Top Women in Television: Up-and-Comers

In our continuing series of Top Women in Television Behind the Camera, this final section is a salute to Up-and-Comers:

Erin Maher and Kay Reindl (Legend of the Seeker) – This writing team may have gotten their start 12 years ago when they wrote several episodes of the series Millennium, but over the last 8 years they have written individual episodes for The Chronicle, Haunted, The Dead Zone and Angela’s Eyes. They were also co-producers on the short-lived series Haunted. In the last two years, they wrote episodes for Moonlight and Legend of the Seeker.

Raelle Tucker (True Blood) – Raelle is making a name for herself as one of the writers on the very popular cable series True Blood, but prior to that she wrote numerous episodes for Supernatural. She is also a co-producer on True Blood.

Krystal Houghton (CSI: Miami) – For the past 4 years, Krystal has worked as a writer and co-producer on CSI: Miami. She also worked as a story editor on the series.

Julie Siege (Supernatural, Invasion) – Julie has been a story editor and writer on Supernatural and also wrote on both of the short-lived series Invasion and Heartland.

Diane Ademu-John (Medium) – Diane has worked as both a story editor and writer on Crossing Jordan, a writer and executive story editor on 1-800-Missing and has been an executive story editor and now writer and co-producer on Medium.

Caroline Dries (Smallville) – For the past 3 years, Caroline has been working as a writer on Smallville and has also been an executive story editor for the series for the past year.

Leila Gerstein (Eli Stone, The O.C.) – Leila first wrote one episode of the short-lived series life as we know it, then she became not only an executive story editor but also a writer on The O.C. Her most recent work has been as a supervising producer on Eli Stone. She has also written for Gossip Girl.

Amy Berg (Leverage) – Her first work was as a writer on Kenan & Kel and then she wrote for shows like Boomtown, North Shore and Threshold. In 2006 and 2007, she worked as writer and executive story editor on The 4400 and is now one of the writers on the TNT series Leverage.

Amanda Green (Law & Order: SVU) – Amanda is a writer on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit where she also works as a co-executive producer.

Kearie Peark (Leverage, The Librarian movies) – Kearie is currently the co-executive producer on Leverage, but she worked as co-executive producer on The Librarian: Quest for the Spear, which then lead to her being executive producer on The Librarian: Return to King Solomon’s Mine and The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice. She was also a co-executive producer on the then Sci-Fi Channel mini-series The Triangle.

Laurie Seidman (Medium) – Her first work was as a script coordinator on Felicity then she acted an assistant for staff on the short-lived TV series Hack and Century City; but her primary work has been as an associate producer, coordinating producer and now producer on Medium.

Rebecca Rand Kirshner Sinclair (90210) – Better known currently as Rebecca Sinclar, she is the executive producer of the revamped version of 90210 (and in some circles is credited with ‘fixing’ this newer version of the 1980’s classic series). Her previous work was as executive story editor and writer on Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, co-producer on Las Vegas and co-executive producer and writer on Gilmore Girls.

Joan Binder Weiss (Gilmore Girls, Everwood) – Joan started out as a writer’s assistant on Grace Under Fire, then wrote for Sports Night before working as an executive story editor and writer for Gilmore Girls. She also acted as producer and writer for Everwood and Journeyman. Most recently she has been a producer on Eureka.

KristieAnne Reed (FlashForward)– KristieAnne worked the early part of the 2000’s as a production manager for movies like Coyote Ugly, Remember the Titans, Pearl Harbor, Black Hawk Down and Bad Boys II. She was also an associate producer on the movie Kangaroo Jack. For the last 3 years she has been working in television as a consulting producer on both of the short-lived series Justice and Eleventh Hour. She has most recently been a co-executive producer in the drama Dark Blue and is now co-executive producer on FlashForward.

Bronwen Hughes (White Collar) – In addition to being the director of the pilot episode for the anticipated new USA Network series White Collar, Bronwen has directed episodes of The Kids in the Hall, The L Word, Breaking Bad, Burn Notice, Royal Pains and Hung. She also directed the motion pictures Harriet the Spy and Forces of Nature.

SPECIAL MENTION: One area of the industry that is still predominately male is that of composer. Well-known composers for television shows include Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) and W.G. Snuffy Walden (The West Wing and countless others). But there are two women (among a few others) who have stepped into the world of television composing. This is a salute to them:

Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman – Wendy and Lisa started out working with Prince in Purple Rain as part of The Revolution and then they worked on various soundtracks from 1986 through 1999. They then branched out into working in the music department at Carnivale. They soon became composers for the movies Dangerous Minds, Soul Food, Juwanna Mann and Something New. Over the last 8 years they have been composers on Crossing Jordan, Nurse Jackie, Heroes and the FOX back-door pilot turned two-hour movie Virtuality.

As you can see from this series of articles, there are plenty of women making strides in the industry behind the camera. So, if you have (or someone you know has) the desire to become a director, writer, producer or composer, don’t give up hope and keep working to meet your goal.