Women Behind the Scenes Spotlight: Jessica Goldberg

Today’s Women Behind the Scenes spotlight is focused on playwright, screenwriter and TV writer Jessica Goldberg.

Jessica grew up in Woodstock, New York in the 1970s and 1980s (which actually had an effect on her latest project, but more on that shortly). She graduated from the Dramatic Writing Program at New York University and is also a graduate of The Juilliard School.

Among the plays she has written include Get What You Need, Refuge (which she made into a movie over 12 years later starring Krysten Ritter of Marvel’s Jessica Jones fame); The Schaubuhne (which was produced in West Berlin); Body Politic, Good Thing, Sex Parasite, The Hologram Theory and Stuck.

Jessica even share that she “felt like theater was more accessible to me, but I think in the back of my mind I always wanted to write screenplays. It’s such a wonderful way to merge actual playwriting with narrative.”

Among her screenplays are Absent Hearts, The Amadou Ly Story, Passing Strange, Delerium and Heart of A Soldier.

When she shifted over to working on television, she created the 2008 TV pilot The Prince of Motor City, which was going to star Morris Chestnut and Warren Christie. Several seasons later she worked as a writer and co-producer on the short-lived NBC drama Deception as well as the short-lived NBC comedy Camp.

She followed those two projects up with working as a writer and producer on the NBC drama Parenthood where she worked alongside series creator Jason Katims. She and Jason are now the masterminds behind the Hulu streaming series The Path where Jessica serves as the series creator, writer and executive producer. And this is where her growing up in Woodstock comes into play.

In order to create the religion – the Meyerist Movement – that is the focal point of The Path, she used the many religions from her hometown. According to Jessica she drew “on what (she) found most beautiful and compelling in the religious movements I have been exposed to as a young person.”

The Path will air the sixth episode of its 10-episode run today on Hulu.