Women Behind the Scenes Spotlight: Darlene Hunt

Today’s Women Behind the Scenes spotlight is focused on actress, executive producer, series creator and television writer Darlene Hunt.

Darlene was born in Louisville, Kentucky and is a theatre graduate of Northwestern University. She moved to Los Angeles in 1997 to pursue a career as an actor; but it was her work as a stand-up comedian while still in college that led her to performing stand up in the city of angels and working day jobs to pay the bills.

Her stand-up work brought her to both the Aspen and Chicago Comedy Festivals, increasing her profile, but she eventually found that stand-up was less than rewarding; it did help her hone her writing skills and develop the point of view that comes across in the work she does now.

Her first breaking into writing for television was a promo for NBC. That eventually led to writing for the comedies Will & Grace and Good Morning, Miami. She also wrote for The CW series 90210.

Among her acting credits are appearances in Party of Five, Becker, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Will & Grace, Greek, Hung, Suburgatory and Parks and Recreation. She also had a role in the independent film I Heart Huckabees.

But her current claim to fame is being the series creator and executive producer of the Showtime comedy The Big C, which stars Laura Linney as Cathy Jamison, a high school teacher and suburban mom who is diagnosed with cancer and tries to find the humor in the disease.

As The Big C heads into its fourth and final season – that will consist of four episodes – Darlene has lined up her next project: a comedy for CBS (which she will executive produce with Josh Berman, the man behind Lifetime’s Drop Dead Diva and FOX’s The Mob Doctor. The project is as-yet untitled, but will be based on the Atlantic Monthly’s November 2011 cover story “All The Single Ladies” by Kate Bolick. The story will center on a “successful thirty-something woman who doesn’t want it all. After her boyfriend proposes, her feelings of excitement about living the life she’s always dreamed (marriage, kids, career) turns to dread at the thought of giving up her current life (independence and good times with her best friend roommate). She turns down the proposal, choosing to think of her single life as a destination, not a journey.

Darlene is also still an actor (when she is available, of course), but with a full plate of projects time is limited. One piece of valuable advice for which Darlene shares is this: ‘Write what you know, even if it doesn’t seem like you know what you know. Write what you’re drawn to and then find your own unique way into it. Also, be fearless.’”

Darlene is married and the mother of two daughters. You can follow her on Twitter at the following: @DarleneTweets.