Steven Canals | |
|---|---|
 Canals in 2019 | |
| Born | September 14, 1980 |
| Education | Binghamton University (BA, MA) University of California, Los Angeles (MFA) |
| Occupation(s) | Screenwriter, Producer |
| Years active | 2016–present |
| Notable work | Pose |
Steven Canals (born September 14, 1980) [1] [2] is an American screenwriter and producer. He is best known for co-creating and executive-producing the FX television show Pose . [2]
Canals grew up in the Housing Projects in Castle Hill, Bronx. [3] He began practicing filmmaking at the Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice after school program. He co-produced his first documentary about gang violence with other classmates when he was 15. [2] [3] [4]
Canals graduated with a BA in cinema and MA in student affairs from Binghamton University in 2005 and 2008 respectively. [5] Canals received his MFA in screenwriting from UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television in 2015. [3] [5]
Prior to working in entertainment, Canals worked in university administration. He worked as an LGBT resource coordinator at SUNY-Cortland while completing his master's degree part time, where he was also residence hall director of Shea Hall and advisor to the university's gay-straight alliance for six years. [2] [6] [7] Allegheny College appointed Canals as associate director for gender and sexual orientation initiatives in June 2011. [6]
Canals was a staff writer on Freeform's Dead of Summer in 2016. His short film Afuera premiered at the LA Film Festival that same year. [8]
Canals developed the pilot script for television show Pose while studying at UCLA in 2014. [2] [3] He was initially inspired by the story in Paris Is Burning. [9] He however found it difficult to get the script developed as industry executives found the subject matter about LGBT people of color and ball culture to be "too niche". [3] [9] [10] Ryan Murphy, co-creator of Glee and American Horror Story , would later come on as a producer in 2016, along with his producing partner Brad Falchuk. [3] [11] The first season premiered in June 2018 on FX. [10] The show is noted to have the largest transgender cast in television history. [10] [11]
He was named a "writer to watch" by Variety in 2018. [4]
Canals signed an overall deal with 20th Century Fox Television in January 2020. [12]
He is of African American and Puerto Rican heritage. [3]
| Year | Title | Credited as | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Director | Writer | Producer | |||
| 2016 | Dead of Summer | No | Yes | No | Co-wrote "The Devil Inside" with Richard Naing |
| 2018–21 | Pose | Yes | Yes | Executive | Co-creator, directed 5 episodes and wrote 15 |
| 2022 | Love, Victor | Yes | No | No | "The Setup" |
| 2023 | Class of '09 | Yes | No | No | "The Problem Is People" and "Hogan's Alley" |
| Neon | Yes | No | No | "Isanti" and "The Reality" | |
| 2024 | American Sports Story | Yes | No | No | "Dirty Pain" and "Odin" |
| The Sex Lives of College Girls | Yes | No | No | [13] | |
Cortland is a city and the county seat of Cortland County, New York, United States. Known as the Crown City, Cortland is in New York's Southern Tier region. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 17,556.
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The State University of New York at Cortland is a public university in Cortland, New York. It was founded in 1868 and is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system.
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Jennie Livingston is an American director best known for the 1990 documentary Paris is Burning.
Historically, the portrayal of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people in media has been largely negative if not altogether absent, reflecting a general cultural intolerance of LGBTQ individuals; however, from the 1990s to present day, there has been an increase in the positive depictions of LGBTQ people, issues, and concerns within mainstream media in North America. The LGBTQ communities have taken an increasingly proactive stand in defining their own culture, with a primary goal of achieving an affirmative visibility in mainstream media. The positive portrayal or increased presence of the LGBTQ communities in media has served to increase acceptance and support for LGBT communities, establish LGBTQ communities as a norm, and provide information on the topic.
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Pose is an American drama television series about New York City's ball culture, an LGBTQ subculture in the African-American and Latino communities, throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Featured characters are dancers and models, who compete for trophies and recognition in this underground culture and who support one another in a network of chosen families known as Houses.
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Ryan Jamaal Swain is an American actor and dancer. He is known for his role as Damon Richards-Evangelista, a gay dancer, in the FX television series Pose.
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