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Want to create, write and star in your own TV show? This duo did it their own way — and you can too

Amanda Joy and Samantha Wan — co-creators, writers and stars of Second Jen — tell us how they got their show on network television.

The pair behind Second Jen share their advice for getting on network television

Mercedes Grundy · CBC Arts ·

How do you create, write and star in your own TV show? Advice from the creative duo behind Second Jen

8 years ago
Duration 3:27
Amanda Joy and Samantha Wan - Co-creators, writers and stars of Second Jen - tell us how they got their show on network television

Many actors — successful and aspiring alike — dream of one day writing and starring in their own show. But making that dream a reality is seldom achieved. Enter Amanda Joy and Samantha Wan, two Toronto twenty-somethings who managed the huge feat of creating, writing and starring in their own series on network television, Second Jen.

The show tells the story of best friends Jen (Wan) and Mo (Joy), who are experiencing many of life's firsts as they move out of their parents' houses together. Joy and Wan drew from their own experiences as second-generation Asian-Canadians to put the characters in familiar (and hilarious) situations that include awkward family dinners, housemates of the opposite sex and overbearing parents.

Mo (Amanda Joy) and Jen (Samantha Wan) move into their first apartment but the couch won't fit through the front door. (Second Jen Inc.)

In the above video, Joy and Wan tell CBC Arts how they got Second Jen off the ground and give some important advice for anyone who dreams of one day telling their own story.

Second Jen airs Thursdays at 8:30 PM on City-TV.

Watch Exhibitionists Sundays at 4:30pm (5 NT) on CBC.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mercedes Grundy

Mercedes Grundy is a producer for CBC's Unscripted division. She has played an integral role in the creation of series like Exhibitionists, The Filmmakers and Canada's a Drag as well as special projects like Superqueeroes and The 2010s: The Decade Canadian Artists Stopped Saying Sorry. Collectively, these projects have won Grundy 5 Canadian Screen Awards. She has an educational background in photography, and produces film and theatre when not busy here at the CBC.

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