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Sanjay Shah is a television writer, producer, creator, and showrunner with two decades of experience in Hollywood. He visits Berkeley for a candid conversation about the realities of entertainment writing, from breaking into the industry to running a writers' room. A Berkeley alumnus who studied rhetoric and economics, he explores the unexpected but crucial connections between his Berkeley education and comedy writing. He offers an unvarnished look at the day-to-day realities of working in Hollywood, including the complex relationship between emerging AI technology and the human elements of storytelling. 

Shah is the showrunner/executive producer of Everybody Still Hates Chris, which he co-created with Chris Rock for Comedy Central/Paramount+. He was previously the co-showrunner/executive producer of Apple’s animated musical Central Park. His other television writing credits include Pixar’s Dream Productions, Fresh Off The Boat, King of the Hill, and South Park. He has sold pilots to Netflix, Paramount+, Hulu, ABC, FOX, and NBC, and he has written both live-action and animated features for Pixar, Sony, and Universal. He is a writing mentor at the Sundance Institute’s annual Episodic Lab. Before entertainment, he worked in politics and as a writing tutor at San Quentin.