SCENE STEALERS

STEVEN CANALS

STEVEN CANALS ISN’T SUPPOSED TO BE HERE. He’s not supposed to be succeeding in Hollywood—Black, brown, and queer from a working class family in the Bronx. He’s not supposed to be a graduate of UCLA’s MFA screenwriting program. And he’s most certainly not supposed to be the creator, co-executive producer and writer of the Golden Globe-nominated television show, Pose. He’s just not supposed to be.

And yet, here he is—and somehow, he’s working harder than ever. “Every time I attack the page, I write as if it’s the last time I’m ever going to have the opportunity to write–because it could be,” he says. His career so far embodies the mantra that often drives people of color: To get even half of what white folks have, we must work twice as hard. “In those moments where I’m feeling tired or I’m feeling a little lazy, I’m constantly having to remind myself, like, ‘No bitch. Get it together. You have to do this because the work matters, but also the opportunity is here right now,’” he says. And then, there’s that lingering, distinctly Hollywood fear: “When Pose ends, is this going to continue? Who really knows?”

Canals first had the idea for in 2004 while studying film at Binghamton University in New York, after a professor suggested he watch . The documentary was the first time he’d seen people who looked and sounded just like him. On his way back to his dorm, he thought to himself, . “At the time, I was really struggling with my