CAA has launched a new database, Amplify Database, a searchable directory for some 800 TV writers of color.
The database was unveiled Thursday morning at the agency’s second annual Amplify summit. Made up of 808 writers, Amplify Database will be free to use for studios, showrunners and networks. It can be accessed here.
“We initially conceived the Amplify Database as a resource for our clients and buyers to help them make the most informed and inclusive decisions when addressing the needs of their shows,” said Christy Haubegger, CAA’s Head of Multicultural Business Development. “With the marketplace appetite for diverse voices at an all-time-high, we saw the larger potential value in this resource and decided to maximize its impact by sharing it with the entertainment industry.”
The second annual Amplify conference, held in Ojai, Calif., is the agency’s leadership summit focusing on social justice and diversity issues.
The list breaks down each member by gender, genre specialty, ethnicity and experience. Currently, membership in the database is 46 percent black, 28 percent Asian, 23 percent Latino and 3 percent Native American. Writers had to have at least one TV credit on a broadcast, cable or streaming service show within the last five years. It’s available to non-CAA represented writers.
A report released last fall by Color of Change, a civil-rights advocacy group, found that more than 90 percent of showrunners are white and two-thirds of shows had no writers of color at all.