Erin Cardillo

From the Passions Set to the Writers' Room

Erin Cardillo spent much of her youth memorizing other people's dialogue for daily productions. Between 2005 and 2008, she played Gwen Hotchkiss on the soap opera Passions, a grueling job that taught her how the machinery of American television works from the inside. That experience was a school of creative resilience.

But soap opera pace wasn't her ultimate goal. She appeared as an actress in one-off episodes of How I Met Your Mother and The Suite Life on Deck. And while filming these scenes, she began writing her own stories with Richard Keith, her frequent creative partner.

Television is a business built on connections and persistence.

In 2015, they sold Significant Mother to The CW network. What started as a digital series ended up earning a spot on national TV schedules, and that changed her standing in the industry. Cardillo stopped being the familiar face and moved into the role of plot architect.

The Business of Modern Romantic Comedies

The film industry often dismisses the romantic comedy genre out of hand. Cardillo saw it as a clear market opportunity. In 2019, she wrote the screenplay for Isn't It Romantic, a movie that poked fun at the genre's tropes while using them to attract audiences at Netflix and Warner Bros.

That project marked the start of a streak of big-budget assignments. In 2022, she wrote the script for The Valet for Hulu, and in 2023, Family Switch premiered on Netflix. Her scripts aren't after aesthetic revolution but narrative effectiveness in the family living room.

Then her big break came with Anyone But You in 2023.

This movie, starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, grossed more than 200 million dollars worldwide. It forced studios to rethink audience interest in traditional love stories with a rowdy twist. Cardillo wrote the screenplay and helped turn a mid-budget production into a financial phenomenon.

Long-Term Contracts and the Future at Disney

Cardillo and Keith founded their own production company, In This Together Media, to manage their projects. In 2024, she co-wrote The Underdoggs, a sports comedy starring Snoop Dogg that took her outside her usual comfort zone. It was an exercise in adapting to rawer voices.

Disney trusted her to write the screenplay for The Princess Diaries 3. The official announcement of her involvement in the franchise marked a major step up in scale for her career as a studio screenwriter. But her work isn't limited to pure writing.

She sells ideas that are easy to produce.

In 2025, her schedule includes developing several pilots for cable television that do not yet have a confirmed shooting date. Her representation contract with the agency UTA remains in effect, and her name appears in the executive producer credits of three projects in preproduction. Cardillo's Los Angeles office now handles business volume that triples her earnings from her time as a supporting actress.