Meet Arun Miriyala | Screenwriter

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

Hi Arun, what habits do you feel helped you succeed?
Meditation. Particularly as a writer, I can’t think of a more useful skill that I picked up. Cultivating that more concentrated awareness allows me to sink deeper into my writing and extract more from the art I engage with. Feelings can be so tricky, muddled, and confusing, so having a tool to untangle them when you get creatively blocked or depressed is invaluable.
Also, a lot of being a writer is about tinkering that fraught relationship with two quantities: time and uncertainty. This involves learning to be okay with discomfort and uncertainty and perhaps allowing yourself to be open to notions you wouldn’t normally consider (particularly when you’re in between drafts). So much of developing your skill as a writer is purely the amount of reps you can sustain over a period of time, which puts emotional stability and resilience at a premium. I never, and still don’t feel, like I’m brilliant or the most talented writer out there. But there is a feeling that I can compensate for that by just hanging around long enough.

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.
It sounds cliche, but grit set me apart from most others. I’m proud of how I hung in there. I went through a full decade of no recognition or success. I couldn’t even get an assistant job out of college. I remember staying late working a job where I was cleaning urine off balls in a ball pit… on my 24th birthday (a poor kid peed himself, it’s a whole thing…). In retrospect, the only constant was a kind of endurance. I was extremely hungry and got addicted to getting better, and with enough reps, I did. To the point that I got excited about notes and feedback instead of dreading that process. At a certain point, I got good enough that I don’t think my writing could be ignored anymore. The pieces I worked on blended and disguised genre in a way that felt unique. I’m not sure I would’ve found that style if I had gotten success too early.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I am a shockingly boring homebody, so my best time ever is doing nothing at home in my sweatpants.

BUT, I would put some effort in for this person and take them on a nice hike somewhere. Maybe Runyon? I would have to show them my favorite taco I’ve ever had: Bee’s Taqueria. That place is amazing.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I definitely have to thank my family. Writing did not feel like a viable career path given the extraordinary obstacles that have occurred recently (a pandemic, a writer’s strike, the explosion in A.I., etc). There were various points where I lost hope that I could actually do this. Grad school was thrown around. I certainly felt quite lost for most of my my 20s. I’m happy that my family defied all of the cliches of the “Indian American family” and never once wavered their support for me.
Also, my girlfriend. She’s the best thing that’s happened in my life. Having someone believe in you that much is infectious.

I also have to thank CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment), a diversity program in Hollywood. There aren’t that many Indian screenwriters out there unfortunately and they were the first writing fellowship to give me a shot after a full decade of nothing going my way.

Instagram: @arunscape1

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arun-miriyala-11936b102/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amiriyala1/

Other: https://writers.coverfly.com/profile/writer-f7498943a-41261

Image Credits
Chase Baxter (for professional headshot)
CAPE USA
Variety