Women Behind the Scenes Spotlight: Doris Egan

This week’s Women Behind the Scenes spotlight is put on screenwriter, producer and writer Doris Egan (who also goes by the pen name of Jane Emerson).

Doris grew up in New Jersey and attended Barnard College in New York City. She sold her first short story, “Timerider,” to Amazing Stories magazine while working in computer support on Wall Street.

Over the next several years she published four novels, including “The Gate of Ivory”, “Two-Bit-Heroes”, and “Guilt-Edged Ivory” as Doris Egan’ and “City of Diamond” under her pen name of Jane Emerson. She also wrote several short stories.

Doris didn’t stop there though, as she was interested in working in television. She eventually moved to Los Angeles and landed her first job within the entertainment industry, working as a story editor for Early Edition in 1996.

A few seasons later she landed a job as a writer for Profiler and then returned to Early Edition to briefly work as part of the writing staff. In 2000, she worked as an executive story editor and eventually a writer for Dark Angel. She ended up as a co-producer for the show the following season.

Over the next few years, she worked not only on the writing staff but also the producing staff for the following shows: The Agency, Smallville, NCIS and the short-lived series Skin. During this time she wrote the teleplay for a 2002 TV movie Saint Sinner.

In 2005, she was a writer and co-executive producer for one season on Numb3rs followed by writing for Tru Calling where she also served as a consulting producer and then a co-executive producer.

But it was in the latter part of 2005 when she landed her biggest gig within the industry, working as a writer and co-executive producer for the long-running medical drama House. When her time with House came to a close, she worked as a writer and co-executive producer on Torchwood: Miracle Day.

Most recently, she signed a two-year deal with CBS TV Studios, allowing her to become a co-executive producer for the upcoming CW series Reign. She is currently working as a co-executive producer and writer on the upcoming Starz pirate drama Black Sails from producer Michael Bay that will be out early next year.

You can follow Doris on Twitter at @Doris_Egan and you can learn more about her at her website here.

Picture Credit: EasyQuestion.net