Liz Hsiao Lan Alper ’04 has been helping to tell stories on television for more than a decade in her work as a producer, writer, and script coordinator on half a dozen television series, but recently Liz found herself featured in a story entitled “20 Women Changing TV’s Narrative.”

The article by Sarah Fields appeared April 30 on the website Tell-Tale TV. Liz was profiled as one of “the fantastic women working behind the scenes to challenge the status quo and change the story” of an evolving television industry.

“It’s really an honor to be included in the article,” Liz said.

Although she had received word ahead of time about the story, she found herself gratified but surprised that she was being included alongside such high-profile women within the television industry.  

“For much of its history, television’s story has been written mostly by white men,” the article stated. “It wasn’t until the late 70s, with people like Madeline Anderson — the first Black woman to produce and direct a syndicated TV show — that things started to shift. We still have a long way to go. Yet, in the last 10 years, that painfully slow change has accelerated, and some very cool women are leading the charge.”

Liz was recognized for being “the co-founder — along with fellow writer Deirdre Mangan — of #PayUpHollywood, a project that pushes for better pay and working conditions for the industry’s support staff,” and that “she is making some serious waves behind the scenes.”

The article stated that “the project’s advocacy and its surveys of pay and work conditions started an important conversation about the unlivable wages and expectations for people working in entry-level, support roles.”

“Since #PayUpHollywood started,” the Tell-Tale TV article continued, “five agencies (CAA, ICM, UTA, WME, and Verve) have increased their assistants’ hourly rate. The #PayUpHollywood coalition also started the Hollywood Support Staff Relief fund, raising over half a million dollars to support staffers laid off because of COVID.”

Liz’s profile also noted that in March “she joined Tanya Saracho and Mike Royce to create a program to train people from marginalized communities as writing assistants and script coordinators. These positions are often gateways to careers in TV and film. By creating opportunities at the entry-level, the team hopes to build a foundation for more inclusivity at all levels continuing Alper’s efforts to change how Hollywood from the ground up.”

Two years ago, Liz was elected to the Board of Directors of the Writers Guild of America West, which she said, “has given me more of platform to speak out, tasking me with the responsibility to be looking out for the 10,000-plus writers in the guild.” Being on the guild’s board is giving her a voice for “under-represented groups who have a much harder time breaking in and staying in the industry as writers.”

Liz said #PayUpHollywood is helping to hold the industry accountable to provide fair wages and benefits for its support staff, and “to create safe work spaces for everyone in Hollywood” to help them avoid experiencing sexual, physical, mental, and emotional abuse. For decades, she noted, these forms of abuse have been glossed over and, in some respects, even glorified “and have given abusers a pass.”

“It is still creating an unsafe work environment for too many,” Liz added. 

With Deirdre Mangan, Liz co-wrote a guest column entitled “In Hollywood, Is the Press the New Human Resources?” for the May 12 edition of The Hollywood Reporter.

“Human resources in Hollywood needs to be completely redone,” Liz said. “We are at an impasse right now. Human resources is protecting the abusers and ‘gaslighting’ the victims. That is really at the heart of what we want to change in the workplace culture, so that anyone subjected to bullying or abuse has resources available to them and don’t feel that it is their fault.”

Liz said her work on behalf of the Hollywood Support Staff Relief fund “fulfills my need to help people who, after the pandemic hit, have needed financial support, mental health services, and other resources.”

“This is the stuff that matters so much to me,” Liz added. “As long as I am working and putting money in the bank, it allows me to focus on these other non-paying pursuits that are important to me.”

For more than a decade, Liz has worked on a number of television series, including Day of the Dead, The Rookie, Hawaii Five-0, and Chicago Fire.