Just five years ago, if you told Michele Giannusa that she’d be living in Los Angeles and pursuing a writing career, she’d say you were crazy. She was working a great job and living a comfortable life in New Jersey, near where she grew up in Brooklyn, New York. 

“I was writing but I wasn’t sure how hardcore to pursue it,” Giannusa said.

Giannusa graduated from The New School with a concentration in screenwriting. Although she still wasn’t sure she’d pursue her writing passion, she decided to take a writing class post-graduation at the Gotham Writers’ Workshop in New York City to ensure her writing continued and to get feedback from fellow writers. It was in that workshop that Giannusa met her instructor and soon-to-be mentor, Jason Greiff, the person she credits for her screenwriting success.

“Jason told me, ‘You just have it and you have to pursue screenwriting,’” Giannusa said.

“At the time, I had written a parenthood spec and I loved it so much and I was like, ‘I think I want to keep doing this.’”

Greiff also recommended that Giannusa start entering her work in national writing competitions.

“So I started writing more specs, entering competitions, and then I started to win,” Giannusa said.

Every time Giannusa would win a competition she was asked, “So, when are you moving to LA?” 

In 2013, Giannusa traveled to LA for a couple of weeks to take generals.

“I met some people and it was awesome and I was like, ‘I really think I want to be here,’ I just didn’t know how to make that happen.”

Around this time, Giannusa said she got a call from her sister who was moving to California with her family for an extended period of time. Giannusa took it as a sign that it was her chance to pursue a writing career. She moved to Los Angeles in 2014.

“I joined five to six different writers event groups,” Giannusa said. “But it was hard to put myself out there.”

Eventually, Giannusa decided to start entering her work into competitions and fellowships. Months went by and Giannusa didn’t hear anything from anyone. At the same time, her sister’s family moved back to New Jersey and she was left feeling alone.

“A month after my sister left, I was on the phone with her and I said, ‘I don’t know if I can do this. I don’t know if I’m strong enough,’ and she says, ‘You’re going to have to push yourself through.”

About a week later, Giannusa heard back from the NBCUniversal fellowship competition: She was a finalist in their program, chosen out of 2,200 applicants. In 2015, Giannusa found out she was accepted into the program.

“I went from not knowing anyone then going onto the universal lot and being a part of the NBC writers program,” Giannusa said.

From 2015 to 2016 Giannusa participated in the program, writing new pilots and specs, learning how a writers’ room is run and meeting agents and managers in Hollywood. 

After the program, through a contact she made, Giannusa signed with a manager. Since that time, her success has been on the rise.

In 2017, Giannusa learned her pilot Ripple was chosen to go to London’s C21 festival. She was the only American chosen to pitch against five other writers on stage in front of hundreds of people. The winner would receive an official option with Entertainment One. Three days into the conference, Giannusa found out she won the competition. 

“I have an official option with them and we’re going to producers …” Giannusa said.

“While that’s happening, I’m trying to get staffed.”

Giannusa found employment in December of 2018 working as a consulting producer on a Snapchat series called Dead Girls Detective Agency.

“I’m riding this wave,” Giannusa said.

“Since I got here, I never in a million years thought I’d get into a network program nine months in here. I didn’t know anyone who got me in the door. I’m grateful for opportunities like that. I can say I’m one of those people who has no way in and then, there it was.”

Giannusa’s dream is to be a showrunner for her own series — specifically her pilot Ripple — that she said has been a heart and soul project, written from her experiences.

“It’s a one-hour drama, up there with This Is Us, but mine is about a group of four strangers who become family. It’s something I got used to over time and learning how to trust people.”