Sharbari Zohra Ahmed is a Bangladeshi-American writer and was on the writing team for the ABC show Quantico, making her the first woman of Bangladeshi origin to write for a network show.

We talk about why she never thought she would get picked to walk into the writers’ room for the show, why the show didn’t focus on Priyanka Chopra’s cultural background, the reason she was heavily trolled online for an episode she didn’t write, why there is still a lack of diversity behind the scenes and how that affects stories revolved around minority families, and the reasons South Asians still have a hard time supporting one another when it comes to the arts.

We discuss the reason her family fled from Bangladesh while she was just 3 weeks old, how that move shaped her life and inspired her creative journey, and why identity and a strong female protagonist has been a central theme in a lot of her writings.

She discusses her debut novel, Dust Under Her Feet, and her current projects including Rickshaw Girl by Mitali Bose Perkins, which she adapted for the screen.