H O M E | Elizabeth Keyishian

Elizabeth

Keyishian

About us

about

I am developing new kids' shows and drama shows and working with my new company, Call to Adventure Media, a writer's development company, offering writers rooms and story consultation. I was most recently the Head Writer and Co-Executive Producer for Bea's Block, a new animated preschool series produced by Sesame Workshop and HBO Max. Previously, I was Supervising Producer on Izzy's Koala World for Netflix.

I grew up steeped in drama and literature; my stepfather taught Shakespeare, my mother was an actress turned poet. I knew I wanted to work in theater and acting was my way in. I was bad at waiting by the phone so I turned to writing and got a job on Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years and wrote six episodes.

Just like I was bad at waiting by the phone, I've always hated being placed in a box so my career has alternated between kids animation, hour drama, teaching, consulting, and extremely amateur tap-dancing.

Kids

I've never had a problem getting into the mind of a child.

I started writing for kids animation on Rolie Polie Olie, and then worked on Miss Spider, g2g, The Future is Wild, Babar & The Adventures of Badou, Frankie & Beans, Sheriff Callie's Wild West, Swiss Family Robots, Cosmic Surfari, Sofia The First, Astroblast, Paw Patrol 2, Kuu Kuu Harajuku, Happy Tails, Barbie Dreamtopia, Enchantimals, Butterbeans Café, Sesame Street. I was Supervising Producer on Izzy's Koala World.

Here's a review from the New York Times for Izzy's Koala World.

WINNER for Best Live-Action show by Kidscreen!

And most recently, I was the Head Writer/Co-Exec Producer for Bea's Block, a Sesame Workshop and HBOMax production.

REVIEWS FOR BEA'S BLOCK:

Common Sense Media

https://www.commonsensemedia.org › beas-block

Rotten Tomatoes

https://www.rottentomatoes.com › beas_block

Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com › 2024/03/01 › comm...

And here's ELMO introducing Bea's Block, now on Max, SkyKids, ABC Australia and more!

kids

Drama

drama

As an actor I learned how to interpret a scene, find the subtext, figure out what a character wants and needs, so it was no great leap for me to do it as a writer, creating material for the actors to mine. I started writing drama for television on Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years and wrote six episodes. Then I worked on staff on two other action-adventure dramas, Queen of Swords and Mutant X. I produced my own episodes and learned how to work with budgets and under tight deadlines. I've also written episodes of Dead Zone, Ice Planet, and Dead Man's Gun.

TEACHING + CONSULTING

Imagine the inner sanctum, the pinnacle of creative playgrounds, the land of Incredibles and Toy Stories. I taught six classes in TV and film writing to animators at Pixar on how to embrace actor's tools to inhabit character, as part of their Pixar University program.

I've consulted at Telltale Games, taught master classes at Series Fest, and worked with military veterans for the Writers Guild Foundation’s Veterans Writing Project. I have consulted for Paper on making elementary teachers' classroom live streams more playful and engaging for their students.

My pedagogical approach in the classroom is to bring humor to the struggle. Writers mine their own experience and that can be confronting and troubling, but students learn that it is their own experiences, and especially their own emotional responses to those experiences, that shape their authentic voices. I studied psychology and theatre at Wesleyan University. I got my MFA in screenwriting at California State University, Northridge and immediately started teaching there upon graduation.

In the past few years, I've taught at The University of Southern California, Pepperdine University, and Stephens College Low Residency MFA Program. I now teach at University of Melbourne.