LA ACTOR
Katie J. Stone By Autumn Mur r ay
K atie J. Stone is a television writer, actor, and performing artist, and is one-half of the writ- ing team of Stone and Daitch. Stone and Da- vid Daitch’s writing credits include Netflix’s Splinter Cell, USA’s Shooter, Call of Duty, and previously developed dramas Interceptor at Fox and Adversaries at ABC via Sony TV. Stone was born in Taiwan and raised in Tennessee. She has a BFA in Writing for Screen and Television from The University of Southern California. She began her career as a fine art model and her work has been featured in Photo Magazine , the Musée d’Orsay, and David LaChapelle’s “anti-commercial” 10-minute long art film as well as in international campaigns for Swedish retailer Happy Socks. GHR: WHEN DID YOU DISCOVER YOUR TALENT FOR WRITING? KS: I went to an all-girls preparatory school and one thing I really took for granted at the time was how the single- sex environment really gave space for the girls to play all the classroom roles. From overachiever, class clown, slacker; you know anything, and everything in between was all girls. When I was auditioning for girl roles in commercials, I couldn’t believe how the scripts were written. Girls didn’t talk or act the way these roles were being written and in my teenage mind I believed that I could write better. Very rarely is material written for all women. So, I started rewriting scenes in my acting classes and tran- scribing and converting all the boys’ roles to scenes we could do as girls or writing new material altogether. I didn’t realize that I was a writer and didn’t consider my- self one at the time because I saw a space that needed the work, so I did the work and I found it fun. Looking back now, I realize this was the time where my dedication to feminism began. HOW DID STONE AND DAITCH COME TO BE? David went to USC as well and had read my writing. In 2010, when David was a Naval Officer, he called me out of the blue and told me he was considering a career outside of the military as a TV writer and asked if I was looking for a partner. I declined the opportunity but accepted his request to review a script for him and provide my feedback. I read his script within days of receiving it and provided him detailed notes on his writing and sent it back to him. A week later, he sent me a second draft of the script with my notes incorporated and it was much better. David was extremely thankful that I took his writing
Katie J. Stone
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and his ambitions to be a writer seriously. We kept in touch and discussed different script ideas and once he got off active duty and was living in Los Angeles, we began our writing partnership. After we got representation, we started selling pilots and the rest is history. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR PARTNERSHIP? With my feminism and humanitarian views combined with David’s military and technical expertise, we were able to create a product that nobody else really had on the market at the time we launched Stone and Daitch. It truly is a remarkable partnership, and I can’t imagine this amazing experience with anyone else. We consider each other the
Photos courtesy of Katie J. Stone
sibling we never had as we are both overly fussed over only children. David was the best man at my wedding. WHAT CURRENT PROJECTS ARE YOU WORKING ON? David and I are excited that our spy drama Candygram just went into development at ABC via 20th Television. We have several projects in the works as well, but I can’t reveal any information on them yet. DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR ASPIRING FEMALE WRITERS? When they say write what you know, what they mean is bring what you know to what you write. Put some distance on what you are writing, make it fiction
so that you have the freedom to create. This process makes your writing more accessible both to you and your audience. In addition to her writing and acting, Stone has toured nationally as a burlesque and pole dancer; volunteers her time and image with Pin-ups for Vets, a non-profit dedicated to helping the veteran’s community; and is the Director of Development for “More Than NO”—a nonprofit that champions consent culture through artistic activism.
@katiejstone91
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