About:

Sienna Szustak is a writer and producer currently pursuing a BFA in television executive producing and entrepreneurship at Columbia College Chicago. She has a passion for both scripted and unscripted content––so long as it’s good TV. She grew up watching weekly releases and fell in love with television’s interactive, communal principles––from the collaborative nature of production to the way a series finds its heart in distribution, sparking fan theories, binge parties, and watercooler conversations.

She believes the best TV utilizes the unique structure of its storytelling, able to explore large narratives over the span of a season as well as in episodic bursts. Within this format, the stories she specializes in revolve around women and the way they relate to both the world and each other. Her narratives explore different iterations of femininity, community, and intimacy, focusing on the writing then building a diverse crew to reflect it. What’s most important to her is creating media that portrays dynamic, complicated women with nuance, reflecting the type of people she actually sees in her life and in the LGBT community.

Beyond the stories, Sienna has a natural knack for organization and business, with experience in event planning, nonprofit sectors, and production support roles. She might love brainstorming a marketing campaign just as much as a season finale. She’s the person who’s always on top of a budget and will miss a birthday before missing a meeting. When she’s not dreaming up the next Bachelor franchise hit (Mike Fleiss, email me), you’ll find her learning Eastern European languages and compiling a Pinterest board of 80s-style power suits.