Los Angeles and New York – Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) and Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) announced the winners of the 2025 Writers Guild Awards for outstanding achievement in writing for film, television, streaming, news, radio/audio, and promotional categories during concurrent ceremonies.
SCREENPLAY WINNERS
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Anora, Written by Sean Baker; NEON
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Nickel Boys, Screenplay by RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes, Based on the Book The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead; Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM Studios
DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY
Jim Henson: Idea Man, Written by Mark Monroe; Imagine Documentaries
TELEVISION, STREAMING, AND NEWS WINNERS
DRAMA SERIES
Shōgun, Written by Shannon Goss, Maegan Houang, Rachel Kondo, Matt Lambert, Justin Marks, Caillin Puente, Nigel Williams, Emily Yoshida; FX/Hulu
COMEDY SERIES
Hacks, Written by Genevieve Aniello, Lucia Aniello, Guy Branum, Jessica Chaffin, Paul W. Downs, Jess Dweck, Ariel Karlin, Andrew Law, Carol Leifer, Carolyn Lipka, Joe Mande, Aisha Muharrar, Pat Regan, Samantha Riley, Jen Statsky; HBO | Max
NEW SERIES
Shōgun, Written by Shannon Goss, Maegan Houang, Rachel Kondo, Matt Lambert, Justin Marks, Caillin Puente, Nigel Williams, Emily Yoshida; FX/Hulu
LIMITED SERIES
The Penguin, Written by Vladimir Cvetko, Breannah Gibson, Erika L. Johnson, Lauren LeFranc, Corina Maritescu, Megan Martin, John McCutcheon, Shaye Ogbonna, Kira Snyder, Nick Towne, Noelle Valdivia; HBO | Max
TV & STREAMING MOTION PICTURES
The Great Lillian Hall, Written by Elisabeth Seldes Annacone; HBO | Max
ANIMATION
“Saving Favorite Drive-In” (Bob’s Burgers), Written by Katie Crown; Fox
EPISODIC DRAMA
“Anjin” (Shōgun), Written for Television by Rachel Kondo & Justin Marks; FX/Hulu
EPISODIC COMEDY
“Bulletproof” (Hacks), Written by Lucia Aniello & Paul W. Downs & Jen Statsky; HBO | Max
COMEDY/VARIETY SERIES – TALK OR SKETCH
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Senior Writers Daniel O’Brien, Owen Parsons, Charlie Redd, Joanna Rothkopf, Seena Vali Writers Johnathan Appel, Ali Barthwell, Tim Carvell, Liz Hynes, Ryan Ken, Mark Kramer, Sofia Manfredi, John Oliver, Taylor Kay Phillips, Chrissy Shackelford; HBO | Max
COMEDY/VARIETY SPECIALS
Nikki Glaser: Someday You’ll Die, Written by Nikki Glaser; HBO | Max
QUIZ AND AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
Pop Culture Jeopardy!, Writers Marcus Brown, Buzzy Cohen, Michael Davies, Chip Dornell, John Duarte, Mark Gaberman, Debbie Griffin, Michele Loud, Traci Mack, Amy Ozols, Louis Virtel, Billy Wisse; Amazon Prime
DAYTIME DRAMA
The Young and the Restless, Head Writer Amanda L. Beall Writers Susan Banks, Jeff Beldner, Marin Gazzaniga, Lindsay Harrison, Marla Kanelos, Rebecca McCarty, Madeleine Phillips, Dave Ryan; CBS/Paramount +
CHILDREN’S EPISODIC, LONG FORM AND SPECIALS
“Welcome to Spiderwick” (The Spiderwick Chronicles), Written by Aron Eli Coleite; Roku Channel
SHORT FORM STREAMING
Die Hart 3: Hart to Kill, Written by Tripper Clancy; Roku Channel
DOCUMENTARY SCRIPT
“Part One: Inferno to Paradise” (Dante), Written by Ric Burns and Riccardo Bruscagli; PBS
NEWS SCRIPT – REGULARLY SCHEDULED, BULLETIN, OR BREAKING REPORT
“Willie Mays Tribute” (CBS Newspath), Written by Gerald Mazza; CBS News
NEWS SCRIPT – ANALYSIS, FEATURE, OR COMMENTARY
“The Resistance” (60 Minutes), Written by Scott Pelley, Nicole Young, Kristin Steve; CBS News
DIGITAL NEWS
“What Is Hamas Thinking Now?”, Written by Akbar Shahid Ahmed; HuffPost
RADIO/AUDIO WINNERS
RADIO/AUDIO DOCUMENTARY
“Art on Trial” (One Year: 1990), Written by Evan Chung; Slate
RADIO/AUDIO NEWS SCRIPT – REGULARLY SCHEDULED, BULLETIN, OR BREAKING REPORT
“Passages: Three Women Who Made A Difference”, Written by Gail Lee; CBS News Radio
RADIO/AUDIO NEWS SCRIPT – ANALYSIS, FEATURE, OR COMMENTARY
“Charles Osgood Remembered”, Written by Gail Lee; CBS News Radio
PROMOTIONAL WRITING WINNERS
