Young Storytellers launches the Jamie Tarses Fund at a moment when arts education, mentorship, and youth voices matter more than ever. The new initiative honors the late TV executive and producer Jamie Tarses by investing directly in Los Angeles public school students learning to write, imagine, and tell their own stories.
Announced by the Los Angeles nonprofit Young Storytellers, the fund is designed to support the organization’s school-based programs, where volunteer mentors work one-on-one with students to create original scripts. Those scripts are later brought to life by professional actors on stage, giving young writers a rare chance to see their ideas treated with real creative respect. For a city shaped by television and film, the Jamie Tarses Fund reflects a powerful link between the entertainment industry and the next generation of storytellers.
Young Storytellers launches the Jamie Tarses Fund in her memory
The newly created Jamie Tarses Fund is named for a television trailblazer whose impact extended far beyond network offices and production sets. Tarses, who died in 2021, was a founding board member of Young Storytellers and played a meaningful role in shaping the nonprofit’s mentorship-driven mission.
The fund will be celebrated on October 29 during The Biggest Show, the organization’s annual event at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles. More importantly, the fund creates a lasting way to continue Tarses’ commitment to encouraging young writers.
According to Young Storytellers leadership, the goal is not simply to preserve her legacy in name, but to continue the work she cared about most: helping writers feel seen, heard, and supported.
Why Jamie Tarses remains such an important TV figure
To understand why Young Storytellers launches the Jamie Tarses Fund is such a meaningful headline, it helps to look at Tarses’ remarkable career in television.
She started out as a talent executive at Saturday Night Live and later worked as a casting director at Lorimar. After joining NBC in 1987, she became part of an era that helped define modern network comedy, contributing to the development of shows such as:
- Friends
- Mad About You
- Frasier
- NewsRadio
In 1996, Tarses made history when she became the first woman to lead a network entertainment division as president of ABC Entertainment. During her tenure, ABC developed and aired acclaimed titles including:
- The Practice
- Spin City
- Sports Night
- Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place
As an independent producer, she continued to shape television with projects such as My Boys, Happy Endings, Franklin & Bash, The Wilds, and The Mysterious Benedict Society. Her résumé alone would secure her place in TV history, but the launch of this fund highlights another side of her influence: mentoring emerging voices.
How the fund will help students in Los Angeles public schools
At its core, Young Storytellers launches the Jamie Tarses Fund to expand and sustain student-centered storytelling programs in Los Angeles public schools. These programs pair trained volunteers with young people, guiding them through the process of writing original scripts from the ground up.
The model works because it combines literacy, creativity, confidence-building, and performance. Students are not only encouraged to write; they are shown that their ideas deserve attention. That message can be transformative, especially for children who may not otherwise see a direct path into creative industries.
What Young Storytellers programs typically provide
- One-on-one mentoring for student writers
- Scriptwriting instruction in accessible, age-appropriate formats
- Creative confidence and communication skill development
- Live staged performances of student-written work by professional actors
- Exposure to entertainment and storytelling careers
This approach makes the Jamie Tarses Fund more than a memorial. It is a practical investment in arts education and youth development.
Jamie Tarses’ connection to Young Storytellers
Young Storytellers launches the Jamie Tarses Fund in honor of someone who had a long, hands-on relationship with the organization. Tarses became involved in the 1990s and joined the founding board in 2003, the same year Young Storytellers became an independent nonprofit. She served on the board for seven years.
During that time, she reportedly recruited writers’ rooms from her own comedy productions, as well as well-known actors and industry professionals, to volunteer as mentors. That kind of advocacy mattered. It helped connect working Hollywood talent with public school classrooms, turning mentorship into a direct bridge between aspiration and opportunity.
Statements from those closest to the organization underscore that Tarses believed deeply in young writers. Her brother, TV writer-producer Matt Tarses, described helping Young Storytellers as one of the most joyful and rewarding experiences he had because Jamie knew how meaningful the work could be. Young Storytellers Managing Director Jaylene Benggon Chung also emphasized that Tarses understood the importance of telling young people their ideas should be taken seriously.
The growing impact of Young Storytellers in LA
The decision that Young Storytellers launches the Jamie Tarses Fund comes as the nonprofit continues to grow its reach. What began in 1997 as a volunteer project created by three film students in a single classroom at Playa del Rey Elementary School has become a major arts education presence in Los Angeles.
By 2025, the organization reported:
- 786 volunteers participating as mentors
- More than 440 students mentored every week
- 39 public schools and after-school sites served across Los Angeles
Those numbers illustrate why this new fund matters. It supports a proven program with measurable scale, while reinforcing a broader mission: making storytelling mentorship available to more students across the city.
What this means for TV, education, and creative mentorship
For readers in the Tv & Video space, this story resonates beyond philanthropy. It shows how television’s legacy figures can shape the future not only through shows they helped create, but through the young voices they empower. When Young Storytellers launches the Jamie Tarses Fund, it sends a clear message that the industry’s future begins in classrooms, writing exercises, and one-on-one mentorship sessions.
In an era of constant conversation about representation, access, and opportunity in entertainment, programs like these can create tangible change. They help students build storytelling skills early, while making the creative world feel less distant and more possible.
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Conclusion
Young Storytellers launches the Jamie Tarses Fund as both a tribute and a forward-looking investment in student creativity. By supporting public school writing programs in Los Angeles, the fund honors Jamie Tarses in the most fitting way possible: by helping young people discover that their stories matter. In a media landscape always searching for fresh voices, this may be one of the most meaningful ways to build the future of television and storytelling.
