Make Stories Relatable to Large Audiences: A Conversation with ‘Quiz Lady’ and ‘Totally Killer’ Screenwriter Jen D’Angelo

There is something incredibly satisfying as a viewer when you watch a movie that hits you in an unexpected emotional way. And that’s exactly what you get from Jen D’Angelo’s latest comedy flicks, Quiz Lady (Hulu) and Totally Killer (Prime). While they are both vastly different in comedy genre and style, they’re similar in tone, in which that character is at the forefront, taking us on a somewhat unexpected and unique journey.

Both films were WGA nominees in the TV & New Media Motion Pictures category, with Quiz Lady bringing home Jen the coveted, and much-deserved, win. And while both films are exclusively available on streaming platforms (Quiz Lady did have a premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023 and Totally Killer had its premiere at Fantastic Fest in 2023, respectfully) they’re both made with similar intentions – meeting the audience on the same level in a holistic approach, I would argue. And I would further argue, that it’s safe to say, that’s how Jen D’Angelo approaches all of her work, especially after having spoken with her about both projects and her writing process.

Jen D’Angelo discusses how character and situation work simultaneously, the benefits of being on set as both a writer and producer, building out the sibling dynamics in Quiz Lady, not letting time travel rules hinder the world-building of Totally Killer, and so much more!

Sadie Dean: I'd love to just talk about your writing process for these two movies, Totally Killer and Quiz Lady and where do you start? Is it character first? Or is it the situation and then build it around the characters?

Jen D’Angelo: That's a great question. I feel like it's sort of both simultaneously. And then it switches project to project where it's like, did this start like 60% character based, 40% such situation? Or was it, situational, and then sort of like, what are the characters that we want to see?

I'm working on a script right now. And it was this idea that I had for so long, but sort of the most important part of it was that the central relationship was to just two complete oddball, mismatched odd couple characters. And so that was really hard because it's complete blue sky for who are these two characters? The only thing that matters is that they're opposite of each other. That was an interesting challenge to be like, ‘OK, it's completely wide open,’ one or two characters that I haven't really explored yet. And so that was a really fun way to sort of get into that story.

But then with Quiz Lady, that very much started from a character perspective, where it's sort of very loosely based on my brother who's a Jeopardy genius. And so, it was sort of starting from this place of ‘OK, if we were to really dramatize my brother's arc, if we had this person who was just so obsessed with this TV show, and it was their comfort, their sort of happy, safe place. And just having to pull them out of their shell.’ The movie kind of came from that...the story was derived from the character.

Sadie: With both of these projects, I really appreciate how you dive into their characters and their vulnerabilities and the reality and awkwardness of it all. And you don't hold back in those situations. Can talk to that process of knowing when enough was enough, or maybe it's too much? Or maybe you just need to turn it up a little bit?

Jen: Yeah, it's always a dial that I feel like you're playing with throughout the entire time you're making a movie. Like for Quiz Lady, that was my first time producing a movie also. And so, I was on truly from the very beginning, and then all the way through the end. And so that was something that we were playing with even through post. And I really love being in post-production. I love editing. It feels like it's just another form of writing, essentially. And so that was really fun to sort of play around with that in the edit.

Awkwafina, her performance is truly incredible. I think she's unbelievable. And even her physicality is just so incredible. And so, we had so much to work with. It was really nice to sort of be able to craft those moments to make them feel like really awkward and really lived in and then sort of finding the balance of what's too much and what's too little. I'm just a very awkward person, [laughs] so I feel like there's no shortage of inspiration for sort of weird little moments that people can find themselves in, because I am sort of constantly finding myself in them on my own.

Sadie: Producing and as a writer, were you able to be on set during that whole time on Quiz Lady?

Jen: Yeah, I was on set the whole time. We shot it in New Orleans, and I was down there for…I think it was a 30-day shoot…it was so cool.

Sadie: During that process, did you guys ever find times or moments where maybe you needed to come in to refine something because of the location and production realities?

Jen: We were very fortunate with Quiz Lady - the script was very dialed in, in terms of big stuff, by the time we actually started shooting. And so, we didn't really have any kind of big production problems that caused script rewrites, which was truly amazing. I've never had that before. I've been an on-site writer for three other projects. It was just such an incredible gift to just feel like, ‘OK, we're all on the same page. And we feel really good about this.’

And then every sort of rewrite that had to happen on the day, it was very much coming from a place of, what else do we want to see here? What other jokes do we want to try? Rather than having to be like, ‘Oh, we lost that location, now we've got to completely rewrite this scene.’ We had a good amount of that sort of in pre-production because, we were dealing with budget stuff and just sort of like, ‘OK, well, now we have to lose the location or now we have to combine these things or make this seem shorter because we only have one day there or whatever.’

