riley westling
RILEY WESTLING
riley westling is a writer/performer from vermont, currently based out of los angeles. they’ve spent the last five years spearheading development at the gist of it productions, where riley built the pitches for a total of 21 television projects, leading to four projects sold to networks and studios attached to another eighteen.
riley has been house performer at ucb for almost ten years, and is currently on maude night. if you want to stare at them for a while you can watch book of queer on hbo where they were a series regular. they are a 2026 honoree of the NETFLIX x TRANS FILM CENTER's film lab, honoring ten up-and-comers in entertainment.
riley loves non alcoholic hot toddy's and ants on a log, and hopes to be a hummingbird one day.
CLASSES
pitch class
create a pitch script and deck for your original idea - $350
this eight week, six student class will guide you through every step of pitching, complete with feedback, a polished pitch deck, and practice answering the types of questions executives will ask in a pitch. every week we will flush out a new section of your own pitch, with the back half of the course focused on building the deck, all leading to the last day where every student will give a polished network ready pitch!
PREREQUISITE: this class is focusing on taking one of your pre-written pilots and turning it into a pitch. please come to class with a logline and rough pilot story in mind.
if you want to sell a television show in the industry today, writing a pitch for the idea is incredibly more valuable than writing the script itself. the first thing executives will ask for is a one pager, and then a pitch document. once they've approved the pitch pages, they'll schedule out network pitches where you'll present a deck along with your pitch, and if it gets bought, THEN they'll have you write the pilot with all their notes implemented.
i've sat in on too many pitches where I watch the executives get bored in the first five minutes, which resulted in me changing the way I present pitches so every second of them is stimulating.
my goal with this course is for each person to walk away with a network ready pitch presentation for their own original idea, and a grasp on what to do when it comes time for them to pitch it.
Started Jul 23
350 US dollars