Watch Quinta Brunson and the ‘Abbott Elementary’ Team Talk About Creating Space for Every Collaborator to Ask ‘Hey, What’s My Voice?’

Quinta Brunson might be the face of “Abbott Elementary,” but she’ll be the first to tell you how much her collaborators contribute to the show’s distinct tone. And now that the Emmy-winning show, which airs its Season 3 finale Wednesday May 23, appears to be an unstoppable juggernaut that delights critics and mass audiences in equal measure, Brunson and her team are even more determined to use it as a vehicle to develop new voices.

Brunson and “Abbott Elementary” executive producers Patrick Schumacker, Justin Halpern, and Brian Rubenstein joined IndieWire’s Awards Editor Marcus Jones for a discussion about the show’s collaborative ethos as part of IndieWire’s Pass the Remote FYC series, produced in partnership with Disney. The panel, which took place at the Vidiots Foundation in Los Angeles on Monday, May 20, was preceded by a screening of the standout Season 3 episode “Smoking.” And while the crowd was delighted to see Brunson — who created the series and plays teacher-turned-administrator Janine Teagues in addition to executive producing — the conversation quickly turned to the way that the show fosters new talent among the crew and writing staff.

“There’s several writers for whom this show was their first time writing television,” Schumacker said, explaining that Brunson handpicked many of her collaborators from her previous stints producing short form comedy content online. “[Brunson’s] instincts were spot on that they were gonna develop into excellent writers. That they could just walk into this new medium and take to it like fish to water. So that’s been really cool seeing them grow into TV writers.”

Brunson said that she and her team take great pride in finding writers with unique voices and teaching them how to succeed in the highly structured world of network television writing.

“You guys help allow people to find their voices,” she said to her three collaborators. “I feel like Brian is always helping our writers who are new. You can have an idea as a writer, but it helps to have people who show you how to make that idea a script of television instead of letting you flail or make a bad episode of TV. Justin and Pat run the room in a way that each writer is a part of each episode. Because we outline together, we do the story together, each writer does a piece of the outline so they are all connected to the story. By the time a script even gets to the writer, it’s formatted. I’d say it’s almost written when it gets to the writer, but that’s where you get the real voice.”

The show’s commitment to developing new talent develops beyond the writers room. Brunson credited the show’s director Randall Einhorn — a sitcom legend who helped perfect the mockumentary format through his work on shows such as “The Office,” “Modern Family,” and “Parks and Recreation” — with helping new directors from diverse backgrounds break into television each season. She explained that his devotion to elevating new voices extends beyond the abstract support for diversity that you often see in the industry because he takes tangible steps to help people secure their first jobs in Hollywood.

“The main thing that Randall has been doing that I think is so special is that he’s been ushering in new directors. Not just new directors, but new directors of color every single season,” she said. “It is incredible to have a director who is willing to let people shadow him, and then usher them into getting their first directing credit on network TV, which is not easy to do.”

From the writers’ room to the sets, Halpern, Schumacker, and Rubenstein all credited the collaboration and professional growth that the show facilitates to the inclusive environment that Brunson creates every day.

“It’s just the best. It’s the most fun to see people grow into the writers you know they can become,” Halpern said. “And I think that is a testament to a couple things. It’s their talent, but it’s also Quinta creating a space where that can happen. And that’s not an easy thing to do. Because in a lot of environments, a lot of the shows that [Schumacker] and I worked on before we were running shows, that space isn’t there. You just feel like ‘I’m a line cook for this chef that’s yelling at me.’ And to be able to figure out, ‘Hey, what is my voice?’ means that the person in charge has allowed that space to happen.”

Watch the complete video of IndieWire’s “Abbott Elementary” panel above. Catch up on previous Pass the Remote panels and request invites to the two remaining screenings.