Slowly but surely, the entertainment world is finally starting to represent the real world — not only with its casting, but also with its production crews. Part of this shift in representation is due to an increase in diverse writers and producers behind the scenes, such as these TCKs who are pulling for diversity on big and small screens alike.
Phil Lord
Phil Lord, often associated with writing partner Chris Miller, has written and produced many hit television series and movies, including “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” The Lego Movie and Into the Spiderverse, to name a few. Born in Miami, Florida, United States, Lord grew up with an American father and a Cuban mother. Like other TCKs and CCKs, his experience has had vast influences on the content he creates, as many of his characters have hidden diversity and defy stereotypes perpetuated in the entertainment business. In Into the Spiderverse, for example, protagonist Miles Morales is a Puerto Rican and Black, teenage superhero. And in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, viewers learn to accept the differences of others and not see those differences as a threat.
Demi Adejuyigbe
Before working as a writer on shows, such as “The Good Place” and “The Late Late Show with James Corden,” this London-born 20-something, who moved with his family to Plano, Texas, U.S. at 5 years old, got his start on Twitter. And it’s no wonder he appealed to so many — the cultural mobility that makes him so invaluable in the writer’s room was also a draw to the masses on social media. His work seems to be influenced by his parents’ Nigerian culture, as well as the British and American cultures he’s experienced throughout his life.
Janet Mock
Rounding out this list of TCKs is Janet Mock, a domestic TCK and trans woman from the United States who was born in Hawaii to an African-American father and a native Hawaiian mother. She moved to California as a child to live with her father before moving back to Honolulu, Hawaii as a pre-teen, where she found greater acceptance of who she was. At age 21, she left Hawaii to get her master’s degree in journalism from New York University, and currently, she is a producer for FX’s television series “Pose” — a show that is very representative of hidden diversity, as well as the LGBTQ+ community.
After generations of seeing the same groups represented on television, the entertainment industry is finally becoming more diverse and representative of the real world, thanks in part to TCKs like the people mentioned here. Having diverse individuals in positions of power, whether in the writer’s room or in a producer’s role, creates more opportunities for new stories.
