Women Behind the Scenes Spotlight: Janet Tamaro

Janet Tamaro

Today’s Women Behind the Scenes spotlight is shone on Writer, Executive Producer and Series Creator Janet Tamaro.

Janet actually got her start as an on-camera television correspondent, working for ABC News as well as other news outlets. During that time was based in New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. She also reported and produced investigative stories for long-form newsmagazine shows and won several journalism awards for her work.

It was in 2000 when she moved behind the scenes, working as a Writer for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Then two years later she worked as a Story Editor and Writer for the short-lived series The Court and a Writer for another short-lived series Breaking News.

The following year she was the Executive Story Editor and Writer for the short-lived series Black Sash and then a Co-Producer and Writer for the short-lived series Line of Fire. It was in 2004 that Janet became a Co-Producer and Writer on CSI: NY and followed that up, in the next year, with being a Producer and Writer for the cable series Sleeper Cell. It was because of her work on this cable show that she was nominated for an Emmy Award for her work on this show. She was also a Freelance Writer for Lost in 2004.

In 2006, she was a Consulting Producer on the made-for-TV movie called Faceless. It was in this year that she began working for the popular FOX drama Bones as a Writer and Supervising Producer. She was with Bones for two years, even appearing as TV reporter in a 2007 episode.

During the 2009-2010 TV season, she worked as a Supervising Producer and Writer on the short-lived series Trauma and in 2010 she developed the stories of mystery novelist Tess Gerritsen into the popular TNT series Rizzoli & Isles; that, of course, makes her the Series Creator, Executive Producer and Writer extraordinaire.

Janet is also the author of the 1998 published book called “So That’s What They’re For!: Breastfeeding Basics”. She has a B.A. from Berkeley and an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University. She is married to moto-journalist and Cycle World Radio Host, Steve Natt and they are the parents of two daughters.