Launch Pad Alum Rohit Kumar Joins “13 Reasons Why” Writing Team and Signs with Verve (Exclusive)

Launch Pad alum Rohit Kumar, whose script GREYSHORE earned the Top Drama prize in the 2015 Launch Pad Pilot Competition, has joined the writing team for Season 2 of the Netflix series 13 REASONS WHY. He has also signed with Felicia Prinz, Matthew Doyle, Nicholas Mohebbi, and Parker Davis of Verve. Previously, he signed with Good Fear.

Pitched as Hemlock Grove meets Wayward Pines, Kumar’s script follows a disgraced doctor who learns the couple who raised him are not his biological parents. When he leaves with his own family to an inherited estate, dark and mysterious forces begin to threaten everything he thought he knew about himself and his place in the world.

Readers praised its Lovecraftian elements set in a small town, a character unto itself, that reminded them of a Stephen King novel. The script succeeds at sucking the reader in thanks to its “strong characters in an inventive world,” making Greyshore far more than a simple supernatural set piece.

A computer engineer by education, Kumar gave that all up to work in the glamorous world of Hollywood assistants. Starting out at CAA in a variety of departments, Kumar also worked at Davis Entertainment before ending up as a current creative exec at True Pictures.

13 Reasons Why premiered on Netflix in March with 13 episodes based on the YA novel of the same name by Jay Asher that deals with various themes like suicide, sexual assault and rape, and mental illness. Starring Dylan Minnette and Katherine Langford and produced by Selena Gomez, the series became an instant — and controversial — hit. Its second season was announced in May for a 2018 premiere.

The Launch Pad Feature Competition is currently accepting entries for its 2017 Competition.

Anya Crittenton | Associate Editor