Helen Walsh is a novelist, screenwriter and producer. KIRKUS named her first novel Pull Focus to their Best of 2022 Mysteries & Thrillers List. It was also named to several other year-end/best-of lists.
In her screenwriting, Walsh specializes in murdering people and making audiences laugh, sometimes in the same project. Her scripts (drama, half-hour sitcom, procedural) have been finalists in top TV writing competitions and chosen for industry watchlists.
TV PROJECTS
DEATH AND THE GLITTERATI
DEATH AND THE GLITTERATI takes Jane (a film festival director) and her posse behind the red carpet of a different film festival (The Bahamas, Sundance, Toronto, Berlin, Venice, Cannes) and into a sizzling powder keg of glamorous parties, dirty money, weaponized sex – and murder.
It’s a darkly funny but deadly serious inside look at global financial crime, politics and the glitterati set against a backdrop of the entertainment industry. CALL MY AGENT meets WHITE LOTUS.
Each season: 8 x 60min serialized limited run drama.
If you’re an industry professional and want to read the Pilot Script and Pitch Deck, email helen@walshrarebit.com for log-in password.
EMBEDDED
Fearless war correspondent Hannah goes in first, stays the longest, always gets the story. But how to balance risk is Hannah’s Achilles heel.
When a migrant boat sinks off Italy, Hannah pursues the mystery at the heart of the story – a 1956 political murder – through Puglia, London, New York and Tunisia uncovering the historic ties between governments, intelligence agencies and her own powerful family.
Haunted by guilt and betrayal, she pushes forward, unable to stop chasing a story that might cost her everything. HOSTAGE meets SECRET CITY.
Each season: 8 x 60min serialized limited run drama.
If you’re an industry professional and want to read the Pilot Script and 2-Pager, email helen@walshrarebit.com for log-in password.
NEVER EVENTS
If you’ve ever had someone you love die unexpectedly in a hospital, it could be a Never Event.
Episodic 60 min procedural drama.
If you’re an industry professional and want to read the Pilot Script and 2-pager, email helen@walshrarebit.com for log-in password.
THE DARK ARTS
A crisis management firm famous for burying sins faces its biggest PR disaster yet — itself — when the newly appointed CEO tries to make honesty part of the brand.
Each episode is a new case of the week, when the team springs to crisis response to save a client being threatened by the media, the cops, the courts (legal or public opinion), activist shareholders or other ill winds. The B storyline is a larger case that spans 2-3 episodes; the C storyline is one major political client that resolves over the season. The internal war at the firm weaves throughout.
Along the way social issues are explored through character and world building: the power of money, the role of gov’t, limits to privacy and freedom of expression, disinformation as superpower, growing political and social divides, what constitutes justice in a broken world.
The OFFICE meets THE GOOD FIGHT.
If you’re an industry professional and want to read the 2-page outline please email helen@walshrarebit.com
SAINT-LAURENT/ ARTHUR AVENUE
Michaela has one goal: avenge her mother’s murder by seizing the thing her father Tony loves most, the trattoria that bears his name. But Michaela’s victory in opening Café Bianca is short-lived when her father is unexpectedly paroled and moves in across the street.
Little Italy’s seen a lot of internecine war, but this is one family feud not even the capos want to wade into. From weaponized cannoli to a battle for community goodwill to linguistic and cultural divides, the temperature’s heating up in the hood. Revenge is best served cold, but everyone’s steamy hot.
Episodic half-hour comedy. The US version is set on ARTHUR AVENUE in the Bronx. The Canadian version is set on Boulevard Saint-Laurent in Montréal. La version canadienne se déroule sur le boulevard Saint-Laurent à Montréal.
If you’re an industry professional and want to read the Pilot Script and Pitch Deck, email helen@walshrarebit.com for log-in password.
MUSCLE MASS
Physiotherapist Georgia runs a no-frills muscle gym with her business partners—Nathan and Larry, two former football players, that’s long on reputation but short on cash.
When Georgia’s bitter divorce requires the gym to relocate, she makes a deal to move into a luxury hotel’s underused, hyper-curated wellness space.
Suddenly, Georgia, Nathan, Larry, and their cadre of trainers must adapt to an environment of scent diffusers, branded uniforms, and “sound-sensitive workout atmospheres.” The clash between the gym’s rough-and-ready culture and the hotel’s spa-lite aesthetic sparks chaos, comedy, and unexpected reinvention.
Episodic half-hour comedy.
If you’re an industry professional and want to read the Pilot Script and Pitch Deck, email helen@walshrarebit.com for log-in password.
ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING – SPEC SCRIPT
Mabel is arrested for murder when a disgraced former NYC mayor, Gary Rudigano, is pierced through the groin with a sculpture at a pop-up installation in the Arconian, and his secrets spill out like confetti at a funeral.
If you’re an industry professional and would like to read the Spec Pilot Script, please email helen@walshrarebit.com for log-in password.
