EXCLUSIVE: Fox Entertainment has selected the four Fellows for its 2025 Fox Entertainment Writers Incubator, an initiative designed to nurture and provide support to four writers of all genres, including comedy, drama and animation.
Selected from over 1000 submissions, Melissa Kong, Sagar Vasishtha, Julia Bianco and Nage Gibson-Thompson were named as the 2025 FWI Fellows.
Marking its fourth year, the Fox Entertainment Writers Incubator initiative is a rigorous three-month workshop focused on reworking their material, honing writing skills, professional development and an exploration of the media and entertainment business. It also provides its Fellows with one-on-one mentorship opportunities with Fox executives and staffed writers.
Following successful completion of the FWI, Fellows will work across series produced by Fox Entertainment’s in-house production unit Fox Entertainment Studios and Emmy-winning animation studio Bento Box Entertainment. Previous fellows have been staffed on Fox series, including Going Dutch, Animal Control and Rescue: HI-Surf.
“The Fox Entertainment Writers Incubator enables us to work with some of the most talented emerging writers in television today,” said Fox Television Network President Michael Thorn. “We welcome Melissa, Sagar, Julia and Nage to this year’s fellowship and look forward fostering and developing their creative skills, while bolstering Fox Entertainment’s content pipeline across all genres.”
The Fox Entertainment Writers Incubator 2025 Fellows:
ANIMATION
Melissa Kong
Melissa grew up watching The Golden Girls with her mom and WWF wrestling matches with her dad, so it’s no wonder she has the sarcasm of a Sophia Petrillo, the heart of a Rose Nylund, and the showmanship of…well, any wrestler. Her humorous and hopeful stories highlight the underdog all while subverting tropes and expectations. She wears her heart on the page and probably a food stain on her shirt. Most recently, she was a showrunner’s assistant on Season Two of Netflix’s The Vince Staples Show. Directing highlights: Don’t Worry About It (Slamdance Film Festival), Hey Kiddo (Austin Asian Film Festival). Writing highlights: Wonderful World (CAPE List, WIF x Black List finalist, Nicholl quarter-finalist), Tina Fey Is My Friend (Nicholl Fellowship top 10%, Austin Film Festival semi-finalist), Don’t Worry About It (Disability List, Nicholl Fellowship top 15%). She earned her MFA in Writing for the Screen & Stage from Northwestern University, studied abroad in London at LAMDA, and is a graduate of iO and Second City. She’s 5 feet tall, has a second-degree black belt, and can do clapping push-ups. She loves writing about what makes people special, especially herself.
COMEDY
Sagar Vasishtha
Sagar Vasishtha is a writer and director currently based in Brooklyn, New York. After receiving his degree in Film & Religious Studies at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA , he relocated to Los Angeles where he worked a myriad of assistant gigs for companies such as Flame Ventures, Iconoclast and Anonymous Content. He worked as the showrunner’s assistant on the final season of Umbrella Academy, as well as the shows Horizon and Orbital. While in LA, Sagar was an active part of SOUTH ASIAN AF, a comedy collective based out of UCB made up of South Asian comedians and writers, as the digital team’s lead writer and producer. At the time he also filmed and released his first comedy short Weed Couch, which went on to be a finalist at the Austin Comedy Film Fest and Portland Comedy Film Fest, and semi-finalist at IndieX and Indie Short. His animatic Rapscallions, a children’s web-series with a focus on hip-hop, has been shown in several music schools. Currently, Sagar has been staffed on Animal Control for the upcoming new season.
DRAMA
Julia Bianco
Julia Bianco is a writer whose fantasy novel Broken Coven will be released by St. Martin’s Press in the US and Headline Publishing Group in the UK in 2026. She worked as the showrunner’s assistant on HBO Max’s Head of the Class and an untitled Roku supernatural dramedy, for which she co-wrote the final episode. Other entertainment industry jobs include Odenkirk-Provissiero, Ryan Seacrest Productions and Jon M. Chu’s Electric Somewhere. Her writing has also been published on the app Chapters and at MTV News, Funny or Die, Screenrant, Looper, Cleveland 19 News and more.
Nage Gibson-Thompson
Nage Gibson-Thompson is a second-generation Jamaican American drama writer from Atlanta, GA. His stories often shed light on people who are balancing between two worlds or, like himself, two cultures. Before finding himself in LA, Nage has been fortunate enough to work in the advertising industry for some of the world’s most notable brands like AT&T, Delta Air Lines, Genesis Motors, Lexus and The Ritz-Carlton. This experience has given him the opportunity to collaborate with client partners, directors, producers and creative teams to develop award-winning campaign work within multicultural markets. As for his writing, he is a 2024 Sundance Virtual Episodic Lab Fellow and has placed at Austin Film Festival. Nage is a graduate of Emerson College. He currently lives in LA with his husband and their three poodles Prince, Elton and Diana.
