable completion of the FWI, Fellows will work throughout sequence produced by Fox Leisure’s in-house manufacturing unit Fox Leisure Studios and Emmy-winning animation studio Bento Field Leisure. Earlier fellows have been staffed on Fox sequence, together with Going Dutch, Animal Management and Rescue: HI-Surf.
“The Fox Leisure Writers Incubator permits us to work with a few of the most proficient rising writers in tv as we speak,” mentioned Fox Tv Community President Michael Thorn. “We welcome Melissa, Sagar, Julia and Nage to this yr’s fellowship and look ahead fostering and creating their inventive expertise, whereas bolstering Fox Leisure’s content material pipeline throughout all genres.”
The Fox Leisure Writers Incubator 2025 Fellows:
ANIMATION
Melissa Kong
Melissa grew up watching The Golden Ladies along with her mother and WWF wrestling matches along with her dad, so it’s no surprise she has the sarcasm of a Sophia Petrillo, the guts of a Rose Nylund, and the showmanship of…effectively, any wrestler. Her humorous and hopeful tales spotlight the underdog all whereas subverting tropes and expectations. She wears her coronary heart on the web page and possibly a meals stain on her shirt. Most not too long ago, she was a showrunner’s assistant on Season Two of Netflix’s The Vince Staples Present. Directing highlights: Don’t Fear About It (Slamdance Movie Pageant), Hey Kiddo (Austin Asian Movie Pageant). Writing highlights: Fantastic World (CAPE Checklist, WIF x Black Checklist finalist, Nicholl quarter-finalist), Tina Fey Is My Buddy (Nicholl Fellowship high 10%, Austin Movie Pageant semi-finalist), Don’t Fear About It (Incapacity Checklist, Nicholl Fellowship high 15%). She earned her MFA in Writing for the Display & Stage from Northwestern College, studied overseas in London at LAMDA, and is a graduate of iO and Second Metropolis. She’s 5 ft tall, has a second-degree black belt, and might do clapping push-ups. She loves writing about what makes individuals particular, particularly herself.
COMEDY
Sagar Vasishtha
Sagar Vasishtha is a author and director at the moment based mostly in Brooklyn, New York. After receiving his diploma in Movie & Non secular Research at Temple College in Philadelphia, PA , he relocated to Los Angeles the place he labored a myriad of assistant gigs for corporations akin to Flame Ventures, Iconoclast and Nameless Content material. He labored because the showrunner’s assistant on the ultimate season of Umbrella Academy, in addition to the exhibits Horizon and Orbital. Whereas in LA, Sagar was an energetic a part of SOUTH ASIAN AF, a comedy collective based mostly out of UCB made up of South Asian comedians and writers, because the digital staff’s lead author and producer. On the time he additionally filmed and launched his first comedy quick Weed Sofa, which went on to be a finalist on the Austin Comedy Movie Fest and Portland Comedy Movie Fest, and semi-finalist at IndieX and Indie Brief. His animatic Rapscallions, a youngsters’s web-series with a give attention to hip-hop, has been proven in a number of music colleges. Presently, Sagar has been staffed on Animal Management for the upcoming new season.
DRAMA
Julia Bianco
Julia Bianco is a author whose fantasy novel Damaged Coven shall be launched by St. Martin’s Press within the US and Headline Publishing Group within the UK in 2026. She labored because the showrunner’s assistant on HBO Max’s Head of the Class and an untitled Roku supernatural dramedy, for which she co-wrote the ultimate episode. Different leisure business jobs embody Odenkirk-Provissiero, Ryan Seacrest Productions and Jon M. Chu’s Electrical Someplace. Her writing has additionally been revealed on the app Chapters and at MTV Information, Humorous or Die, Screenrant, Looper, Cleveland 19 Information and extra.
Nage Gibson-Thompson
Nage Gibson-Thompson is a second-generation Jamaican American drama author from Atlanta, GA. His tales typically make clear people who find themselves balancing between two worlds or, like himself, two cultures. Earlier than discovering himself in LA, Nage has been lucky sufficient to work within the promoting business for a few of the world’s most notable manufacturers like AT&T, Delta Air Traces, Genesis Motors, Lexus and The Ritz-Carlton. This expertise has given him the chance to collaborate with shopper companions, administrators, producers and inventive groups to develop award-winning marketing campaign work inside multicultural markets. As for his writing, he’s a 2024 Sundance Digital Episodic Lab Fellow and has positioned at Austin Movie Pageant. Nage is a graduate of Emerson Faculty. He at the moment lives in LA along with his husband and their three poodles Prince, Elton and Diana.
