Time Hoppers TV Pilot Contest 1st Prize Winner Shahryar Rizvi - “Time Hoppers”

We sat down with Time Hoppers TV Pilot Contest 1st Prize Winner Shahryar Rizvi to discuss “Time Hoppers”

Shahryar Rizvi is a veteran stand-up comedian and up-and-coming screenwriter who first joined Open Screenplay in the Spring of 2021. In less than a year, Shahryar has won first prize in our Time Hoppers screenwriting competition and earned a contract writing 13 television episodes and the plot to a video game for Muslim Kids TV.

Before ever learning about Open Screenplay, Shahryar would watch television with his three young children and brainstorm his own animated kids series. When a friend forwarded Shahryar the Time Hoppers TV Pilot Contest, he decided to give it a shot.

Shahryar says it was the competition itself that caught his eye.

"That Open Screenplay contest was very unique in that there was an existing concept. And what you were doing was, you were trying to bring that concept to reality. You were writing a pilot, and they gave you these ingredients."

Backed with an in-depth understanding of his children's interests and his own semi-developed kid's show idea, Shahryar was able to create a memorable pilot episode.

"I just essentially took my idea and merged it with this one."

In December, Muslim Kids TV hired Shahryar and Zeyneb Taspinar, the second-place winner, to co-create the Time Hoppers series and video game.

"A dream come true for me is working with another writer because when you work with another writer, one plus one equals three... We create something that we could not create individually."

Shahryar advises budding writers to practice developing series bibles and episode breakdowns for their projects.

"If it does work out, you will have something ready to go. If it doesn't work out, you will at least have the skills to think that far in advance."

After becoming a finalist in the Time Hoppers Contest, Muslim Kid's TV asked Shahryar to develop these materials for the series. "It was my first time really doing that."

Fortunately, Shahryar's knowledge of weaving plots to achieve a powerful payoff came in handy. He developed a series bible and episode breakdown, which he and Zeyneb used as inspiration throughout the collaborative writing process.

Shahryar would like to thank Muslim Kids Tv, the Milo Productions team, and the Canadian Media Fund for their involvement in this project.

Time Hoppers is currently in pre-production and will result in a 13 episode season and a 10 level video game available at Muslim Kids TV next year.