Sam Watson  

Biography

My name is Sam Watson, and I'm a Black, biracial, Ukrainian-American television writer. My identity is a patchwork of pierogies, collard greens and a whole lot of messiness. So writing about identity and the strain and expectations that society puts on our identities is really important to me. Also, generational trauma runs deep in both sides of my family. The trauma of racism on my dad's side and the trauma of war and genocide on my Ukrainian side (my grandparents came to America as refugees after Stalin's famine and World War II). So writing about how trauma informs our actions and how oppressive systems shape our identities are staples of my work, and exactly what I wish to bring to the small screen as a television writer.

I was a winner in the 2023 Creative Screenwriting Unique Voices contest, a semifinalist in the 2023 Atlanta Film Festival and the 2023 Nashville Festival, and my scripts have also been a Second Rounder for the Austin Film Festival, featured on Coverfly's The Red List and placed in various other contests and film festivals with both scripts and a produced satire short called WOKE, which I co-wrote and produced. I also have a journalism background from Temple University and have freelanced for various print publications and websites in the past.