Natalie Gergely & Nathan Varni

Teaches at Writing Pad

Natalie Gergely

Director of Development, Abominable Pictures & Former Manager, Development at Comedy Central

Natalie Gergely is currently the Director of Development for Abominable Pictures. Before that, she was a Digital Producer at Hulu for Sarah Silverman's I Love You America. Up until mid-August 2016, she was a Manager, Original Programming and Development at Comedy Central. She got her start in 2011 working for the President of Original Programming and Development at Comedy Central. Natalie watched hits like Broad City and Workaholics come to the network as a pitch and grow to the phenomenons they are today. Since then she has sat in hundreds, if not thousands, of pitches and worked on the hit show Key & Peele as well as @Midnight and Big Time in Hollywood, FL in their infancy. As she has risen up the ranks, she’s developed various pilots, web series, and digital content for the network. She also was a writers assistant for Corporate, Coming to Comedy Central in 2018. She has a strong understanding of what makes a pitch stand out among the saturated market and how to sell an executive in the room.

Nathan Varni

Director of Current Programming, ABC

Nathan Varni is Director of Current Programming, Disney-ABC Television Group, reporting to Vicki Dummer, Head of ABC Network Current Programming, Disney-ABC Television Group. Mr. Varni oversees all creative and day-to-day management on ABC’s upcoming new primetime series The Conners, Grey’s Anatomy, How to Get Away with Murder, Grand Hotel, False Profits, and the long running General Hospital. In past seasons, Mr. Varni was the covering executive on Once Upon A Time, Scandal, The Middle, Greys Anatomy, The Gospel of Kevin and Roseanne. Mr. Varni joined ABC in November, 2006 as an assistant in comedy current programming and development working on comedy and drama series including According to Jim, Samantha Who?, Better off Ted, Cougar Town, Castle, V, 666 Park Avenue and three seasons covering Happy Endings. Prior to joining ABC, Mr. Varni worked in series development at Regency Television (Malcolm in the Middle, The Bernie Mac Show). Prior to his time at Regency TV, Mr. Varni worked in reality series as a story assistant for series such as America’s Next Top Model, The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, High School Reunion, For Love or Money and The Next Great Champ. Game show experience includes working on 65 episodes of GSN’s Whammy! The All New Press Your Luck. Mr. Varni served as a production assistant and then Exec Producers assistant on the CBS sitcoms Listen Up and How I Met Your Mother. Mr. Varni earned a bachelor of arts in television production/media management from California State University Northridge.