Women Behind the Scenes Spotlight: Maggie Friedman

Today’s Women Behind the Scenes spotlight is shone on executive producer and writer Maggie Friedman.

Maggie got her first big break on TV as part of the writing staff on the short-lived 1999 drama Wasteland that was created by Kevin Williamson (of Scream fame and more recently co-executive producer on The Vampire Diaries and the new drama The Following).

A few seasons later she worked as a writer and co-producer for one season on the critically acclaimed series Once and Again, which starred Sela Ward (CSI: NY), Billy Campbell (The Killing), Evan Rachel Wood (True Blood) and Shane West (Nikita).

In 2002 she joined the staff of the fan favorite series Dawson’s Creek (another Kevin Williamson production), working as a writer and producer for one season. Then in 2004, she was a writer on the failed pilot Kat Plus One that was to star Scott Wolf (Party of Five and V), Brian Van Holt (Cougar Town) and Michael Urie (Ugly Betty).

That same year she was a consulting producer and writer on the short-lived but critically acclaimed series Jack & Bobby that was created by Greg Berlanti (the man behind such shows as Everwood, Political Animals and Arrow) and which starred Christine Lahti (Chicago Hope), Matt Long (Private Practice) and Logan Lerman (Perks of Being a Wallflower).

In 2005, she was a writer and consulting producer on the short-lived drama Related that starred Jennifer Esposito (Blue Bloods), Kiele Sanchez (The Glades), Lizzy Caplan (Party Down) and Laura Breckenridge (A Christmas Kiss). Then in 2007, she created the failed pilot Spellbound that would have starred Annie Potts (Designing Women) and Justin Hartley (Smallville and Emily Owens, M.D.).

Two years later, she developed, wrote and executive produced the short-lived series Eastwick – loosely based on the box office film The Witches of Eastwick – that starred Rebecca Romijn (The X-Men franchise), Lindsay Price (Lipstick Jungle), Jaime Ray Newman (Eureka), Sara Rue (Malibu Country), Paul Gross (Due South), Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead) and Ashley Benson (Pretty Little Liars).

Her most recently project is the newly picked-up Lifetime drama Witches of East End for which she is the writer and executive producer. The series is based on the popular novels by author Melissa de la Cruz that will star Julia Ormond (Sabrina), Jenna Dewan-Tatum (American Horror Story) and Rachel Boston (In Plain Sight).

You can follow Maggie at Facebook here.