Filmmaker Spotlight: Chelsea Catalanotto
Honored by the Writers Guild of America West as part of its 2019 TV Writer Access Project, comedian, filmmaker and screenwriter Chelsea Catalanotto (recently a story editor and staff writer for the CW’s popular comedy/drama iZombie) has made her mark in both short-form and episodic comedy.
During her four years studying at Sarah Lawrence College, Catalanotto received a rich education in comedy by writing and performing sketches for the SLC Lampoon, and by lending her talents to the school’s satirical newspaper, Full Frontal (no relation to Samantha Bee’s TBS series).
Upon her graduation from SLC in 2012, Catalanotto would see for herself how complex the process of producing a weekly comedy would be when she spent two years working on the most revered comedic institution on TV: Saturday Night Live.
That experience provided Catalanotto with an appreciation for the elite talent that worked nearly non-stop to prepare for the challenges of doing a live comedy broadcast each week, and the motivation for Catalanotto to chart a path for her own career in humor.
That path started just as Catalanotto’s duties on SNL continued. In addition to writing digital content for the People’s Improv Theatre, Catalanotto wrote and directed for two sketch troupes that she co-founded: LOSERBAR Films and Sextape Comedy. Those skits originally appeared on the comedy web platform Splitsider (now Vulture), Funny or Die and CollegeHumor, and Catalanotto’s work can be seen on her Vimeo channel (link below).
With her work being seen by former NBC and CBS president Jeff Sagansky, Catalanotto would achieve her biggest creative breakthrough when one of Sagansky’s most successful discoveries — famed TV writer/producer Rob Thomas (Veronica Mars, Party Down) — read an original sitcom pilot written by Catalanotto.
That pilot moved Thomas to hire Catalanotto as a story editor and staff writer for the final 2 seasons of the CW comedy/drama iZombie. The series follows Seattle medical examiner Liv Moore (played by Rose McIver), who after getting bitten by a zombie during a party, is instantly given the power to help solve crimes by consuming the brains of victims; an ability that results in Liv being able to visualize precisely what those victims saw before their demise.
Encouraged by Thomas, co-executive producer Diane Ruggiero-Wright and her colleagues in the iZombie cast and crew, Catalanotto learned as much about the inner workings of a TV writers’ room as she did the mechanics of writing an episodic script. That knowledge paid off when Catalanotto wrote 2 episodes of the series (season 4’s tenth episode, “Yipee-Ki-Brain, Motherscratcher!” and season 5’s seventh episode “Filleted To Rest”).
Now with multiple projects in development, including the space-set sitcom Colonize This (featured on Catalanotto’s Writers Guild of America profile page, link below) and the very script that brought Catalanotto to Thomas’ attention, Catalanotto is definitely a rising star in comedy entertainment. Yet, her own journey to success in that profession started when a caretaker’s mishap taught Catalanotto a lesson in the power of creativity.
What made you want to get into writing, and how did you first become involved in the craft?
Chelsea Catalanotto: My dad’s a children’s book author and illustrator and my mom’s a photographer, so the arts were an integral part of my childhood. When I was ten, my babysitter accidentally broke our TV. She tried to move it closer to the couch and it toppled off the stand and shattered. She was sure my parents were going to fire her, but when my dad got home, he slipped her an extra twenty bucks and thanked her.
My parents didn’t buy a new TV until I was around 17, so out of sheer boredom, I started writing stories on my dad’s word processor. I would go over to my friend’s house to watch (the ’90s Nickelodeon sketch comedy) All That and Saturday Night Live, and we started making our own sketches on her family’s video camera. I then got really into The Kids in the Hall, Mr. Show and The State, as well as people who were making their own content during the Golden Age of YouTube.
You’ve spent years as a comedy writer, going back to your time as an improv performer/writer while attending Sarah Lawrence College. How did that experience help you to find your own creative voice and perspective?
CC: Right before I transferred to Sarah Lawrence, I was actually on the verge of dropping out of college. I was a terrible test-taker and just didn’t feel like the education I was receiving was worth the money. SLC (Sarah Lawrence College) was unlike any school I’d ever heard of — it has this hippie-commune vibe where everyone’s a writer in some form, and there are no grades. You write 15 page papers instead of taking finals.
When I was a junior, I weaseled my way into a comedy class where we were taught Commedia dell’ Arte (a style of improv comedy that spread throughout Europe from the 16th to the 18th century) and the assigned reading was (legendary comedy teacher) Del Close’s “Truth in Comedy”, and I lived for that class.
My professor asked if I wanted to write for the school’s improv team, and simultaneously, my friends and I started our own sketch group (the SLC Lampoon) and satirical newspaper (Full Frontal). It was the first time I had a deadline to make something funny, and I loved it.
After graduating from Sarah Lawrence College, you worked as an intern (and later production assistant) on Saturday Night Live. What were your memories of working on that show?
CC: SNL was the first job that really taught me how to hustle. The first year I was an intern, so it was mostly just waiting around and getting coffee while trying not to puke from excitement because I could hear Kristen Wiig pitching. The second year I was a Digital Shorts PA (production assistant) and my friend Tim (Velsor, fellow SNL PA and co-member w/Catalanotto in comedy troupe Sextape Comedy) and I drove a box truck around New York and picked up props.
