Behind every charismatic talk-show host, TV sitcom and breaking news piece is a room full of writers who rarely receive proper credit. Every year, the Writers Guild of America Awards recognizes work across all media, from film and television to news and radio, celebrating the underrecognized voices that shape our culture. Hosted by comedian Roy Wood Jr. in the heart of Times Square on March 8, this year’s ceremony included 18 nominated NYU alumni, five of whom took home awards.

NYU alumni featured in several categories, including Derek Connolly (Tisch ’98) and Colin Trevorrow (Tisch ’99), who won in the TV & streaming motion picture category for co-writing the comedy crime film “Deep Cover.” The pair, who met at NYU, have a long history of collaboration on big-budget projects like the “Jurassic World” trilogy and the small-scale indie “Safety Not Guaranteed.”

In the comedy/variety – talk or sketch category, the “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” team took home gold, including senior writer Charlie Redd (Tisch ’14). In the animation category, Mehar Sethi (Tisch ’05), who has worked on projects like “BoJack Horseman” and “Rick and Morty,” won for writing the episode “Shira Can’t Cook” from the animated series “Long Story Short.”

Across the film categories, “Sinners” and “One Battle After Another” won original and adapted screenplay respectively. The latter will be a major contender at this year’s Academy Awards, having already secured several Golden Globes and British Academy Film Awards categories.

Shayna McHayle, who played Junglepussy in “One Battle After Another” — a name derived from her real-life stage name — spoke to WSN about the large ensemble cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn and Chase Infiniti.

“We’re all super close,” McHale said. “I mean, I got to work with Regina Hall for the second time. That’s all I need in my career.”

Throughout the night, writers shared stories about their work across all different forms of storytelling, including journalism, documentary filmmaking and adapting existing work. Will Tracy, who wrote “Bugonia,” told WSN he had never heard of the 2003 South Korean comedy “Save the Green Planet!” before adapting it into the four-time Oscar nominated film.

“My friend Ari Aster called me up and said I should watch it, and I only needed to watch it that one time before writing ‘Bugonia,’” he said.

Special presenters Kathy McGee, Don Cheadle and Robert Smigel (CAS ’83) also presented honorary achievement awards to writers who have gone above and beyond in their craft: TV writer and producer Diana Son (Tisch ’87) received the Richard B. Jablow Award for Devoted Service to the Guild, screenwriter and producer Terry George got the McLellan Hunter Award for Career Achievement and late night host Stephen Colbert was awarded the Walter Bernstein Award for willingness to confront social injustice in the face of adversity. Colbert’s celebrated talk show ends this May, largely speculated to be because of his avid criticism of President Donald Trump.

Colbert made sure to list every one of his writers by name in his acceptance speech, sharing unaired jokes and personal anecdotes about the writing room.

“If you’re ever lucky enough to be in that room, you will always want to be in that sound,” Colbert said in his speech. “And what’s really going to be hard is missing these people, who, despite the fresh hell, whatever it is that the news washes in, make that beautiful sound happen every day.”

In the journalism world, writers received acknowledgment for their work on breaking reports, like “World News Tonight with David Muir’s” episode the Texas floods, and analyses, like “Ayman’s” feature on Palestinian journalists killed by the Israeli Defense Forces, among other categories. Across all winners and nominees, the importance of collaboration and research remained integral throughout their acceptance speeches and comments.

“Find like-minded people,” Smigel, a seasoned writer, director, comedian and Saturday Night Live veteran, told WSN. “I met a lot of people, and gravitated towards the ones with my sense of humor. You really need that, not just collaboration, but reinforcement.”