The Writers Guild of America (WGA) screenwriting credit system determines the official writing credits for theatrical films, television programs, and streaming productions made under WGA jurisdiction. It is jointly administered by the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) and the Writers Guild of America West (WGAW). The Guild's Credits Department determines final credits, conducts arbitrations, and helps enforce the credit provisions of the Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA). The WGA and its predecessor, the Screen Writers Guild, have been the final arbiters of writing credits under their contracts since the 1940s.
The rules distinguish writing teams from writers who work separately and define credits such as "Written by", "Story by", "Screenplay by", and "Teleplay by". For theatrical films, contribution thresholds vary according to whether a screenplay is original, whether the writer is the first or a subsequent writer, and whether the writer is also a production executive. Dramatic television uses no numerical thresholds; credits are based on contributions to dramatic construction, scenes, characterization or character relationships, and dialogue.
The credit process begins with a production company's proposed credits. A participating writer may leave them unchallenged, ask the Guild to arrange a discussion among the writers, or file a protest, which usually triggers arbitration. Writing credits can affect a writer's compensation, residuals, professional reputation, and prospects for future work. Writers and filmmakers have long criticized some arbitration decisions.
Background
Rationale Writing credits affect a writer's professional reputation, compensation, residuals, and prospects for future work. John Howard Lawson, the first president of the Screen Writers Guild (SWG), described a writer's name as their "most cherished possession" and the symbol of their creative identity. A production may involve more writers than eventually receive screen credit, while those credited may qualify for bonuses and residuals tied to credit.
On the 1994 film The Flintstones, thirty-two writers took part in round-table brainstorming as the story passed through successive drafts, a method then common in television comedy but less common in films. The final writing credit named only three people: Tom S. Parker and Jim Jennewein as a team, and Steven E. de Souza.
Work covered by WGA contracts can also count toward eligibility for union membership. Under the WGAW Constitution, an applicant may qualify for Current membership by earning 24 units in the preceding three years through covered employment, sales, or options with a signatory company; different kinds of literary material and services earn different numbers of units. The MBA is the collective agreement between the WGA and signatory studios and production companies. It establishes minimum compensation, residuals, benefits, working conditions, and credit rules; the current agreement runs from May 2, 2026, through May 1, 2030.
Screen Writers Guild credit system Although the SWG reorganized as a labor union in 1933, the early film industry resisted writers' efforts to unionize. During the 1930s, studios controlled writing credits. Losing a credit could make it harder for a writer to find another job or secure a raise, while studios sometimes credited producers, writers with marquee value, or friends and relatives of studio chiefs who had not worked on the script. Fair attribution therefore became one of the SWG's central bargaining demands. In 1938, the National Labor Relations Board held that screenwriters were employees covered by federal labor law, and the Guild won the ensuing representation election. Producers recognized it as the writers' bargaining representative in 1939.
The Guild and the studios reached their first negotiated contract in 1941 and signed it in 1942. The agreement guaranteed writer control of screen credits through the Guild, written contracts, dispute arbitration, and minimum compensation. It replaced a system in which producers made the final decision with one in which a company proposed credits and Guild writers arbitrated disputes. The agreement chiefly covered lower-paid writers, and compulsory collaboration and writing by committee continued to make credit contentious; prominent, highly paid writers could more often insist on working alone.
The Screen Credits Manual has used a 33 percent contribution standard since 1948, and the 1953 television agreement put television credits under Guild control. The SWG then merged with unions representing radio and television writers to form the WGAE and WGAW in 1954; the screen and television contracts were combined into one MBA in 1970. In 1980, the theatrical rules gave the first writer of an original screenplay added protection by requiring a subsequent writer to contribute more than half of the final script, while guaranteeing the original writer at least shared story credit. The Guild has remained the final arbiter of writing credits under its contracts since the 1940s.
Blacklist and credit restoration During the Hollywood blacklist, writers who could no longer work under their own names sometimes used pseudonyms or fronts, people whose names appeared in their place, while others lost screen credit altogether. The Guild initially challenged the studios' power to deny credit, but in 1953 it accepted an MBA clause allowing producers to withhold it from Communist Party members and writers who refused to answer legislative questions about Communist affiliations. Guild panels continued to determine what credit a blacklisted writer had earned even when the studio would not put that name on screen.
