Suggests: Crafting Complex Characters with the Creators of HBO's HACKS

Join creators and showrunners Jen Statsky and Lucia Aniello to discuss their Emmy and Golden Globe winning television show, Hacks, and how they approach writing compelling characters who often find themselves in moral gray areas.

Hacks is the story of Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), a legendary grande dame of stand-up comedy whose long-running Las Vegas residency is threatened by a new vanguard of live performers, and Ava (Hannah Einbinder), a twenty-something television writer whose only hope of surviving cancellation is a gig modernizing Deborah’s material. Theirs is a fraught but kinetic partnership masterminded by Jimmy (Paul W. Downs). The highly anticipated third season of the show airs on Max in May 2024.

“What makes Hacks season 3 the biggest yet is how effectively the story raises the stakes from the previous seasons. If audiences think that Deborah has run out of stories, the newest installment will prove them wrong in…