From College Athlete to one of Hollywood's Most Powerful Leaders
From College Athlete to one of Hollywood's Most Powerful Leaders
Meredith Stiehm: President, Writer's Guild of America West; Winner of Emmy, Golden Globes, Peabody, and Writer's Guild of America Awards.
By Griffin Uribe Brown (Syracuse Newhouse ‘26)
Before entering a career in Hollywood, Meredith Stiehm was the Captain of the University of Pennsylvania women’s tennis team, where she studied English and playwriting. Though she always wanted to be a writer, both writing and tennis were “constants” in her life.
Being a college athlete gave Stiehm “a leg up” when she entered Hollywood, especially as a female athlete who learned to “be competitive, and feel good about being competitive,” she said.
Stiehm said that she looks back on tennis as a “formative” experience that helped shape her as she pursued a career in the TV-making industry. She says the path of athletics sets people up for success.
“As a college athlete, what you learn about discipline, persistence and teamwork all applies to your real life and your working life,” Stiehm said.
The Emmy, Golden Globe, Writers Guild and Peabody Award winner was a writer and producer for “Homeland,” a co-creator and executive producer of “The Bridge” and a creator and executive producer of “Cold Case,” among other writing credits.
Stiehm said that she “owes a lot” to the Writers Guide and its union, which she said is important “for all workers.” After years of support throughout her career, she became involved with advocacy for writers “to give back.”
Stiehm has been the Writers Guild of American West president since 2021. A Guild member since 1994, she served on the Board of Directors for six years before becoming WGAW President, according to the WGA website.
“It can be tricky,” Stiehm said, to balance day-to-day work and advocacy, though writers' strikes don’t happen very often. Last September, after a 146-day writer’s strike the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, an association made up of Hollywood’s largest studios and production companies, reached an agreement to end the strike.
Like writers, she said, college athletes are workers, and deserve to “share in the value that they create.” In addition to last year’s strike, Stiehm was involved in the WGA’s “historic” fight to end packaging fees. In 2019, as part of the effort, Stiehm and over 7,000 union members fired their agents and stayed without an agent until a deal was reached two years later, she said.
Given her experience with agents, Stiehm advises college athletes to be careful with whom they create business ties.
“What I have learned is that you should be cautious… people will take advantage of you if you are not skeptical,” Stiehm, advising that an agent is not a partner, but someone who works for them.
She also advises that athletes find an adult who is “not financially connected” to them or a lawyer to read contracts before they sign them.
Reflecting on her efforts to advocate for writers’ rights, Stiehm said that the executives she negotiated with were not the people she worked with day-to-day. She’s learned that fighting for worker’s rights is a respectable effort.
“People respect you for demanding a good contract, you just sort of have to be brave and realize that it's not personal,” Stiehm said.
To learn more check out this TAB Podcast interview:
Griffin Uribe Brown, TAB Contributor, is a second-year student at Syracuse University from the Chicago area. He is a journalism and policy studies dual major and has spent the last few years doing a variety of coverage at SU, including the award-winning “Infodemic”, yearlong reporting project on misinformation. Griffin loves soccer more than almost anything and can be found on Instagram or X/Twitter.
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