Come meet the founders and hosts of "The Diversity Hires," a podcast that focuses on the business and culture of writing for film and television from a distinctly Black point of view. Hosted by professional screenwriters Sherman Payne and Shukree Hassan Tilghman, their podcast explores the craft, business, art and commerce of the screenwriting trade.

Sherman Payne is a screenwriter, originally from Ohio, now living and working in L.A. He attended Wright State University, where he received a B.F.A. in Film Production, and later Columbia University, earning an M.F.A. in Screenwriting. Sherman has written projects for MTV, BET, The CW, Warner Bros. TV, Sony Pictures Classics, Blumhouse, and Amazon, among others. In 2020, his debut feature film CHARM CITY KINGS premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, which was awarded a Special Jury Award. It is currently available on HBO Max. Most recently, Sherman was a writer and producer on Showtime's hit series SHAMELESS, which just concluded its final season.

Shukree Hassan Tilghman mined the depths of the reality-show world as an editor cutting “redneck reality” and house flipping shows until he was saved by a job as a writer on the USA drama series SATISFACTION. He went on to write on the CW series The VAMPIRE DIARIES and penned the pilot TEMPEST for UNIVERSAL CABLE PRODUCTIONS and NBC. Recently, Shukree spent two seasons as a writer and Producer on the Emmy nominated NBC series THIS IS US and developed and wrote drama pilots at both HBO and HULU. Currently, he is a writer and Co-Executive Producer on the TNT drama ANIMAL KINGDOM and is writing and developing a drama series at HBO MAX.

Shukree has also produced and directed non-fiction projects including the PBS documentary film MORE THAN A MONTH, a tongue-in-cheek journey to end Black History Month, and THE MARCH @50, a PBS.org short documentary series about the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington. Shukree received a B.F.A. in Film and Television from New York University and an M.F.A. in Screenwriting from Columbia University.

Here is the link to the podcast "Diversity Hires"

Here is the link to the film "More Than a Month"