We did a lot of that in pre-production, but then by the time we were actually on set, it was really so incredible to just sort of be free, which is a real testament to Kayse Goodell our AD who is just an incredible partner and very good at scheduling and also all of our producers and Jessica Yu our director - it was really so dialed in.

Sadie: The unspoken hero is for films and TV - the first AD - the mountains they can move.

Jen: Truly amazing. I am in awe of the crew on every level, every department, I'm just like, ‘You are literally miracle makers.’ First ADs, they should be getting all the awards - there should be a moment at the Oscars where they are just trotted out on stage to be applauded. It's such a hard job. And they're so good at it.

Sadie: The other thing that I really appreciate about the Quiz Lady, are the sisters, and their dynamics, and especially how Sandra Oh and Awkwafina play off each other. Knowing that this is kind of inspired by your own brother – what was it like working in those dynamics so that it feels like a real sibling relationship?

Jen: Totally. Again, just under the umbrella of like, ‘Oh, my God, we were so lucky.’ We had this amazing opportunity. So, we originally sold Quiz Lady to Netflix, and we briefly were developing it with them for a little bit. And then they gave it back to us. Which was, you know, when it happened, I was like, ‘I told you nothing good ever happens. Movies are never real until the ink is dry.’ [laughs]

In that moment though, when we were at Netflix, Sandra and Jessica Yu, our director, they were both working in London. And Awkwafina and I both had a window that matched up with a window that they were going to be free. And so, Awkwafina and I went out to London, and we just spent four days together every day, reading through the script, and then talking about what we wanted to do, changes we wanted to make, and then also just telling a lot of stories about our families and our sibling dynamics, and our relationships with our parents. And it was so incredible, and it really felt like a very sort of theater-driven workshop. It felt like college playwriting days, I was like, ‘This is so lovely.’ It was such a true collaboration.

And I feel like that was the beginning of Awkwafina and Sandra sort of getting to know each other. And it was really so beautiful to see their bond sort of instantly form because Sandra is this incredible force, - she's an icon, a legend, a hero, like all of the wonderful words - she is. And Awkwafina is also this incredible force. And she really is so much her own person. And she has had such an interesting journey into fame where it sort of came very quickly to her.

It was very much a sisterly dynamic right away, where it was sort of like Awkwafina was looking to Sandra for advice and mentorship, and Sandra was looking to Awkwafina for kind of, like, ‘I don't understand you…I get you, but I'm also sort of like, wow, you have a completely different perspective on the world than I do.’ And it was just so beautiful to see their relationship blossom. And then yeah, by the time we got to set, they really did have this very lived-in sister dynamic. And it was really so beautiful to see.

Sadie: For Totally Killer, I’d love to talk about setting up the time travel rules, the parameters and just really nailing that in and making sure it doesn't like overtake the story and her character journey.

Jen: I am a sci-fi nerd and also just a science nerd in general. I have done this thing twice now, which is the National Academy of Sciences sponsors this retreat called the Science and Entertainment Exchange, where they get 12 scientists and 12 screenwriters and just put them together for a weekend. And the scientists each give like a mini–TED Talk presentation about some topic from their field. And it's so fascinating. 

And the whole point of it is that they want to encourage good depictions of science in media. And so, I am always just like, when I have a science-based thing, even if it is time travel, I want to make it sound as real and as plausible as possible. While also, yes, not spending any time really trying to delve into the actual mechanics of it, so that you're not getting really bogged down.

I was so excited when I sort of was tasked with ‘OK, let's sort of make this time travel just make sense.’ And also be like, ‘easy, breezy,’ and we're not really focused on it that much. And it was really fun working with Nahnatchka Khan, the director, she had a really great idea of wanting to see the two timelines at the same time, so that once you go back into the 80s, you're not just fully there, that there is sort of still stuff happening in the present.

And that was really fun, because it opened up this room for the Mandela Effect theory to sort of get in there, and then have these fun jokes where you have trickle-down changes that you're seeing in the present based on what's happening in the 80s. And so that was just a really fun way to sort of approach the time travel of it all with humor, and also sort of making it work for the story because that sort of allows us to have a fun twist at the end.

Sadie: What inspired you to become a writer?

Jen: I've wanted to be a writer truly for as long as I can remember. Like, in second grade, I wrote a story about my dog meeting an elf and it was 11 pages. And it was like, ‘this is my opus. I'm an author.’ From a very early age, I was just writing stories all the time. And then got into comedy in middle school and high school. I went to Northwestern, because I was really drawn to Chicago because they had such a great improv scene, and Northwestern had a really great screenwriting program. I was just sort of always following this North Star of wanting to write TV and movies.

And when I was in college, I had this amazing professor, her name is Regina Stewart. And she had written on Dharma & Greg and a bunch of TV shows, and now she was teaching at Northwestern and raising her kids. And she was an incredible mentor. And she pulled me aside and was like, ‘You need to go to LA immediately and really make a try.’ And so I did.

