Conversations with Women Showrunners

Marygrace O’Shea is an Associate Arts Professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Undergraduate Film and Television Department. She has also taught at Columbia University’s Graduate Film Program, has been a Visiting Professor of the Arts at Sarah Lawrence, an instructor at the Media Arts and Technology Department at BMCC, and has also led master classes for students from La Femis. She has worked on shows for ABC, PBS, NBC, HBO, and FOX including Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Law and Order: SVU, HBO’s In Treatment. She is an active member of the WGA East.

Introduction, Aline Brosh McKenna
I’m Here to Tell You You’re Qualified

Angela Kang
Permission to Go After What I Love

Barbara Hall
We’re All on the Side of the Show

Charlotte Brown
The First Woman in The Room Who Wasn’t There to Take Lunch Orders

Chris Nee
The World as I Hope it Will Be

Dailyn Rodriguez
Advocate for Yourself

Dayna Lynne North
Be Your Own Hype Girl

Dee Johnson
I Climbed Every Rung of the Ladder

Elizabeth Berger
We Loved the Way Television Made Us Feel

Erica Kodish
You Girlfriend, Are Going into Battle

Felicia Henderson
Sometimes, You’ve Got to Put on Your Sasha Fierce

Gillian Horvath
I’m a lot of Things, a Woman is Only One of Them

Gloria Calderón Kellett
They Don’t Know I’m Superman

Ilana Pena
Let’s, Like, Do Big Things

Ilene Chaiken
You Have to Believe that You Know Best

Janine Sherman Barrois
I’m Going for the American Dream Daily

Jenny Bicks
In a Good Room, It’s Magic

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

Julie Plec
I Moved Here with No Experience and No Skills

Krista Vernoff
The Key to Longevity is Knowing Yourself Well

Linda Yvette Chávez
Me, Fully and Without Fear

Lisa Hanawalt
A Little Room to Play

Liz Meriwether
People Feeling Safe is, as a Showrunner, Your Job

Liz Tigelaar
I Had to Stop Being So Wide-Eyed and Grateful

Marta Kauffman
To Prove it to Myself

Marti Noxon
Let Go of Being Liked By Everybody

Meg DeLoatch
I’m Authentically Telling My Story

Melinda Hsu
Foster an Atmosphere of Possibility

Michelle Nader
Open Your Mind to All the Possibilities

Monica Macer
You Gotta Be the First One Out on the Dance Floor

Natalie Chaidez
My Lane is Trangressive Women

Nkechi Okoro Carroll
Everyone Deserves the Right to Dream

Raelle Tucker
Is This a Net Positive for the World?

Sarah Gertrude Shapiro
Fear is The Enemy of Creativity

Shoshannah Stern
Trusting Your Gut is the Only Way to Go

Sierra Teller Ornelas
I Come from Storytellers

Soo Hugh
Ideas are Your Insurance

Susannah Grant
I am so Firmly Heart First

Tanya Saracho
We’ve Been Excluded from the Narrative for So Long

Tracy Oliver
Know What You’re Worth

Veena Sud
Blasting Away the Sacred Cow of Motherhood

Winnie Holzman
See the Beauty of it

Acknowledgements