Elysse Applebaum
Elysse Applebaum’s first writing gig in Hollywood was doing nametags for contestants on The Price Is Right. She knew she’d make it onto full sentences one day.
Born and raised as a Jewish liberal in Orange County, Elysse had a fish-out-of-water upbringing. She moved to LA to study Film & TV Production and Creative Writing at USC, and landed that sweet gig on The Price Is Right. But she soon got her real break into scripted TV as a showrunner’s assistant on Brothers and Sisters (ABC).
She subsequently worked in various support positions (script coordinator, writers’ assistant, combo platter) on such shows as The 100 (CW), Finding Carter (MTV), Marvel’s Inhumans (ABC), Good Girls (NBC), and Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings (Netflix) before staffing on Hallmark’s romantic comedy series Good Witch, where she was most recently a story editor.
Over the years, Elysse’s drama and comedy TV writing has placed in a number of contests including Austin Film Festival (Second Round), Final Draft’s Big Break (Top 3) and Scriptapalooza (Finalist). She came mighty close to fellowships at WBTV’s Writers’ Workshop and NBC’s Writers on the Verge.
In her spare-ish time, Elysse is a mentor with WriteGirl. She’s a fan of Dodgers baseball, rescue dogs and snacks. She also trained in improv at the UCB and stand-up comedy at The Ruby LA.
Elysse is repped by Haven. You can find her on Twitter @yapplebee.
Testimonials
I was impressed from the start by our intrepid, affable, and extremely knowledgeable instructor, Elysse Applebaum, who led my Script Anatomy Pilot Draft Intensive. Elysse’s energy and enthusiasm really helped our class get excited about our own personal projects and was invaluable when we did the workshop portion of the class. Having a working scribe, such as Elysse, is so beneficial to furthering my television writing skills as she was able to provide relevant examples from her years working in the trenches on various shows. Elysse also was able to bolster my self-confidence by being positive and pushing me to go the extra steps and not take the easy way out with my characters and story. Elysse also provided extensive notes for each member of the class, both on a line level and as a script as a whole. She put in a tremendous amount of time and personal attention to reading and critiquing each of the three major submissions in class. I would definitely recommend Elysse Applebaum as a valued Script Anatomy instructor and would enjoy taking additional classes that she might teach in the future!
— Jeffrey Lerner
Elysse was a fantastic instructor for the Pilot Draft Intensive class. Very positive, but also down to business in her notes – all of which were extremely helpful in crafting a first draft of a pilot. And in fact, I came out of the class with a solid first draft of a pilot, which was a direct result of the class and her notes.