Friendly Persuasion was one such case. Allied Artists proposed screenplay credit for Jessamyn West and Robert Wyler, but after Michael Wilson protested, a 1956 Guild arbitration awarded him sole screenplay credit and treated West's book as source material. Wilson had refused to answer questions from the House Un-American Activities Committee and was blacklisted, so the studio invoked the MBA clause and released the film without a screenplay or adaptation credit. In 1986, the WGA began reviewing blacklist-era credits. Its committee used documents and first-hand evidence to identify writers hidden by pseudonyms or fronts. The Guild's list records Wilson's restored credit for Friendly Persuasion in July 1996.
Credits process For purposes of the credit system, the WGAE and WGAW are jointly referred to as the Guild. Its Credits Department determines final credits, conducts arbitrations, and helps enforce the MBA's credit provisions. The Screen Credits Manual applies to theatrical motion pictures, while the Television Credits Manual applies to non-theatrical motion pictures, including programs made for streaming services.
A company must tell each assigned writer who else is or has been employed on the same material. Writers, in turn, must learn the names of any simultaneous writers and notify them of their own assignment, file their employment contracts with the Guild, and retain dated, labeled copies of literary material submitted to the company. Television uses the same basic obligations and requires written notice of subsequent writers on television motion pictures of at least 90 minutes.
After principal photography, the company sends the Guild and each participating writer a Notice of Tentative Writing Credits and the final shooting script, or the latest revised script if a final script is unavailable. Participating writers include writers employed on the story or script, qualifying professional writers whose literary material was sold or licensed, and, for a remake, writers credited on an earlier produced version. Television follows the same process.
A writer who agrees with the tentative credits need not respond. After reading the final script, a writer may instead ask the Guild to facilitate discussion or file a protest. Before arbitration, all participating writers may unanimously agree who should receive credit and in what permitted form; the company may not suggest or direct that agreement. If no agreement is reached, the Guild determines the credits through arbitration, and it may itself protest a company's proposal even if no writer does.
The manuals distinguish "literary material" — including stories, treatments, screenplays, teleplays, dialogue, and outlines — from "source material" on which a story or script is based. Previously published or exploited works and material written outside Guild jurisdiction can be source material; prior participating writers' work and research material are not. Source credits may identify the relationship to the finished work with wording such as "From a Novel by", "Based upon a Story by", or "Based upon a Screenplay by". Under generative artificial intelligence provisions adopted in 2023 and preserved in the 2026 MBA, artificial intelligence is not a writer, and its output is not literary material. Previously unpublished and unexploited AI-generated material furnished to a writer is not treated as source material when determining credit and cannot disqualify the writer from separated rights.
Credit forms
Teams For theatrical films, a writing team consists of two or more writers who collaborate on a particular piece of literary material; a team of more than three requires a Guild waiver. For television, a team is ordinarily two writers assigned at about the same time who work together on the same material for approximately the same period. For credit purposes, a team counts as one writer. An ampersand joins team members' names, while "and" separates writers who worked independently, usually in sequence.
Written by "Written by" is used when the same writer or writers are entitled to both story and screenplay or teleplay credit. It is generally unavailable when the script is based on source material of a story nature, although factual sources do not necessarily preclude it. The credit is normally limited to two writers; in unusual cases, and only through arbitration, three writers or writing teams may share it.
Screenplay by and Teleplay by "Screenplay by" is appropriate when there is source material of a story nature or when the writers entitled to story and screenplay credit differ. A screenplay credit is normally shared by no more than two writers; arbitration may, in an unusual case, award it to three individual writers or three writing teams. For an original theatrical screenplay, the first writer receives screenplay credit when their contribution is more than 33 percent of the final shooting script. A subsequent non-production-executive writer or team must contribute 50 percent; a subsequent production executive or team that includes one must contribute more than 50 percent. For a non-original screenplay, any writer must contribute more than 33 percent. These proportions are not calculated by counting lines or pages. Arbiters assess dramatic construction, original and different scenes, characterization or character relationships, and dialogue, weighing their effect on the screenplay as a whole.
The television counterpart is "Teleplay by", but dramatic television uses no numerical thresholds. The first writer is entitled to at least shared teleplay credit unless a later writer essentially eliminates the first writer's contribution in all four teleplay elements. A later writer may share credit by contributing substantially more than the first writer to one or more of those elements.
Story credits The MBA defines story as writing distinct from the screenplay or teleplay that supplies the basic narrative, idea, theme, or outline of character development and action. "Story by" may be awarded for a covered story written under employment, purchased from a professional writer by a signatory, or written as a sequel story under Guild jurisdiction. It may be shared by no more than two writers.