Women Behind the Scenes Spotlight: Elizabeth Sarnoff

Elizabeth "Liz" Sarnoff

Today’s Women Behind the Scenes spotlight is shone on Writer and Producer Elizabeth “Liz” Sarnoff.

Liz got her start as a production secretary for the box office film One Fine Day in 1996 and then worked as an assistant to the co-producer for the 1997 film A Thousand Acres. The following year she worked as an assistant to one of the executive producers on the Sandra Bullock film Hope Floats.

A few years later – in 2001 – she worked as a story editor and writer for the short-lived TV series Big Apple, which starred Ed O’Neill and Michael Madsen; and was a writer for NYPD Blue. She spent the next TV season working as a story editor, writer and executive story editor on Crossing Jordan. She was then one of the writers on the screenplay for the 2003 box office film Chasing Papi that featured Sofia Vergara and Roselyn Sanchez.

In 2004, Liz joined the staff of Deadwood as an executive story editor and writer; and then the following year she moved up to producer. It was in 2005 that she landed the plum job as producer and writer for the ABC juggernaut series Lost; and then she was promoted to producer the following year. It was that year that Liz and the writing staff won a Writer’s Guild Award for Best Dramatic Series. She continued with the show over the course of its duration on the air, working as a supervising producer, then a co-executive producer and then an executive producer.

She had been working as a writer, executive producer, co-creator and show runner for the new FOX drama Alcatraz that will air next month but has since stepped won for those positions; but it is believed that she will remain with the show in the capacity of executive consultant.