ON AIR PROMOTION
“Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Voting Ads”, Written by Desireena Almoradie, Angad Bhalla; YouTube
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WGAW’s 2025 Writers Guild Awards ceremony was hosted by comedian-writer-producer Joel Kim Booster (Fire Island, Joel Kim Booster: Pyschosexual). Presenters included: Utkarsh Ambudkar (Tick, Tick…Boom!, Ghosts), Eric Bauza (Looney Tunes Cartoons, Bob’s Burgers), Clancy Brown (The Penguin, The Shawshank Redemption), Jordan Firstman (English Teacher, Ms. Marvel), Edwin Lee Gibson (The Bear, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Don Jon, Mr. Corman), Ernie Hudson (The Family Business, Ghostbusters), Diarra Kilpatrick (Diarra from Detroit, Perry Mason), Franklin Leonard (creator of the Black List), Adele Lim (Joy Ride, Crazy Rich Asians), Justine Lupe (Succession, Nobody Wants This), Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet), Joe Manganiello (True Blood, One Tree Hill), Rhea Seehorn (Better Call Saul, Bad Boys: Ride or Die), Kiernan Shipka (The Last Showgirl, Mad Men), Luke Tennie (Shrinking, Nickel Boys), Lisa Ann Walter (Abbot Elementary, The Parent Trap), Cedric Yarbrough (Reno 9-1-1, Juror #2) With special appearances by Gillian Anderson (X-Files, The Crown), Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad, Trumbo), Bill Pullman (Lost Highway, Independence Day), and Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive, Feud: Capote vs. The Swans).
The WGAW presented several honorary special achievement awards:
Legendary screenwriter and director David Lynch (Blue Velvet, The Elephant Man) was posthumously awarded the Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement, presented by Kyle MacLachlan who also accepted the award on Lynch’s behalf; groundbreaking TV creator Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) received the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement, presented by Rhea Seehorn (Better Call Saul, Bad Boys: Ride or Die); and RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes received the Paul Selvin Award for their film Nickel Boys (Screenplay by RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes, based on the Book The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead), presented by Black List creator Franklin Leonard. The Selvin Award is given to the script that best embodies the spirit of the constitutional and civil rights and liberties that are indispensable to the survival of free writers everywhere.
2025 WGAW ceremony on WGAW’s YouTube Channel
The Writers Guild Awards honor outstanding writing in film, television, streaming, news (broadcast and digital), radio/audio, and promotional categories. The 2025 Writers Guild Awards (77th Annual) were held on Saturday, February 15 at concurrent ceremonies at New York’s Edison Ballroom and Los Angeles’ Beverly Hilton. For more information about the 2025 Writers Guild Awards, please visit awards.wga.org or wgaeast.org/awards.
Benn Fleishman and Augie Max Vargas are the Executive Producers on the 2025 Writers Guild Awards Los Angeles show, which was directed by Rich Preuss. This year’s writing team was led by head writer Steven Murphy and featured Julian Kiani, and Deborah Byrd was this year’s talent producer.
WGAW Awards Committee members are Patric M. Verrone (chair), Steve Chivers, Elias Davis, Patrick J. Doody, Shelly Goldstein, Zoe Marshall, Scott Saltzburg, and Betsy Thomas.
The Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) are labor unions representing writers in motion pictures, television, cable, digital media, and broadcast news. The Guilds negotiate and administer contracts that protect the creative and economic rights of their members; conduct programs, seminars, and events on issues of interest to writers; and present writers’ views to various bodies of government. For more information on the Writers Guild of America West, visit www.wga.org. For more information on the Writers Guild of America East, visit www.wgaeast.org.
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