We’d be in Queens at one pickup and we’d get a call telling us we needed to be in South Brooklyn in 20 minutes…in rush hour. It was impossible. But the higher-ups had an even bigger, impossible task looming over their heads, everyone’s sleep deprived, and somehow, we got it all done. It was magical and exhausting and some of the best and worst days of my life so far.
What did you learn about comedy from the time you spent working on SNL, and how did you apply those lessons to your own early efforts in that craft?
CC: I realized that the way people pitched at SNL wasn’t that much different from how my friends and I thought up our own sketch ideas and bounced them off each other. Obviously, the cast of SNL was way funnier and more experienced than we were, but it made me feel like I could get to that place one day if I kept hustling.
At the same time, you wrote several sketches for the People’s Improv Theatre YouTube channel (PitTV), plus skits you did for two other sketch troupes you founded (Sextape Comedy and LOSERBAR Films). How did working on those sketches help you to develop your skills as a writer and as a collaborator in the filmmaking process?
CC: I’ve been lucky to work with a group of insanely talented people who weren’t afraid to experiment and were excited to devote their weekends and free time to making stuff. It was always baffling to write something you thought would turn out hilarious, and then it wouldn’t translate as well when it was shot. Or vice-versa, and we’d all be pleasantly surprised!
It taught me not to be too precious with ideas and to stay open-minded and collaborative, and I see similarities in the room when it comes to writing for TV. It’s a team sport, and the more minds on a project, the better it usually turns out.
For the past 2 seasons, you’ve been a story editor on the CW comedy/drama iZombie. How and when did that opportunity come about for you, and what were your feelings when you first found out that you’d be working on the show?
CC: I was lucky enough to be introduced to Jeff Sagansky, who was the president of NBC and CBS and helped develop Cheers, among many other shows. He’s also one of the most generous people I’ve ever met, someone who truly champions young writers.
He saw some of my filmed sketches and asked if I had ideas for a TV pilot. I wrote a stoner comedy, which he helped me tighten up and sent it over to Rob Thomas, because, it turns out, he started Rob’s career back in the day. When I found out I was staffed on iZombie, I was simultaneously elated and terrified.
In terms of where it ranks on the writers’ room food chain, what does a story editor do and how does that job tie to the work of the show’s writing staff?
CC: I think a story editor has a different role in each writer’s room, but in terms of iZombie, Rob gives us a lot of responsibility at a lower level. I’ve heard of writer’s rooms where you don’t speak unless you’re mid-level or above, but there were times where I would lead the writers’ room when Rob and the EP’s (executive producers) had to step out to handle production-related tasks. As a staff writer, I was on set for 3 days — this year I was on set for 2 weeks (the duration of my episode). I’ve learned so much from Rob’s camp in the last 2 years.
You eventually wrote 2 episodes of iZombie. How did being a story editor on the show prepare you for writing and collaborating with the show’s cast and crew on those episodes?
CC: When you’re on set, your job is to represent the showrunner. So, I essentially acted as the voice of the writers’ room and would flag choices that might be tonally different than what had been discussed. However, the iZombie cast and crew are a talented, well-oiled machine, so my job was fairly easy!
What was it like working with everyone involved in iZombie — namely its executive producers Rob Thomas (Veronica Mars, Party Down) and Diane Ruggiero-Wright, plus its cast and writers?
CC: Working with Rob and Diane is a best-case scenario for a staff writer. Writing for a showrunner poses a different kind of challenge from writing for yourself, because you have to essentially mimic another voice. Rob used to be a high school teacher, and between my first and second script on iZombie, he straight up taught me how to write a script for someone else.
Diane slings jokes harder and faster than anyone I’ve ever met, and I would mostly sit in the room and silently worship her. The entire writers’ room was such a welcoming and supportive environment that I never felt worried about pitching as lower-level.
You recently wrote an original sitcom pilot script called Colonize This. What’s it about, how did you come up with the concept for it, and are there any plans for it to be produced as a series?
CC: I grew up watching a lot of “dudes trying to get laid” movies (American Pie, Superbad, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, you know what I’m talking about) where it shows the ridiculous lengths guys go to lose their virginity. Colonize This is about a woman who wants to bang an astronaut so badly that she’s accidentally sent to Mars. I guess I wanted to show that women do crazy things to get laid, too, and I wanted to take that concept to an insane and surreal level.
Besides Colonize This, what other projects/shows are you working on now?
CC: I’m actually developing a DC Comics graphic novel with Rob (Thomas), and that stoner comedy I mentioned earlier with Sony TV. My friend Lila (Mensing, fellow SLC alum) and I are also talking about doing a podcast called Probed. For the first half of the show, we’ll delve into an alien encounter throughout history… and the second half is dedicated to “probing” a guest for hot gossip or a dark secret.
I also just did a live sketch show at UCB (Upright Citizens Brigade) this summer called Gross Gross Gals with some of my Sarah Lawrence Lampoon friends. It was the first time we’d worked together in about seven years! I’m hoping we’ll do another next year. I was given the advice once that creativity is a muscle and you should “ABW (Always Be Writing)”, so I like to make sure I always have something to work on.
Follow Catalanotto on Twitter: @C_atalanotto
Watch some of Catalanotto’s sketches on Vimeo:
https://vimeo.com/chelseacatalanotto
Read Catalanotto’s script Colonize This on the WGA West web site:
https://www.wga.org/members/programs/tvwap/2019/comedy/chelsea-catalanotto
