Columbus State professor steps up Hollywood ladder with Hulu show. When to watch
To put in perspective how high and how fast Natalia Temesgen has climbed the ladder of Hollywood writers, you simply need to know the plan this Columbus State University associate professor of English has to watch her latest debut.
When the episode she cowrote for the TV series “Julia” on HBO Max debuted in April, Temesgen and her husband, Pete — then a lawyer with Huff, Powell & Bailey and now a State Court judge — rented the Bo Bartlett Center for a watch party.
But for the Nov. 8 debut of the episode she cowrote for the TV series “Reasonable Doubt” on Hulu, they probably will invite just a few friends to their home.
“Nothing that big,” Temesgen said as she laughed in an interview with Ledger-Enquirer.
That’s because her success in show business has become par for her course.
Temesgen, a 2004 graduate of Columbus High School, was a staff writer for the 2021 season of “Dear White People” on Netflix and earned a written-by credit on one of the 10 episodes. Then she was a story editor on the 2022 season of “Julia” and earned a written-by credit on one of the eight episodes.
Now, she is one of two executive story editors and among eight writers for “Reasonable Doubt.” She received a written-by credit for only Episode 8, but some of the scenes she wrote also are in Episode 7 and Episode 9, the finale of Season 1.
Affirming
Temesgen is grateful to have increased influence in another popular production.
“It’s exciting that this many people are watching the show,” she said. “I’m sort of surprised in a way but also affirmed that there is that mass week-to-week response on social media. … It’s the kind of show — not surprising because Kerry Washington produced the show — that reminds me a little bit of ‘Scandal’ in terms of just the way people are responding to it.
“As a writer, whether it’s a play or episode of TV, you just want people to see the work and react. So that makes me really excited because I know that there are eyes on it, that people are hungry for episodes week to week. So I’m looking forward to mine coming up.”
Hulu describes “Reasonable Doubt” as the story of Jax Stewart (Emayatzy Corinealdi), a Black woman with “questionable ethics and wild interpretations of the law.” But she also is “the most brilliant and fearless defense attorney in Los Angeles” and “bucks the justice system at every chance she gets.”
Temesgen describes Episode 8 this way:
“This is kind of the come-to-Jesus episode,” she said. “It’s not the finale, it’s not all the climax, but it is the moment where you really feel that Jax has put herself in the position that’s like, ‘How do you disentangle yourself from this now?’
“We’ve been watching her rekindle this relationship with her former client — an ex-con, at least on the books — and she believes still that he didn’t do the murder he was charged with.
“There’s that feeling as a viewer where you’re like, ‘This is super messy,’ and I think in this episode we see a turn. I’m not going to go too far, but we see a turn in Damon’s character (Michael Ealy) that starts to make us feel like, ‘You know what? You have gotten dangerously close to someone that you don’t know as well as you think.’”
Along with Corinealdi and Ealy, the other actors starring in the series include Sean Patrick Thomas, Angela Grovey and Brooke Lyons. “Reasonble Doubt” not only has a predominantly Black cast, but the show’s creator (Raamla Mohamed) and its eight writers (six women, two men) also are Black.
Cherishing
As a Black woman, Temesgen cherishes being part of this production.
“To have a sort of representation of as many reflections of Black experience in the room,” she said, “that was super cool.”
Temesgen could remain in Columbus for the show’s writing, but she had to be in Los Angeles for the week the scenes she wrote were filmed.
Although the trip took her away from family, she got to meet Ealy — “the heartthrob of my teens” — and has the selfie to prove it.
“It was just so cool,” she said, “not just to be part of it on a creative level but as a fangirl.”
Temesgen also feels good about the way she got this gig. She had a previous connection with someone involved in the “Julia” and “Dear White People” productions, but she didn’t know anybody involved with “Reasonable Doubt” when she interviewed with Mohamed via Zoom last fall.
“I always try to remember that it’s not always as much about proving that you can do the job as much as it’s also being emotionally intelligent and showing that, ‘Hey, I’m here to help you realize the vision of your show,’” she said. “So it’s a whatever-you-need-I’m-a-good-soldier kind of vibe. She was so lovely, and it was a really cool moment.”
And it was a moment when Temesgen envisioned her goal of being on the other side of that interview as more attainable.
“I had never worked for a Black woman creator before,” she said. “… So it was, ‘Gosh, this is like looking through a little bit of a mirror. Maybe this will be me in a few years.’”
What’s next for Natalia Temesgen
The next production involving Temesgen to air will be Season 2 of “Julia” in the spring. She has been promoted to coproducer and was assigned to write the fourth of the eight episodes, which were filmed in Boston.
“It’s going to be so good,” she said.
Temesgen also is among the writers for a horror-comedy limited series scheduled for Huluween 2023, Hulu’s monthlong string of content in advance of Halloween. She was coy about details, but she did mention — off the record — names of two A-list actresses in the cast.
Meanwhile, she continues to teach her CSU classes (screenwriting, English composition and film genres), despite having to conduct them online this semester because of her schedule.
“It’s something I love,” she said about teaching. “I can’t get over the fact that if I were still 16, 18, 20 years old, — I knew at that age that this is the kind of thing I love to do — it just seems stupid to be here and to not be able to mentor these kids who want to do this kind of stuff.”
Temesgen received a delightful example of the positive impact she makes on her students when a couple of them saw her this fall at the Springer Opera House production of her play “Look Forward: The Ruby Bridges Story.”
“They acted like I was a celebrity,” she said. “It was so cute. … It makes me feel really like very cool, even though I don’t think of myself at all that way. But I can imagine, if I were them, I would think it was so cool. So I’m just glad to be connected and still be able to serve those kids.”
This story was originally published October 31, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
