From the outside, Eagle Rock Skyland Studios looks like any other industrial warehouse on the edge of town. Inside, however, the cavernous space transforms into a polished Los Angeles law office, a judge’s chamber, and the tangled emotional landscape of Hulu’s Reasonable Doubt. On this particular Saturday, music blasted between takes, crew members hustled across the floor, and a script rework or two slipped into the pages; this was the rhythm of a show in full swing.

With Reasonable Doubt filming in Georgia, Richmond (right) found himself playing on home turf. 
Photo by Noah Washington/The Atlanta Voice

The Atlanta Voice spent the day with Ryan Richmond, 46, an Atlanta-based screenwriter for the Kerry Washington–produced TV drama Reasonable Doubt. On set alongside him was showrunner Raamla Mohamed, a veteran writer best known for her work on Scandal. At the center of the bustling production was Richmond, whose Atlanta roots make him something of an outlier in an industry pipeline that essentially runs through Los Angeles and New York. With Reasonable Doubt filming in Georgia, Richmond has found himself playing on home turf. 

“When you find good talent, you don’t let it go to waste,” he said, smiling at the unlikeliness of his position.

Richmond didn’t come to television on the above-the-line side the usual way. He began his career behind the camera doing below-the-line work as a director of photography, which gave him a strong sense of how production flows. Writing episodic television, however, is new territory, one that has expanded his role from page to set. 

“As the writer, the goal is to protect the creative vision,” he explained. “The showrunner can’t be everywhere at once, so we’re here to make sure every department has the information they need. You want each episode to have its own flavor, but it still has to fit within the story, like chapters in a book.”

“As the writer, the goal is to protect the creative vision,” Richmond (right) explained. Photo by Noah Washington/The Atlanta Voice

That sense of consistency was important this day, as Episode 7, directed by Anton Cropper and guided by a script Richmond brought to set, came to life. It is a flashback-heavy chapter, one of the show’s signatures. “It’s not a whole dedicated flashback episode,” Richmond said, “but it’s peppered in so you get a sense of the history between Jax, her mom, and her dad. You see how it all came about.”

Even though the story takes place in Los Angeles, much of Reasonable Doubt is filmed in Georgia. The indoor scenes, courtrooms, homes, offices – can be built anywhere. The trick is making Atlanta stand in convincingly for LA. “Atlanta is great because you can get looks that pass for LA,” Richmond said. “We still do exterior work in LA to ground it, but here you can cleverly pull off other cities. It’s always a little bit of faking.”

Even though Atlanta has become a powerhouse for film production, one piece of the industry often missing from the city is the sacred writers’ room, a long-running complaint within the local film community. Richmond managed to break through during the COVID-19 pandemic, when virtual writers’ rooms opened the door for talent outside Los Angeles and New York. For Atlanta writers, it was a rare win, though not without challenges. As the only Atlanta-based voice in the Reasonable Doubt writers’ room, Richmond navigated a space still firmly anchored on the coasts.

For him, that mix of authenticity and illusion mirrors his own journey. An Atlanta-based writer with national credits, he’s carving out space in a system that seldom makes room for Southern voices. And yet, here he is, guiding a multimillion-dollar Hulu production, fielding questions from directors, and ensuring every beat of dialogue stays true to the story.

As cameras rolled on the flashback sequence, Richmond stood just off set, script in hand, answering a quiet question from a crew member. It’s not glamorous, as Showtime’s Californication or Apple TV’s The Studio might make it seem. You are up early and often leave late but it’s essential.  Ensuring the words on the page survive the translation to the screen. On this Saturday, as Atlanta once again doubled for Los Angeles, Richmond’s presence was both an anomaly and an advantage.

“It takes on a life of its own once it’s on its feet,” he said. “That’s the magic of it.”

The new season of Reasonable Doubt debuts on Hulu on September 18. 

Noah Washington is an Atlanta-based journalist with roots stretching back to Richmond, Virginia. Born and raised in Richmond, he embarked on his journalism career with Black Press USA, where he created...