Inside the Career Writer Program

Roadmap Writers is a talent training and discovery platform for screenwriters ready for a guided path to success. Our programs are hosted by working industry executives and are designed to empower writers with actionable tools and insights to elevate your craft and cultivate relationships with industry professionals. Since 2016, we have helped hundreds of writers from all over the world sign to representation, staff on series, and option and produce their projects. Our writers have been staffed on BRIDGERTON, THE FLASH, CHICAGO PD, THE FIRST LADY, NIGHT COURT, THE GOOD DOCTOR, THE RESIDENT, REACHER, SUBJECT TO CHANGE, MAYANS and POKERFACE. Writers have sold, set up and been produced by Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, MGM, American High, New Republic Pictures, Maven Screen Media, Lifetime, Will Packer Studios and Roku. 

Ella Schaefer is a multi-hyphenate originally from Niceville, FL--yep, real place. After heading to LA from Florida State University, an agent told Ella she had a face for comedy, so she took her funny face to UCB, Groundlings and iO to improvise and write.

Ella has since starred on network television shows like CRIMINAL MINDS, LOITER SQUAD and CONAN, professionally developed and sold feature film scripts, and written and directed shorts of her own. Her company, Smokeshow, released her and co-writer Rena Sapon-White’s debut sapphic romcom novel, The Christmas Pic, which was the 2024 Lesfic Bard Award winner for Best New Author. Their sophomore novel, Sweet Talk, was released September 2025. Ella and Rena, in partnership with the producers of SWISS ARMY MAN and WME, are gearing up for their feature directing debut of their script, GOOD VIBES, about a woman who has never orgasmed and the murderous sentient vibrator who can finally get her there. 

William Strong is a USA Today best-selling author and screenwriter/executive producer known for ZOMBIE PLANE, a high-flying action-horror comedy starring Vanilla Ice and Chuck Norris (forever a legend). He approaches storytelling by blending project management and personal development principles to bring ambitious ideas to life. His most recent script is HOME AI:ONE, a psychological-horror thriller unfolding inside an AI-managed home gone rogue.

Justin Liang was born in an adorably quaint Maryland suburb and resides in Los Angeles. He was raised by a sarcastic Japanese mother who accidentally made his English teacher cry, and a Chinese redneck father who proudly wore American flag-pattern pants while riding his Harley Davidson. With parents that vivid, Justin learned early on that life is inherently funny. A visual storyteller at heart, he began his career aiming to become a cinematographer, joining Local 600 and working on shows like COMMUNITY and THE MINDY PROJECT. Watching these hilarious shows go from the script to the screen unearthed his passion for TV Comedy writing. He was a semifinalist for the ABC-Disney Writing Fellowship and penned two sitcoms for HeadquartersTV under Showrunner Barry Vigon (MARTIN & SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH). He is currently repped by Bohemia Group Originals. Justin’s writing celebrates offbeat family dynamics that defy stereotypes—especially the ones he grew up with. When he’s not chasing that perfect punchline, you can find him boxing, reminiscing about playing guitar in his emo-punk band, or missing his Jewish fraternity at Syracuse University.

Emily Roberson grew up in Arkansas in what we called a tight-knit family (now you would say enmeshed), and she spent her entire childhood desperate to leave her home state. Finally she achieved escape velocity, leaving for Brown University (BA/English), and UT- Austin (MA/English). But it turns out that leaving home doesn’t take away the need to balance your needs and ambitions with other people’s, and that theme shows up in all of Emily’s work. These include her award-winning debut novel LIFESTYLES OF GODS & MONSTERS (Macmillan), a retelling of a Greek myth with a reality TV setting, which she has adapted into a screenplay that has been recognized by the Cinestory Foundation and the Austin Film Festival. Across genres, Emily loves writing characters who are pursuing their own goals and dreams without giving up on their families (found and otherwise). This pursuit is very close to her own heart, since she’s married with three teenaged sons. Emily is represented by Stephan Dubreuil at Woolf+Lapin.
 

Maggie Schroeder currently works as a Story Editor on Marshals, a neo-Western television series set in the Yellowstone universe, starring Luke Grimes as Kayce Dutton for CBS. She previously worked as a staff writer for CBS’s SEAL Team. Her childhood in LA and her time in the Pacific Northwest studying theatre (especially depression era drama) continue to inspire and inform her work as she explores themes of belonging, class, and redemption through women-driven mysteries and character-driven procedural dramas. She is a rainy-day puzzle lover and Agatha Christie enthusiast.

MK McGehee is a Los Angeles based, award-winning filmmaker and photographer who began her creative journey in site-specific and experiential theatre around the world. She holds a BFA from NYU Tisch and an MFA from UCSD/La Jolla Playhouse. Formerly the Creative Director of a respected LA indie magazine, she produced print and video shoots with artists like Helen Mirren, Jared Leto, Patricia Clarkson and more.

A queer child of the Deep South, MK grew up torn between the gothic beauty of her home and the quiet anger of being condemned for who she was. That tension—between love and repression—inspired her most recent feature script, HYSTERIA, and continues to shape her voice as an artist. A survivor of violence and profound trauma, she channels her lived experience into bold feminist psychological horror. Her debut short film, THE RE-EDUCATION OF JANE BROWN, screened at over two dozen international festivals, winning multiple Grand Jury Awards including “Best Narrative Short,” “Best Director,” and “Best Horror Short.”

Most recently, MK’s feature script, THE RE-EDUCATION OF JANE BROWN (based on her proof-of-concept short), was selected as one of only twelve screenplays to take part in Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman’s ‘The Writers Lab’ in 2025. It is currently in development with plans to begin production in 2026.

MK is repped by Zero Gravity Management in Los Angeles.