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Fellows /
Danielle Berrin
Screenwriters Lab
2023-2024 Fellow
BECOMING
Set in a modern Los Angeles synagogue, “Becoming” is a drama series about a brilliant and charismatic rabbi whose world is about to implode. When we meet Leon Gold, he is happily ministering in the shadow of his renowned rabbi father, a towering figure whom he loves and admires — and with whom he shares a pulpit. But when a scandal erupts implicating the elder Gold in a terrible crime, Leon is offered the chance to take the reins of his father’s congregation and lead one of the most powerful, politically engaged Jewish communities in the country. Although both destined and deserved, Leon never expected his ascension to leadership to come at the cost of his father’s downfall. He is deeply conflicted about assuming the role as the ideal of paternal and rabbinic greatness that has anchored him since youth vanishes. Torn between his commitment to righteousness and his drive to protect his father, community and tradition from the inevitable fallout of scandal, Leon becomes a “divided self.” His quest for authenticity and holiness is constantly complicated by the ways his public role clashes with the disillusionment and shadow of his private reality. Epic in emotional scale, “Becoming” is about the chasm between what we aspire to be and what we are; the private self and the public reality; and how even the holiest among us can spend their entire lives locked in a struggle for and against God’s will.
Danielle Berrin works at the intersection of Jewish spirituality and social impact, helping lead development and philanthropic engagement for Or HaLev, a global center for Jewish mindfulness dedicated to personal and collective transformation through contemplative Jewish practice. An award-winning journalist and storyteller, Danielle spent over a decade as a senior reporter and columnist for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, where she explored the interplay of Jewish identity, politics and culture. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Yedioth Ahronoth, The Forward, Hadassah Magazine, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, and she has provided commentary on CNN, MSNBC, and major Israeli media outlets. In 2017, the Los Angeles Press Club named her Journalist of the Year for her groundbreaking reporting on sexual harassment—published a year before the #MeToo movement emerged. She later served as California Jewish Outreach Director for the Bloomberg 2020 presidential campaign and was named one of The Forward’s most influential American Jews. Danielle is a recipient of the David Twersky Journalism Award. She served as a Global Justice Fellow with American Jewish World Service and currently serves on the committee for the Baruch Link Scholar-in-Residence Program in Los Angeles, a weekend of deep exploration of Hebrew literature and culture. Most recently, she was a 2023–2024 fellow of the Jewish Writers’ Initiative screenwriting program and is currently in her third year of advanced study to teach Jewish mindfulness meditation. In 2025, Danielle received a first-place Rockower Award for a personal essay she wrote about naming her first child in honor of murdered Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
Screenwriters Lab 
