ABSTRACT

Featuring over forty interviews with America’s leading showrunners, this book provides unique perspectives and insights into the TV industry, and demystifies the craft, backbone, skill, strategies, challenges, and persistence it takes to succeed in Hollywood and internationally.

Marygrace O’Shea’s conversations with women showrunners are part master craft lesson, part backstage pass, part career guide from the geniuses who create the best TV. The book shines a light on what it truly means to be a showrunner working in the industry today, and reveals how to navigate a career and a future in the global marketplace. Interviews include Angela Kang (The Walking Dead), Aline Brosh McKenna (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), Barbara Hall (Madam Secretary), Charlotte Brown (Rhoda), Chris Nee (Doc McStuffins), Elizabeth Berger (This is Us), Gloria Calderón Kellett (One Day at a Time), Ilene Chaiken (The L Word), Liz Meriwether (The New Girl, The Dropout), Liz Tigelaar (Tiny Beautiful Things, Little Fires Everywhere), Marta Kauffman (Friends, Grace and Frankie), Tracy Oliver (Harlem, Awkward Black Girl), Sierra Teller Ornelas (Rutherford Falls), and many more.

Ideal for professional and aspiring television writers, as well as students of screenwriting, film and TV, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in the art, craft and business of creating television.

chapter |2 pages

Introduction

chapter |6 pages

Aline Brosh Mckenna

I'm Here to Tell You That You're Qualified

chapter |6 pages

Angela Kang

Permission to Go After What I Love

chapter |7 pages

Barbara Hall

We're All on the Side of the Show

chapter |6 pages

Charlotte Brown

The First Woman in The Room Who Wasn't There to Take Lunch Orders

chapter |7 pages

Chris Nee

The World as I Hope it Will Be

chapter |5 pages

Dailyn Rodriguez

Be An Advocate for Yourself

chapter |6 pages

Dayna Lynne North

Be Your Own Hype Girl

chapter |6 pages

Dee Johnson

I Climbed Every Rung of the Ladder

chapter |5 pages

Elizabeth Berger

We Loved the Way Television Made Us Feel

chapter |5 pages

Erica Kodish

You Girlfriend, Are Going into Battle, You Have to Get Ready for That

chapter |7 pages

Felicia D. Henderson

Sometimes, You've Got to Put on Your Sasha Fierce

chapter |7 pages

Gillian Horvath

I'm a Lot of Things and Only One of Them is a Woman

chapter |5 pages

Gloria CalderóN Kellett

They Don't Know I'm Superman

chapter |6 pages

Ilana Peña

Let's, Like, Do Big Things

chapter |5 pages

Ilene Chaiken

You Have to Believe that You Know Best

chapter |7 pages

Janine Sherman Barrois

I'm Going for the American Dream Daily

chapter |6 pages

Jenny Bicks

In a Good Room, It's Magic

chapter |6 pages

Jo Miller

People Want to Hear an Angry, Menopausal Woman Screaming, So Here I am

chapter |4 pages

Julie Plec

I Moved Here with No Experience and No Skills

chapter |5 pages

Krista Vernoff

The Key to Longevity in This Town is Knowing Yourself Really Well

chapter |6 pages

Linda Yvette Chávez

Me, Fully and Without Fear

chapter |6 pages

Lisa Hanawalt

A Little Room to Play

chapter |5 pages

Liz Meriwether

People Feeling Safe is, as a Showrunner, Your Responsibility

chapter |8 pages

Liz Tigelaar

I Had to Stop Myself from Being So Wide-Eyed and Grateful All the Time

chapter |5 pages

Marta Kauffman

I Wanted to Prove it to Myself

chapter |6 pages

Marti Noxon

Let Go of Being Liked by Everybody

chapter |7 pages

Meg Deloatch

I'm Authentically Telling My Story

chapter |7 pages

Melinda Hsu

Foster an Atmosphere of Possibility

chapter |8 pages

Michelle Nader

Open Your Mind to All the Possibilities of What Could Be

chapter |6 pages

Monica Macer

You Gotta Be the First One Out on the Dance Floor

chapter |6 pages

Natalie Chaidez

My Lane is Transgressive Women

chapter |7 pages

Nkechi Okoro Carroll

Everyone Deserves the Right to Dream

chapter |9 pages

Raelle Tucker

Is This a Net Positive for the World?

chapter |7 pages

Sarah Gertrude Shapiro

Fear is the Enemy of Creativity

chapter |8 pages

Shoshannah Stern

Trusting Your Gut is The Only Way To Go

chapter |6 pages

Sierra Teller Ornelas

I Come from Storytellers

chapter |6 pages

Soo Hugh

Ideas are Your Insurance

chapter |5 pages

Susannah Grant

A Deeply Joyful Way to Spend Your Life

chapter |6 pages

Tanya Saracho

We Have Been Excluded from the Narrative for So Long

chapter |6 pages

Tracy Oliver

Know What You're Worth

chapter |5 pages

Veena Sud

Blasting Away the Sacred Cow of Motherhood

chapter |4 pages

Winnie Holzman

See the Beauty of It