So right after college, I just moved out here…immediately started doing UCB. And I lucked out, it was an extreme stroke of luck that I was able to get a writer’s PA job pretty quickly. I had this incredible job that my duties were basically stocking the kitchen, getting lunch, and printing things. I had a lot of downtime. And I also just got to meet a bunch of writers and see how the TV writers’ room operates. And it was an amazing learning experience. e

So then, when the stars kind of aligned, and I got my agents and manager through performing, and then they just like randomly happened to get a call from Bill Lawrence, who was looking for staff writers for the fifth season of Cougar Town, and he just reached out to my agency and was like, ‘Do you have any young standups who want to be a staff writer?’ And then they just sent over a sample that I had literally just finished. And then they sent that sample and that was how I got that job, which was my first writing job. So, it was a crazy kind of just like luck meets opportunity meets timing. [laughs] It was a wild confluence of events.

Sadie: Are there any themes or stories that you're wanting to further explore through your own writing, and especially through the lens of comedy?

Jen: Yeah, I've been really reflecting on sort of how grateful I am to be a writer, especially now that the industry is going through such a terrible time. And it's contracting a lot. And I feel very fortunate to be able to kind of be working through that - it feels like kind of running through a building as it's collapsing. [laughs] But I'm very fortunate to be in the building, and very grateful and happy.

I just keep thinking about sort of like the power of writing, really, and that the whole job of a writer is to humanize people and to make stories relatable to large audiences, and invite people into a world that they maybe think that they don't understand. And I think that that's really important, right now. It feels like our whole world is kind of losing touch with humanity, and we're getting so isolated, and we're just not sort of seeing each other as people anymore. And everyone's getting really bogged down and depressed, because the world is very depressing.

And so, I think in times like this, comedy is actually so important, especially comedy that can sort of meet people where they're at too, so it doesn't feel like it's just sort of toxic positivity, or kind of comedy for no reason. I think, finding people where they're at and sort of making it funny, like making their sadness, their pain, their fear, their anger - making them feel seen, and then also making them feel better about it, I think is really, really important.

And so that's what I really am excited about is continuing to tell stories that are funny and big and make you feel good, but also make you feel seen. I think you can't comfort people unless you are making them feel like you're getting what they're going through. I'm really excited about blending dark and light and sort of just trying to make people happy.

Sadie: Any advice for those who are dabbling in writing comedy?

Jen: The best writing advice that I ever got was that if you're feeling stuck, just make a list of things that you like and see if that sparks anything. I was writing in TV, and I really wanted to break into features, and I was having a hard time writing a feature sample, because I was so focused on, ‘OK what is the type of movie that people are making right now? What are actors that I have some loose connection to who could attach to this? What did they want to play?’ And I was getting really bogged down in that.

And so, I made a list of things that I liked, it was very silly. It was literally like, ‘dogs, pizza, the movie, Titanic,’ [laughs] it was like, ‘this is not helpful.’ And then I was talking to my husband about it. And he's a writer-producer as well. And he was just like, ‘What if you wrote a really fun, sort of alternate version of Titanic? You would enjoy writing that. You don't have to worry about getting it made, it would just be something fun to write.’ And I was like, ‘You're 100%, right.’ And it was very fun to write. I wrote it in I think like two months or something. It was just such a joy to work on. And then at the end of that, I had this writing sample that we sent out. And that was sort of the beginning of me meeting with people as a feature writer. And through that, I was on Disney's radar. So, they invited me to come in to pitch on Hocus Pocus…that was sort of the beginning of my whole feature career.

And it all came from this place of just wanting to write something that I enjoyed, and that I felt like was really representative of my comedic voice. And I think that that's super important now, as the industry is contracting, as everything is a moving target, now more than ever, and no one really knows sort of what is breaking through, and what is actually selling. And so, I think it's really important to just focus on what you want to write and something that you're going to really enjoy. Because at the end of the day, that's really all you can control is, ‘Did I enjoy writing this? Did I feel like I got something out that I really wanted to get out?’ And then the industry will do with it whatever it will do with it.

The other best piece of writing advice I ever got was, ‘If you think you can be happy in your life doing literally anything else do that, because it's a very hard career.’ [laughs] And I think it's just like, yes, that sounds very pessimistic, but I think the optimistic take on it is we do this because we love it so much. And because we feel like we have to do it. And so, I think, leaning into that and holding on to that of ‘Why am I a writer? And what am I really doing this for? And what are the kinds of things that I want to just get out into the world?’ I think, focusing on that, you're just going to feel so much better about your work rather than sort of chasing this industry, which is going insane – but we'll find some happy medium somehow somewhere.

Quiz Lady is available to watch on Hulu and Totally Killer is available to watch on Prime.