Support Staff 102: Showrunner’s Assistant

The most complicated point of contact you’ll ever be.

This is the second installment in a series on Support Staff roles. These are the people who are part of the Writers’ Room, but not writers themselves, for purposes of the show. They’re a great way to gain access, connections, and understanding, but they’re also hard work for low pay. (For the first installment, which could have been called “Harder work for lower pay,” see our entry on the Writers’ Production Assistant.)

So onto the second rung of the ladder, if you climb it in the most traditional way: The Showrunner’s Assistant.

First question: What’s a Showrunner? There are many people on a television show whose title appears as Executive Producer. This includes a few studio, network, and production company people, maybe a Supervising Director, maybe somebody in the cast without whom the show wouldn’t have sold. It’s the MVPs. The people whose contributions are most essential to the existence of the show, if not its execution. But in the Writers’ Room, at least for the first season, there’s usually only one EP: The Showrunner.

Executive Producer is the highest title, but there still needs to be a Head Chef. The word “Showrunner” won’t appear in the credits, but everyone knows who it is. The final decision-maker, and the one with whom the buck stops. Often, (especially in the first season,) this is the creator of the show, or a title shared between the creator and a more experienced producer.

So as their assistant, you are an essential hub for communication between the Writers’ Room and the rest of the world. You manage their calendar, keep away unwanted visitors, and organize wanted ones. If the Writers’ Room wants to send an ice cream van to set for Valentine’s Day, for example, you’re going to find a few businesses, get quotes, collect the money, make the payment, and be the point of contact on the day.

To be clear, this is an Assistant TO THE Regional Manager situation, not an Assistant Regional Manager one. The Showrunner’s Assistant is very close to the Showrunner, present in many of their meetings, privy to much of their communications, but purely there to enable them to work smoothly. It’s a rare Showrunner that solicits creative input from their assistant. (That said, I have known several SA’s who made themselves so essential to their Showrunner’s work that they wound up with Associate Producer credits on shows, and in some cases went on to have marvelous careers in that capacity.)

What makes a great SA? Let’s start with a list of all the qualities I lack and go from there, shall we? Mostly, an SA is organized. They are always listening, always writing things down. A huge part of the job is triage, so you need to know which meetings to interrupt for which calls. You have to protect your SR from bullshit problems and make sure serious ones are put in front of them, immediately. This means knowing what they care about. You have to be able convey urgency without rushing them, usually by keeping track of how high the person asking is on the callsheet. (Sorry; that’s how it works.) You never let them forget a meeting, but if they decide to prioritize something else, you’re the one who makes the apologies.

And another thing I’m bad at: You have to be a rolodex. An SR once told me, “Hey, I need to talk to the head of Amazon at lunch,” right as he headed into the room for the morning. I figured out who he meant, (the head of the studio, not Jeff Bezos. It’s Jenn Salke, now, but it was someone else at the time,) and then sent 911 texts to every single person I knew in Hollywood burning all my favors in search of his assistant’s phone number. (If I’d been smart, I would have called the SR’s agent’s assistant and had them set the call, but I was stupid.) I got it done by the skin of my fucking teeth and with very little grace.

How do you get the job? Well, in our last post on Support Staff, we talked about the Writers’ Production Assistant. A lot of SA’s graduated from that position between seasons or series with an adequately impressed SR. But anyone who has managed a desk before and wants to get closer to the writing process can make their intentions known to their contacts. Someone’s always looking for a really good assistant.

Where do I go from here? You’ll learn a lot in this role. You might decide that you’re really into this producing stuff and try to find another role for yourself similar to this one. But if what you’re trying to do is break in as a writer, you’ll want to use this position to get your brilliant script into as many hands as possible, and to get yourself promoted to Writers’ Assistant or Script Coordinator. (Posts on those positions coming, soon.) Advice on how to demonstrate a worthiness to advance is similar to that in our WPA post—make a strong impression and have a really good sample ready—but with one added suggestion:

The Writers’ Assistant and Script Coordinator will, at some point, find themselves buried. It’s inevitable. And it benefits you to be able to step in to help. If the WA needs to step away, you want to be the person they have sit in their chair while they’re gone. If the Script Coordinator has to distribute two scripts at once, you want to be the person they ask to proofread one of them. The only way to be this person is to study up. Show interest in what they’re doing. Always read the room notes, always compare the draft the writer sent to the one the SC sent out. Ask questions. Be available. Let them know they can trust you to make them look good if they share their load.

There are two reasons for this: First of all, it’s good citizenship. It’s team player behavior. It makes the workplace better and the show easier to make. Second, it qualifies you for the higher positions by letting the SR and other upper-level writers see you doing the work.

Okay, that’s all on this job. The main thing is, if you get it, take notes. You’re going to create the boundaries of the role specific to each SR and show. You might be the one who finds and rents the office. You’ll certainly be the one onboarding the other support staff. And who knows? There could be a lot I just haven’t come across. You’ll figure it out.

Watch this space for posts on Writers’ Assistants and Script Coordinators.