Killing Eve, the popular BBC show starring Sandra Oh and produced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge , has come under fire for having an all-white writers room.
Variety reports that “eyebrows were raised” when one of the series writers Kayleigh Llewellyn tweeted a virtual meeting of the writers room for the fourth season of the series.
“15 weeks later, it’s the final day of the Killing Eve writers room,” Llewellyn tweeted. The post has now been deleted.
The image showed nine writers who all appeared to be White. Users were quick to tweet the observation, criticizing the show’s lack of diversity while featuring Oh, who has spoken out about lack of diversity in the entertainment industry and racial injustice in the past.
Further examinations of Killing Eve’s IMDb by Variety showed that none of the writers for the upcoming season appeared to be a person of color.
Producer Waller-Bridge rose to astronomical success with Killer Eve and her autobiographical show Fleabag.
Killing Eve depicts a cat-and-mouse chase between a British agent and a ruthless assassin. It sweeped the 2019 British Academy Television Awards according to NME, winning categories such as best drama series, best leading actress and best supporting actress. The Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Award both honored Oh with Best Actress Awards for her part in the show.
Writer and director Matthew A Cherry, who received the Academy Award for his short film Hair Love, also tweeted: “Y’all really be proudly sharing these non-diverse writers’ room screenshots freely on the TL, like its something to celebrate.’”
In the wake of the criticisms, the Awards are instituting a pilot program which would require shows to hit diversity targets to qualify for an award, according to Screen Daily. The changes will adjust the award institution to reflect the “global TV landscape,” Bafta deputy chair Krish Majumdar said.
“There could always be dialogue in mitigating circumstances for different genres, but what this will do is focus everyone’s minds,” Majumdar said. “This puts everyone’s shoulders to the wheel for trying to make the industry more inclusive. Everyone is taking diversity more seriously.”
The showrunners of “Killing Eve” have yet to announce any updates to diversify the writers room.
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