Ashwini Prasad is a South Asian Indian immigrant to Canada and the United States, but her life is more complex. She was born in Fiji Islands, raised in Calgary, AB and Vancouver, BC, and has spent her adult life in the United States, mainly in the Pacific Northwest. Equity and justice are her pillars as an anti-racist educator and screen writer.
Her pillars were rooted in college which is now over 20 years of experience in anti-racism, anti-oppression and social justice work with two Master’s degrees in these focus areas. For example, her first thesis was about incorporating ant-racist portfolio requirements to complete a college education, and her second thesis was about the intersectionality between non-violence and the Hindu caste system. One recent accomplishment is building a diversity, inclusion, and belonging plan for a school in a liberal arts college.
She let her creative pursuits go to the side, after completing her MBA – her third master’s, and she went on to thrive in the business world. Today, that determination and strategic and organizational skills are transferred to telling stories that stem from people erased or marginalized from history as the center. Their stories are our stories, and their rich perspectives deserve to be told and celebrated. Ashwini was inspired to connect her education and the lack of inclusivity in screenplays. The lack of inclusivity directly effects the content delivered to screens and other parts of writing, arts and entertainment. Diversity and inclusion in Hollywood has been a hot topic for year and change towards equity, justice and inclusion if finally happening. Ashwini is hopeful for change in diversity in Hollywood movies in 2020 and post-covid.
As a screenwriter, Ashwini cultivates safe spaces for storytelling. “Tapestry,” her first screenplay, is about sharing the South Asian Indian contributions in WW1 and the immigrant experience to a larger, non-academic audience and into popular culture. With this experience, she learned how to write steadily, 3 pages a day, and small wins lead to big wins – a full feature draft! A short which includes a Chinese lesbian couple, a trans woman, and multi-ethnic partnerships is also part of her writing portfolio.
In addition, her work, “Kismet,” is a combination of mainly comedy with some drama inspired by Never Have I Ever and Fleabag with a South Asian Indian, lesbian woman as the lead.
Ashwini is a firm believer in lifting others up to move from surviving, to striving, and then to thriving. The time has come for these safe spaces in arts and entertainment because the world has lost too much talent or not seen talent because of horrible indiscretions in the past. More information about Ashwini, including purchasing her e-book about inclusivity and how to write diverse characters, her “Inclusive Storytelling,” podcast, her coaching and facilitation services, writing, media, interviews and contact information are detailed on her website.
Give us a peek into your background? How did it start and where are you now?
Ashwini Prasad, The Inclusive Screenwriter, leads with equity and justice as her pillars in her work as an anti-racist consultant, screenwriter and podcast host. Her pillars were rooted in college which is now over 20 years of experience in anti-racism, anti-oppression and social justice work with two Master’s degrees in these focus areas.
As the daughter of Fijian immigrants, Ashwini tells stories about people straddling two worlds and dealing with overwhelming obstacles. She finds inspiration in inclusive storytelling and believes in creating fictional worlds that represent the one she lives in.
Ashwini’s screenplays focus on bringing people who are erased/marginalized onto our screens. Her recent book, “How To Write Inclusively: An Analysis & How To Guide,” provides how to’s on writing inclusively that is available for purchase on Amazon OverDrive, and Nook. Her podcast, “Inclusive Storytelling,” is available on Apple and Spotify. The podcast is on YouTube.
What problem does your business solve?
Exclusion of marginalized people in the arts due to lack of representation, and a lack of safe spaces in the arts for people to thrive.
What advice would you give someone wanting to pursue a career similar to yours?
Find people who believe in you and let them encourage you during the abundant times as well as all other times.
Have you had to overcome any challenges as a women in business? Tell us about it, and how did you overcome.
The amount of times I get comments about my looks or sex enters a professional conversation is maddening. I am hopeful that with TimesUp and MeToo this nonsense will change.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever gotten?
Keep going and it’s not luck because opportunities favor the prepared.
What is your biggest failure, and what did you learn from it?
I was not always an advocate for marginalized people because I let a white supremacy mentality keep people out of their abundance. I learned, and continue to learn, to see through white supremacy and fight for justice to let everyone thrive in their lives and creative expression without invoking harm or trauma.
Tell us a book that you have been inspired by recently?
Ibram X. Kendi’s, “How to be an Antiracist.”
What’s the biggest surprise you’ve had in the last few months and why?
How quickly Hollywood has responded to inclusion and belonging by uplifting marginalized voices. Much more work needs to be done but I am seeing action along with mindset changes and more sensitivity to what marginalized groups want to see on screens.
Where can our readers find more about you?
Website: theinclusivescreenwriter.com
IG: theinclusivescreenwriter
Twitter: https://twitter.com/INCScreenwriter
IG: https://www.instagram.com/theinclusivescreenwriter/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0HWFEjo9e_13JoBASM9HPw?view_as=subscriber
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashwiniprasad00/