Monday Convocation | Erika Green Swafford

February 10, 2017

Erika Green Swafford casually sits on the Hitchcock Theater stage and speaks to the Cate community about life as a TV writer.

From the start, it was clear that Erika Green Swafford’s visit was not going to be an ordinary Monday Convocation. Her delivery was casual and friendly and she eschewed the wooden podium – opting to sit on the edge of stage and conduct her presentation informally and connect directly with students.

Now a writer on the hit ABC show How to Get Away with Murder, Green Swafford wanted to make it clear that her path to the rarified air of television writer’s room has been far from linear; instead she called it a “big, weird, windy, twisty road” that wouldn’t have evolved as it did unless she approached all her experiences and learning with “joy and gusto.” That, she offered, “is what opens doors.”

“I was born in a non-state (Washington, D.C.) and raised in a nation (Texas)” she joked, evoking laughter and revealing her chops as a storyteller as she relayed commentary on her early years. Part drama geek, part athlete, and always a passionate chef, she spoke of hanging out with the “freaks and geeks” of her school before heading to hotel management school at Cornell, in the upper reaches of New York State.

Even though she completed her studies and headed into the restaurant business, she knew almost immediately that she needed to shift gears, she explained. “So I told myself I was a writer, that I was creative,” and made her way (via business school at UCLA) to the world of television production.

The most dramatic moment of Monday’s Convocation came in the form of a spoiler alert – members of the audience (clearly fans of How to Get Away with Murder) gasping when Green Swafford revealed the upcoming death of a particular character. But her insights into the inner workings of the show’s writer’s room were just as instructive – she described the composition of the show’s creative people as diverse, open-minded, and reflective the “current American story.”

“What do you do when you have writer’s block?” asked one student during the question and answer portion of the Convocation. “I cook,” she replied readily.

That segued nicely to her final point for the evening. “Always stay hungry, be fearless, and be yourself.”