Three acclaimed screenwriters joined the faculty of Western Colorado University’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing for the 2022-23 academic year. Collectively, Jason Grote, Mitali Jahagirdar, and Ligiah Villalobos have written and produced in the film, TV, podcast, and gaming spaces.
“The commitment we give our students is that they will be taught by working screenwriters who are gifted teachers,” said Joy Goodwin, Screenwriting Concentration Director. “These three writers exemplify that commitment. They are brilliant artists and generous teachers.”
Jason Grote
Jason Grote is a Los Angeles-based writer whose work in television includes Mad Men, Hannibal, Smash, The Protector, and Knightfall, as well as original development with Warner Horizon, AMC Studios, and Blumhouse, among others. He is currently Senior Writer on the latest installment of the critically acclaimed video game BioShock. His theater work includes 1001, chosen as one of Time Out New York’s Top Ten, and Civilization (all you can eat), which is one of the Washington Post critics’ picks.
Grote’s honors include the P73 Playwriting Fellowship, The ACT New Play Award, an Ovation Award from The Denver Post, a Yaddo Residency, a Writers Guild of America (WGA) Award Nomination, and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. He is an alumnus of the New Dramatists, holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU and has taught widely.
Mitali Jahagirdar
Mitali Jahagirdar is a WGA Award nominee for her writing on Disney+’s Just Beyond and adapted the YA novel Tiger’s Curse for Netflix. She was Story Editor for Netflix’s The Henna Artist. Her thriller and sci-fi/fantasy voice has won her the CAPE New Writers Fellowship, the NBC Writers on the Verge Fellowship, the Film Independent Screenwriting Lab Fellowship, the Sony Diverse Writers Fellowship, and recognition on the 2020 CAPE List. She is based in Los Angeles and holds an MFA from UCLA.
Ligiah Villalobos
Ligiah Villalobos is a writer, producer, consultant, educator and lecturer. She wrote and executive-produced Under the Same Moon, (La Misma Luna), which recorded the highest sale for a Spanish-language film in the history of Sundance. Villalobos has developed projects for ABC, NBC, ABC Family, Lifetime, Hallmark Hall of Fame, F/X, Showtime, BET, HBO Max and STARZ, among others. She was a cultural consultant on the Academy Award-winning Pixar movie Coco and the Disney movie Planes. She is a recipient of the Humanitas Prize. She is a writer for the animated series Rosie’s Rules, a producer of animated shorts for DreamWorks TV Animation, and co-wrote the animated feature film Koati (2021).
Before becoming a writer and producer, Villalobos was a studio executive at The Walt Disney Company, where she oversaw television production in Latin America for five years, launching eight #1 children’s shows in seven countries. She oversaw the Writing Fellowship Program and launched the Directors Training Program for the Studio. Villalobos was then hired as a Current Programming Executive at The WB, where she oversaw six primetime shows, including the four highest rated shows on the network. She holds an MFA from Antioch University and previously taught at Cal State Long Beach, Loyola Marymount University and USC.
The Graduate Program in Creative Writing
Learn more about the Graduate Program in Creative Writing by contacting GPCW@western.edu.
