Sa’Rah Jones’ journey to Hollywood

                       Sa'Rah Jones (South Carolina State University photo)

Sa’Rah Jones, South Carolina State University alum and writer of the Netflix original “Act your Age” and “Family Reunion,” shared her story on how she made it into the entertainment industry.

Born and raised in East Cleveland in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Sa’Rah grew up infatuated with TV.

“I've always been obsessed with TV. As a kid, I would literally just watch all the shows and nobody looked like us, and then the ‘90s came, where you got all the good Black shows like CW and UPN. I was obsessed with it,” she said during an October session with students.

Watching Black TV shows was just the stepping stone to Sa’Rah’s journey to her life goal. Deep down she knew she wanted to create. When she was little, she wrote and illustrated books. Her calling wouldn’t be fully realized until much later in her life.

She attended South Carolina State University in the ‘90s. Back then, SCSU didn’t have a mass communications major, so she was a professional English major because it was “the closest thing that would allow you to be creative.”

She did multiple internships at different stations in order to find what she wanted to do after graduation. From radio announcing to working with the camera, it just wasn’t her thing. It wasn’t until graduating SCSU in 1995 and walking into the human resources department with her resume that she would find her first sign.

“I ended up on a lot of Warner Brothers and they said, ‘Hey, we got this program called the production assistant program.” Okay, so what's that? All right, so what you’re gonna do is walk the dogs of all of the actors in there.”

She became a runner for Warner Brothers and assistant to Yvette Lee Bowser. She got to see how everything worked at the studio and encountered a group of writers creating a script for a TV show. This was where she made a decision as to what she wanted to do in her life, become a screenwriter.

 “No lie, I never put it in my head that there were people in a room that wrote, gave it to actors and you performed. I'm like, oh shoot, that's what I am. I can create! I can write! I want to do that!”

And just like that, Sa’Rah started her path as a screenwriter. For a time she was just trying to find her footing, writing children’s books and punching up scripts on the side while working her American corporate job.

She eventually got her big break with Family Reunion and got her first real job in the screenwriting business. Today she has written three television shows and a movie, really living the life she dreamed of having since she was a little girl.

Sa’Rah encourages Black writers to find their voice when writing and have more representation in writing rooms.

“One of the biggest things about being a creator or a writer is your voice. What do I mean by your voice? You have to be completely vulnerable with who you are in order to create meaning. I cannot sit there and write, Richard. That's not my world. That's not my voice.”

 “Your voice is what they're looking for, and they tap into that, so don't be afraid of that.”