Women Behind the Scenes Spotlight: Greer Shephard

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Today’s Women Behind the Scenes spotlight is shone on TV writer, producer and director Greer Shephard. Greer grew up in the entertainment industry as the daughter of Harvey Shephard, who was the head of programming at CBS during her childhood then became the President of Warner Bros. Her dad helped provide Greer with great role models by developing shows like Cagney and Lacey, Murphy Brown and China Beach. In fact, one of the big moments in her childhood that her dad made possible was that she got to meet Bo and Luke Duke (actors John Schneider and Tom Wopat of Dukes of Hazzard fame).

Greer worked on a couple of TV projects from 1999 to 2001, but it was her first big break on the cult-favorite series Popular – from the mind of Ryan Murphy, the man behind Nip/Tuck, Glee and American Horror Story – that really got her started.

She later worked on the short-lived series The D.A., which included among its cast Sarah Paulson (American Horror Story), Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives) and Steven Weber (Wings) before she moved over to Nip/Tuck, where she worked from 2003 to 2005.

In 2005, she landed on another big project: The Closer, where she worked through the entire duration of the show. It was in 2007 that she worked on the short-lived Lifetime dramedy State of Mind that starred Lili Taylor (Almost Human) and then in 2009, she worked on the short-lived drama Trust Me that starred Eric McCormack (Perception) and Tom Cavanaugh (Ed and the upcoming The Flash).

Her most recent projects are the TNT spin-off Major Crimes and the acclaimed A&E cop drama Longmire, where she serves as show-runner. In talking about her work on Longmire, she shared that one of the toughest scenes for her to write was the “emotional showdown between Walt (series lead Robert Taylor) and his daughter Cady (series regular Cassidy Freeman) when she confronts him for concealing the circumstances surrounding her mother’s death”. She further shared that, “it was challenging to figure out how to crack open such a stoic character and show his pain and heartbreak without slipping into melodrama”.

Greer is a single mom of a little girl and besides loving to take breaks to play with her daughter while at work, she needs a bottle of Advil and hot chocolate with whipped cream from Starbucks.

[Source: The Hollywood Reporter]