Wendy Calhoun
A boundary-pushing storyteller who moves fluidly across formats, screens, and continents.
Her scripted television credits range from co-executive producer on the culture-defining first season of Fox's Empire, writer-producer on the debut seasons of The Rookie: Feds, Prodigal Son, Station 19, Revenge, Nashville, and Justified — honored on the WGA's 101 Best Written TV Series of the last century and recognized with a Peabody Award. She has received two WGA Best New Series nominations.
She is currently developing a new scripted series inspired by DeVon Franklin's It Takes a Woman with CBS Studios for Netflix. After developing over a dozen new series, she's always crafting a fresh story to take to market — including a feature, a TV series, and microdrama pitches this spring.
In 2025, she directed Secrets of Vixen, the CandyJar app's first all-Black cast vertical soap — assembling an Atlanta crew of women and people of color in key roles. The experience ignited a deep dive into vertical filmmaking as an emerging cinematic language, leading her to teach the format most recently at the Directors Guild of Slovenia, Trieste's American Corner, and the University of Rome.
Beyond the writers' room, Wendy serves on the board of the Geena Davis Institute, mentors through Film Independent's Global Media Makers program, and has spoken at the Clinton Global Initiative, Harvard Medical School, Sundance, and the Austin Film Festival.
An honored NYU Tisch alumna. Based in Los Angeles. Always in motion.
UPCOMING EVENTS
VIP Guest, Vertical Drama Love Fan Awards
El Portal Theater | North Hollywood April 23, 2026 | 6:00 PM PT
The first fan-voted awards ceremony celebrating English-language vertical drama, drawing nominations from over 5,000 fans across 100 countries.
Panelist, SeriesFest, Micro Dramas, Major Impact
Tattered Cover Basement, Denver, May 9, 2026 | 4:30 PM MDT
Bite-sized storytelling is having an outsized impact. Wendy joins MicroCo CEO Jana Winograde and CCO Susan Rovner to discuss the rise of microdramas, how short-form serialized content is reshaping creative workflows, and who's leading the way.
Delegate, Science with the Dalai Lama
Dharamsala, India, May, 2026
Wendy travels to Dharamsala as part of an intentionally small delegation hosted by the Templeton Foundation and the National Academies. She'll be joining researchers and Tibetan Buddhist monks at the intersection of contemplative practice and modern science in a meeting with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.
