Meet Janelle Gatchalian | Screenwriter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Janelle Gatchalian and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Janelle, what role has risk played in your life or career?
Risk for me is all about baring your insides, and making yourself vulnerable to exposure. That’s scary! I grew up in Manila, Philippines and was creative as a child. I created books with stories out of the paper my dad brought home from his job at the printing press. Yet I didn’t imagine I could carve a career as a writer. For the first 25 years of my life, I was afraid to take risks and make myself vulnerable.

Moving to America when I was 12 changed everything. I completely stopped being creative. I became an immigrant first and foremost. Immigrants risk everything—they shed their old lives—in order to get a second chance at surviving elsewhere.

As a new immigrant, I felt like I couldn’t bare any more of my body and soul. My family coming to America was enough of a risk. Any other chances could jeopardize our new life. I became obsessed with being perfect and buried any form of vulnerability. I practiced my American accent to death. But then I got bullied for wearing Payless knockoffs of Adidas sneakers. I felt like I was busted as an outsider. I grew a shell, what I imagined to be thicker skin at the time. I played down my creative self. I focused my attention on books and computers. They became my friends—sadly—because they didn’t ask me questions about my identity. Mind you, I was 12 and in middle school. I had no competence to make risk assessments or strategize about my personal brand at all. For another decade, I kept myself as small as possible.

Five years ago, in my late 20s, was when I was able to shift my perspective. I had gotten out of a long-term relationship and finally came out of my shell. I went on a solo trip to Machu Picchu with little money. I had studied art history in college and worked as a research assistant for a professor. My job included putting together slides of architectural sites in Latin America—a place I had never been to. When I was finally able to visit an Incan ancient site that only existed in my imagination and pieced together from books, I was surprised. It’s obviously way more amazing in person!

But the one surprise I didn’t expect was that the trip led me to meet someone who got me a job in TV. I found my way in through tech—I became really good at computers! I went on to work as a product manager for five years, interfacing with really smart software engineers mostly on digital entertainment projects. On the side, I read and wrote scripts, believing I had my own worthwhile stories to tell. I also networked with my colleagues and development executives. At some point during my general meetings with execs, we would arrive at the part where they ask me, “if you want to be a TV writer, why aren’t you in a writers’ room?” That’s when I knew my attitude and initiative were no longer sufficient. At that time, I didn’t have any connections to people hiring for writers’ rooms. I was also still afraid to leave my very stable career in tech. But I felt this burning desire growing stronger to fulfill the creative side from my childhood that I had repressed for so long.

So in February of this year, I took In the Cut’s show support video course. It teaches BIPOC creatives how to be support staff in a writers’ room. After I took the course, my name was added to a database that was accessible to showrunners hiring for support staff positions.

A month later, I got an email that changed my life! A showrunner found my name on the database. She was hiring for a writers’ PA for a writers’ room for a series coming to HBO Max. This was the moment I was waiting for to start my journey as a TV writer. I took a giant leap of faith, left my job as a product manager, and transitioned to becoming a writers’ PA.

My transition out of tech is the biggest risk I’ve taken and I’m still a little scared. Now, I have to rely on my storytelling ability to support myself. No more hiding behind computers! That said, I know I won’t expose myself like I feared I would when I was 12, because now I’m equipped with all of the perspective in the world. I know what it’s like to hide in the shadows, able to protect your vulnerability, but shackled from being yourself. It’s lonely! I’d rather make myself vulnerable by telling my own stories than play it safe, and risk not being able to tell my stories at all.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I took my first screenwriting course in 2018 and I’ve been writing screenplays since then. People have told me that “it’s a marathon, not a sprint,” so I try to be patient and just enjoy the ride. Writing a pilot script takes months of research, writing, and revision. That’s a lot of time feeling like you’re knocking your head against the wall! To slow myself down, and re-energize, I take a break from the computer and live life, interact with people, and walk my dog, so that I always have something to write about when I return to my desk.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I live in Koreatown because of the food and the character of the architecture. Parking sucks here, so I would take a friend around the neighborhood by walking. We would go to the Alchemist Project for coffee. Iki Ramen (don’t let the fact that they offer ramen and sushi deter you) for a no-fluff sushi lunch. In the afternoon, we could drive to Echo Park with my dog and walk around, so we can be ready to have hearty dumplings at MDK Noodles for dinner!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I owe my first writers’ room gig to Rae Benjamin, who developed the In the Cut show support initiative. She recognized that there was a barrier to entry for BIPOC creatives to enter writers’ rooms and did something about it! I highly recommend the course and database on https://inthecutla.org/itc-showsupport

The course is free and all you need to access it is curiosity!

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JanelleBiancaG

Image Credits
Pictured: Janelle and her English Springer Spaniel dog Pepper writing. Janelle and her family. Janelle, boyfriend Jessie, and Pepper. Janelle in Machu Picchu in 2017.