The voice of a Black woman should always be herself. No edits. No erasure. No pressure. No expectations. No additions. No intruders.

(All) photo credits: Jazmin Johnson, southernfriedminimalism.com

The Third Person, “Peep My Writer’s Voice?” Bio.

Years before she became Aquillia “Q” Mikel, the tv writer and (almost) aerialist, she was addicted to television at a young age. Raised in the windiest of cities, she often held her family hostage, forcing them to watch Norman Lear reruns (RIP) or the Disney Channel to ignite tough conversations. She decided she wanted to make money by doing that to strangers as well. Toggling between surrealism and irreverence, you’ll probably find her writing about Jesus, climate change, or other polite dinner topics. Her toxic trait used to be trying things “because it would make a good story,” so her work frequently includes the questionable decisions she has made throughout her life. However, any similarities to a person, living or dead, in her scripts are purely coincidental. Probably. Maybe.

Chicago is her hometown and she will always brag about her ability to survive absurdly long winters. (Oh. “You’re from Chicago too?” Where did you go to high school?) She taught 7th-12th grade Lit for about ten years and that work will forever change her life for the better, even though she’s ecstatic to never make lesson plans in Panera Bread again (too.much.bread) or cover up her tattoos with Band-aids. She’s lived under canvas tents in Tanzania, harvested chocolate in Ecuador, and she is a very nervous flier, so she will snitch on you if you don’t put your phone in airplane mode.

She also lived in Thailand for just the right amount of time to: start a podcast that chronicles the journeys of Black women screenwriters, get an Alchemist-themed vegan tattoo (?), and learn that some people can make a successful throuple, but she isn’t one of them.

Now, she is working towards the dream: becoming a revolutionary and impactful showrunner who highlights the Westside of Chicago in everything she writes, hires all of her interested former students who want to work in the biz, and then retires to an undisclosed location in the Pacific Northwest when she’s 50 because she, too, sings America- but she does not dream of labor.

PLEASE CALL her Q.

The Third Person, “Lemme Run My Stats” Bio.

Mikel is a former English teacher turned screenwriter and a proud alumna of Loyola Marymount University's Writing and Producing for TV graduate program. Hailing from the Westside of Chicago, she began her industry journey as a showrunner's assistant on season 2 of SWAGGER and placed as a semifinalist in the 2021 Women Write Now Fellowship, powered by Hartbeat and the Sundance Institute, with her short film, Spit Out The Bones.

"In my work, I like to redeem and restore the 'difficult' woman. The more unlikable she seems, the more fun I have."

And.

I’m a vegan, but I’m not like a regular vegan…I’m a cool vegan. Rico Nasty is my anger translator and Tim Ross reminds me that since I love Jesus, I should always submit my emotions to God first. LA friends, you always ask me this, so I preemptively did my research: I am a Taurus Sun, Scorpio Rising, and a Sagitarrius Moon. I will still not know what that means even when you breathlessly explain it to me. No, I do not have social media. No, I will not get it “for visibility”. I do not use my phone on Sundays because I do my best to honor the Sabbath. I’m a 7 on the Enneagram and an INFJ-T, so I lean on my intuition and then even more towards introversion. Basically, I have mind control over you. When we first meet, I be quiet. But when you leave? I be talking again.