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Doreen Spicer-Dannelly delivering the keynote address at Morgan’s 2012 Women’s History Month Convocation
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“Hollywood is still geared to one audience.” — Doreen Spicer-Dannelly
wrote it in two hours. But the wait to hear back was a very long time.” Two years later, missing her family in New York, she was about to go home, when she got a call from Smith. “ ‘Doreen I hope you are sitting down,’ ” she remembers him saying. “ ‘We got picked up by Disney for 22 episodes of The Proud Family. You can’t go back to New York. You have to stay!’ We did 52 episodes of The Proud Family. Disney then tapped me for other projects: I wrote ‘Jump In!’, which broke records for Disney Channel, and Variety deemed it ‘the highest rated cable movie, ever.’ ” Spicer-Dannelly has tapped her Puerto Rican heritage to create another animated series, Coqui Loco. The pilot featured Rosie Perez as a rambunctious Puerto Rican frog desperately seeking fame. In addition to writing and producing The Wannabes Starring Savvy, Spicer-Dannelly is also developing a feature film, “Forever My Lady,” a melodramatic urban Latino love story based on the novel by Jeff Rivera. “Hollywood is still geared to one audience,” she says. “The powers that be claim multicultural stories are hard to
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MORGAN MAGAZINE VOLUME I 2012
market, but I proved with The Wannabes Starring Savvy that there is a large, worldwide, untapped multicultural audience out there looking for more.” Like her mentor, Samm-Art Williams, Spicer-Dannelly gives back to Morgan. She frequently visits the campus and recently delivered the keynote address at the 2012 Women’s History Month Convocation. During the visit, she was also a guest lecturer for Morgan’s Screenwriting and Animation program (SWAN), which evolved from the sitcom writing classes that launched her television career. “Know what you really want. Stay focused, believe in yourself, and leave no stone unturned.” That’s the advice Doreen Spicer-Dannelly gives to aspiring writers and directors who want to make it in Hollywood. “You will work in the business if you show determination, gratitude and excellence. Success will be yours.” For more information about Doreen Spicer-Dannelly, “Like” Spicerack Productions Inc. on Facebook, and visit her websites: www.spicerackproductionsinc.com and www.doreenspicer.com.