Emily Cheever’s career was just getting started.
The 36-year-old began her TV writing career in 2020 as a writers’ production assistant and script coordinator for Legends of Tomorrow before getting hired as a staff writer for ABC’s The Company You Keep. After the drama that marked Milo Ventimiglia’s follow-up to This Is Us was canceled following a single season shortly after the Writers Guild of America strike began last May, Cheever had no job to return to when it ended in September. Like scores of other writers of all levels and backgrounds, she doesn’t know when or where her next paycheck will come from.
“People are scared. I’m trying to go back to bartending,” she says. “A lot of people are wondering what other jobs they can do. I’m close with my old showrunners, and they’re supportive of me, but they’re looking for jobs.”
