Descriptive Summary
Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Acquisition Information
Biography/Administrative History
Scope and Content of Collection
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: Veena Sud Papers
Dates: 2006 - 2017
Collection Number: WGF-MS-025
Creator/Collector:
Cabreros-Sud, Veena
Extent: 10 linear feet, 11 boxes.
Repository:
Writers Guild Foundation Archive
Los Angeles, California 90048
Abstract: The Veena Sud Collection contains writers’ room notes, outlines, drafts, revision pages, research, and ephemera relating to
two TV series, The Killing and Seven Seconds.
Language of Material: English
Access
Available by appointment only.
Publication Rights
The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the researcher.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item]. Veena Sud Papers. Collection Number: WGF-MS-025. Writers Guild Foundation Archive
Acquisition Information
Donated by Veena Sud in two parts; 2015 and in 2021.
Biography/Administrative History
Veena Sud was born in Toronto, Canada and grew up in Indian Hill, Ohio, near Cincinnati, Ohio. She attended Barnard College,
where she studied politics and women’s studies. After she graduated in 1989, she worked as a journalist, spending several
years at Pacifica Radio and at the media watchdog group, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. When Sud turned 28, she enrolled
at New York University’s Film School and received a Master of Fine Arts degree. Sud began her film and television career
as the director for MTV’s The Real World for one year. She was hired as a staff writer for the 2002 television series Push,
Nevada, and then for the CBS police drama Cold Case. She was later promoted to Executive Producer for the show’s fourth and
fifth seasons.
Sud is most known for creating the TV series, The Killing, for which she earned an Emmy nomination for Drama Series, and a
Writers Guild of America Award nomination for New Series. The Killing is a police procedural adapted from a popular Danish
series called Forbrydelsen (The Crime). The show ran for 4 seasons, the first three on AMC and the final season on Netflix.
In 2018 Sud created the show, Seven Seconds, which aired for one season on Netflix. Seven Seconds was adapted from the Russian
action movie, The Major by Yuriy Bykov, about a man who accidentally hits and kills a child on the road. Seven Seconds is
also about a hit-and-run, but Sud located the show in Jersey City and included a Black Lives Matter storyline. Sud won the
Black Reel Award for Outstanding Television Movie or Limited Series and the Black Reel Award for Outstanding Screenplay, TV
Movie or Limited Series with co-writer Shalisha Francis.
Sud’s other credits include, The Lie (2018), The Salton Sea (2016), and the short film One Night (2000) for which she won
the San Francisco International Film Festival Certificate of Merit in Film & Video – Short Narrative.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection materials are arranged into three series. Series I, The Killing, contains development notes, research, outlines,
scripts, revision pages and props from the television series The Killing. Series I is divided into two subseries, Subseries
A: Production Binders and Development Notes, and Subseries B: Ephemera. Subseries A includes extensive typed writers’ room
notes for seasons 1-4, research, character and plot development notes, and script drafts and outlines for most episodes of
seasons 1-3. Some of the outlines and draft scripts also have handwritten notes from the writers and producers. Subseries
B: Ephemera, includes set dressing and props from seasons 1, 3 and 4. Of note is a writers’ room whiteboard with handwritten
notes outlining the main plot points for season 1.
Series II refers to all materials related to the TV series Seven Seconds. The series contains show development notes from
the writers’ room, research, episode outlines, episode script drafts and revision pages. Series II is divided into two subseries,
Subseries A: Production Binders and Development Materials, and Subseries B: Ephemera. Subseries A includes research, writers’
room notes, and outlines and script drafts for each of the ten episodes. Also included is a research binder provided by activist
Debra Jenkins, a resident of Milwaukee, WI whose son was killed by a Milwaukee police officer in 2002. The contents in the
binder document Ms. Jenkins’ legal struggle to attempt to hold the officer, the police force, and the city of Milwaukee accountable
for the shooting and subsequent death of her son. Subseries B includes a publicity poster and a behind-the-scenes photobook.
Series III relates to Sud’s work on the TV series Cold Case. The bulk of Series III consists of research about actual murders
and an excel spreadsheet listing murders that occurred in Philadelphia, PA. The rest of the collection consists of handwritten
notes describing plot points.
Indexing Terms
Black Lives Matter movement
Television scripts
Television cop shows
Television crime shows
Television writers
Women television writers
Television producers and directors
Women television producers and directors