When Marvel’s Jessica Jones hit Netflix in 2016, the tortured heroine was celebrated as one of the most complex female characters around. That’s in no small part due to the show’s creator, noted screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg. The writer/producer behind Dexter and the Twilight movies is a founder of the League of Hollywood Women Writers and active in diversity efforts across the industry. As part of her work, she hired female directors to helm every episode of Jessica Jones for Season 2. That’s a big statement in an industry in which only 17 percent of productions are directed by women.
But the great strides made behind the scenes at Jessica Jones isn’t the only win for female-led television shows (both in front of and behind the camera). There are so many women working in TV who have helmed shows we know and love, turning them into epic hits. Who are these women? Let’s take a look at the ones who are out there making waves in Hollywood and producing some of our greatest entertainment as a result.
‘Gilmore Girls’
Created by Amy Sherman-Palladino: The New York native is well loved for her most popular creation, the charmingly fun mother-daughter dramedy Gilmore Girls. But she's also brought her trademark fast-talk to the shows Bunheads and, most recently, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. This new Netflix period piece centers on an unconventional spurned wife in the 1940s. Sherman-Palladino’s success lies in her ability to mine the complexities of relationships for rich drama laced with sharp humor.
‘Orange Is the New Black’
Created by Jenji Kohan: The premise of this show about life in a minimum-security women’s prison is based on a memoir by Piper Kerman. But the style that makes it so riveting is all due to Kohan. The casting, pacing and personal interplay between characters build overall tension while mingling in the kinds of humor and absurdity that can only be found in extreme situations. It’s Kohan’s touch that brought OITNB into everyday conversation.
‘Broad City’
Created by Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson:SNL has traditionally been the proving ground for women in comedy, but Amy Poehler turned that upside down when she found a web series by Glazer and Jacobson. She took Broad City from YouTube to Comedy Central and gave us something rare — a buddy comedy starring two women. Jacobson and Glazer's humor isn't for everyone, but they take chances, and that could serve them well in future seasons of Broad City as well as their ongoing careers.
‘UnREAL’
Created by Marti Noxon and Sarah Gertrude Shapiro: It’s hard to believe it took this long to have a show that skewered the reality TV industry. Noxon and Shapiro’s series holds nothing back as it parodies The Bachelor franchise, following a self-destructive and flawed young producer (Shiri Appleby) as she wars with her conscience and her boss (Constance Zimmer). Before creating UnREAL Shapiro served as a producer on The Bachelor. She has said the job made her miserable, but it certainly led to some funny TV for the rest of us.
‘The Golden Girls’
Created by Susan Harris: This show’s cultural renaissance after 20 years off the air is a testament to its timelessness. Harris created characters that look like grandmas but exhibit all the joys, sorrow and weirdness of friendship at any age. While Golden Girls was her most successful TV creation, she also contributed to All in the Family, The Partridge Family, Love, American Style, and Benson.
’30 Rock’
Created by Tina Fey: Fey’s screenplay for the film Mean Girls and her work on SNL had already established her sharp brand of comedy, but 30 Rock announced that she was a force to be reckoned with. She can write, act, produce and direct. She even won a Grammy for the audiobook of her memoir Bossypants. 30 Rock was based on her time working at SNL, and it gave us the same kind of iconic characters to impersonate and love.
‘Grey’s Anatomy’
Created by Shonda Rhimes: It's hard to separate Grey's Anatomy from Rhimes' other juggernaut, Scandal. Both have brought some of the best female characters to TV and set a new bar for drama. Before these incredible successes though, Rhimes honed her skills as a screenwriter for films like The Princess Diaries and Crossroads, learning to craft the kind of stories that would earn her a place on Time magazine’s list of 100 People Who Help Shape the World.
‘Jane the Virgin’
Created by Jennie Snyder Urman: Urman wasn’t sure she wanted to write Jane the Virgin at first, saying the idea sounded too crazy, but the chance to create diverse female characters was too hard to resist. Her work earned the show’s first two seasons a 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and made it a critical and award-show darling. Audiences have paid attention, and Jane’s unconventional story has become one of the most beloved on TV. Urman earned her accolades though. She paid her dues over the years writing for shows like Gilmore Girls, Emily Owens, M.D, and Reign.
‘Transparent’
Created by Jill Soloway: Soloway has huge personal stake in her beloved show — it’s based on the journey of one of her own parents. She’s created a hiring program that favors transgender applicants over cisgender, which has populated the series with people who understand and care deeply about the fictional family. She has said that she believes writing female characters is about finding and exemplifying the divided parts of a woman trying to find peace and a way to coexist.
‘The Mindy Project’
Created by Mindy Kaling: Watching her as Kelly Kapoor on The Office, we might not have believed Kaling would go on to create this smart, self-deferential comedy. What viewers didn’t see then was her work as a writer, producer and director on the series, skills that rightfully earned her the chance to create her own show. She has been outspoken about diversity, encouraging women to love themselves for, not in spite of, their size, shape or skin color. She has been named to Glamour’s Women of the Year and Time magazine’s list of 100 influential people.
‘The Good Wife’
Created by Michelle King:The Good Wife was one of the first scripts ever picked up by a network for Michelle King and her husband/writing partner. The character they created in Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) became an inspiration for not only divorced women but women of all ages struggling to find and forge their place in the world. That the show was populated with strong, interesting characters all around made it must-see TV.
‘Westworld’
Created by Lisa Joy: Joy started writing for Pushing Daisies before moving to Burn Notice as a coproducer. She cocreated Westworld, based on a movie written by Michael Crichton, with her husband Jonathan Nolan. The two were brought the idea for Westworld by producer Jerry Weintraub, but it was their expansive vision and ability to marry high-tech and the Old West that made it into the engrossing series we love.
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