Women Behind the Scenes Spotlight: Sarah Watson

Photo Credit: Freeform/Lou Rocco

Today’s Women Behind the Scenes spotlight is shone on Writer, Producer and Series Creator Sarah Watson.

Sarah got her start as an assistant to now uber-executive producer Greg Berlanti on his 2000 indie film The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy. She followed that up by being part of the writing staff on the 2001 web series Rachel’s Room, which starred a then unknown Maggie Grace (Lost and the Taken movie franchise) in the lead role. While on that writing staff, Sarah worked with writers like Anna Fricke, who has worked on Everwood, Wayward Pines and the upcoming Valor as well as Liz Tigelaar, who created the critically-acclaimed Life UnExpected and worked on Revenge and Once Upon a Time.

In 2003, she worked as a writing assistant on the Disney Channel series That’s So Raven and eventually helped with the teleplay on several episodes of this kid’s show the following season.

Two years later, she wrote the disaster films Disaster Zone: Volcano in New York – that starred Costas Mandylor, Michael Ironside and Alexandra Paul and Absolute Zero – that starred Jeff Fahey and Erika Eleniak.

Later in 2006, she joined the writing staff of the short-lived Lifetime series Monarch Cove and then moved on to be a co-producer and writer on the Canadian series Beyond the Break [which didn’t air in the US until several years later].

In 2007, she was a story editor and writer on the short-lived FOX drama Standoff that starred Ron Livingston, Rosemarie DeWitt and Gina Torres. The following season she was an executive story editor on the comedy-drama Lipstick Jungle – which was based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Candace Bushnell. Also in 2008, she worked with well-known executive producer Javier Grillo-Marxuach on his acclaimed, albeit short-lived, series The Middleman where she served as a writer and co-producer. In 2009, she was a writer and co-producer on the short-lived detective series The Unusuals that starred a then unknown Jeremy Renner as well as Amber Tamblyn and Harold Perrineau.

It was in the following year that she became a writer and producer – and later a co-executive producer – on the acclaimed drama Parenthood, working alongside series creator Jason Katims. She worked on that show for a few seasons while also writing a couple of episodes of the TV comedy About a Boy in 2014.

Last year she served as a consulting producer on the short-lived medical drama Heartbeat before she created and executive produced the short-lived medical drama Pure Genius alongside Jason Katims.

This year she is the driving force (series creator, writer and executive producer) behind the much-buzzed about Freeform drama The Bold Type, based on the experiences of former Cosmo Editor-in-Chief Joanna Coles.

The next new episode of The Bold Type will air on Freeform on Tuesday, August 29 at 9/8c.

You can follow Sarah at Twitter @SarahWatson42.