Today we’d like to introduce you to Fareid El Gafy.
Hi Fareid, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
When I was in the third grade, I told my dad that I wanted to be a cartoonist, and he told me that was not a real job. Since I was a little kid, I’ve known that I wanted to work in entertainment, though I wasn’t sure in what capacity or how to even begin to do that. As I grew up, I focused on my studies and resolved to go to school for political science, 10% because I’m fascinated by history (the greatest story ever told) and 90% because I learned that Hayao Miyazaki studied political science before going on to become one of the greatest directors of all time.
I was accepted into New York University for Politics, where I spent much of my freshman year seriously bummed out that I wasn’t currently at the art school – so I transferred into Tisch and spent three years in the Undergraduate Film & TV department. While in school, I worked as a communications intern for Representative Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) in her Toledo, OH, and Washington, DC offices and as an in-house production intern for GKIDS, the North American distributor of Studio Ghibli and other foreign animated films. On campus, I worked my way up from Contributing Writer to Film Editor for the school paper Washington Square News. Academically, I kept up with my studies in politics and wrote my honors thesis on the 435-member cap on the House of Representatives and its effect on federal funding to the states.
A year out from graduation, in January of 2021, I got a remote internship at Nickelodeon as an Animation Production Intern on Bubble Guppies. I was hired as a Production Assistant after my internship ended and transitioned to another show as the Script Coordinator at the end of 2022 when I moved to Los Angeles. Right around that time, I was selected to be part of the inaugural fellowship cohort in the Fred Rogers Productions Writers’ Neighborhood, where I learned about bearing the torch of Mr. Rogers’s work and how to build a career as a freelance writer. That just about catches me up to the present!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Graduating in 2020, the industry and job market were not looking great, to say the least. I was able to move back home with my family in Ohio, and I spent the following year reaching out to people who went to my school and/or were doing what I wanted. Folks were stuck at home and more than willing to chat about their experiences for 30 minutes on Zoom. Coming out of school, I realized that my greatest strength and love in filmmaking is writing, so I worked to hone those skills, taking two script coverage internships, writing 130 articles for Screen Rant, and working on my own scripts. I came out of 2020 with refined writing abilities and an idea of how to break into the industry. By learning from others and hearing how they made it into the positions I wanted to fill, I was able to build a path in my head. It’s why I applied to an internship a year out from graduation at all.
As a boy, I was very shy, so I used to worry that I’d have difficulty networking, but if you can weather the awkwardness of Zoom, meeting people in real life without a mute button or connectivity issues is a breeze. I’ve been fortunate to meet a lot of amazing people in this industry and make a number of true friends. Building a professional network is vital to any career, and a strong social and support network is paramount in life. That helps to alleviate the struggles and the bumps in the road.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
In addition to my work as a Script Coordinator at Nickelodeon, I’ve got a few scripts under my belt, I work as a producer in the political space, and I’ve taken a few comedy classes.
I’ve written a couple of episodes of the show that I’m currently working on as well as a few other scripts for Alma’s Way and Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood via Fred Rogers Productions. I’ve worked as an Associate Producer for Fellow Americans, an ad house producing content in support of Democratic political candidates as well as President Biden’s Building Back Together and 2024 campaigns. Additionally, I’ve been helping to produce a documentary on the Israel-Palestine conflict, specifically through the lens of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions.
In the comedy realm, I just completed 101-401 of Upright Citizens Brigade improv. I had a blast and got to perform comedy to instant feedback rather than waiting numerous months for an audience reaction to what we make for television. I’ve formed a writing group with some friends I met through UCB, and we’re working on our first sketch projects now.
Of course, I continue to work on my own ideas, writing a feature, pilots, and pitches in my free time. I’m proud of the diversity of experiences that I’ve had, from working on a documentary to performing comedy, completing a fellowship in preschool television, working at a job I love, and producing political ads. I get to exercise both sides of my brain and constantly push myself out of my comfort zone and on to the next challenge.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
I’m a hard worker with, I hope, a good sense of humor. At every stage in your life and career, your number one goal should be to do your best at what you do. As a student, my goal was to be the absolute best student I could be. As an intern, I had to be the best intern my supervisors had ever seen. Each day, I go into work intending to be the best script coordinator I can be. For an hour out of a day I’ll be the best at printing out a script, the best at running a meeting, the best at finding a whiteboard for the writers’ room I can be.
Since I love comedy and intend to make a living making folks laugh, I definitely like to think I’m funny! I’ll insert comedy into everything I write, no matter how young the audience, how dry the subject matter, or how formulaic the assignment – there’s comedy to be found. It’s a tool I use in many aspects of my life, breaking the tension in an argument or joining a networking conversation with a joke that gives me an opening to introduce myself. I’m exploring new comedic avenues and taking classes to remain a lifelong learner. In order to create, you have to intake a diverse diet of art, knowledge, and life experiences. How can we tell the human story if we don’t write a good one for ourselves every day?
Contact Info:
- Website: www.fareidelgafy.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fareid-el-gafy/
Image Credits
Ryan Patrick Young
