Top Hollywood Female Showrunners

A few weeks ago The Hollywood Reporter published an article focusing on the 50 top showrunners – those individuals who are in charge of current TV shows who are at the top of their game.

While it is not surprising that the list mainly consisted of men showrunners – sadly that’s the nature of the beast in Hollywood! – the list wasn’t completely devoid of women showrunners – all of whom have quite the accomplishments under the respective belts.

The 19 women on that top 50 list are shown below followed by other women showrunners who I think should have been included on that list

Mara Brock Akil – Along with her husband Salim, Mara is the showrunner on The CW’s Black Lightning, the highest-rated debut in two years on the network and the OWN drama Love Is _.

Tina Fey – Working with producer Robert Carlock, Tina is the power behind the Netflix series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

Ava DuVernay – The box office champ has the OWN drama Queen Sugar – now in its fourth season – as well as the upcoming CBS pilot Red Line and the much anticipated Netflix original movie Central Park Five.

Elizabeth Berger – While Dan Fogelman created the NBC powerhouse series This Is Us, Elizabeth and her producing partner Isaac Aptaker run the day-to-day operations on the show. She and Isaac wrote and produced an Amazon feature for Nicole Kidman and wrote 2018 hit rom-com Love, Simon.

Lisa Joy – Her husband Jonah Nolan may get a lot more attention for creating Westworld for the small screen, but Lisa is co-creator and writer on one of the biggest hits on HBO. It should also be noted that she was a writer and producer on Burn Notice and a writer on Pushing Daisies.

Gloria Calderon Kellett – She is co-creator – with Mike Royce – on the popular reboot of One Day at a Time on Netflix.  Gloria has also worked on iZombie, Devious Maids and How I Met Your Mother.

Courtney Kemp – She is at the helm of the hit Starz series Power, which is currently in its 5th season on the air. She had an ABC pilot – Get Christie Love – that NEARLY got picked up and has her own shingle at Universal Cable Productions.

Nahnatchka Khan – This talented writer behind the five-season’s long ABC comedy Fresh Off the Boat – that stars Crazy Rich Asian’s Constance Wu – is developing other projects and just lined up her directorial debut at Netflix.

Michelle King – Along with her husband Robert, Michelle is the driving force behind the CBS All Access drama The Good Fight, which is obviously a spin-off of their long-running drama The Good Wife. They have new projects in the works at Showtime, CBS and CBS All Access.

Jenji Kohan, Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch – The talented trio are working on GLOW on Netflix and, of course, Jenji is the woman behind the long-running and soon-to-be-ending Orange Is the New Black. Liz and Carly also have a series in the works with Nicole Kidman’s Blossom Films.

Marti Noxon – Marti has been a staple on TV since Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. Her recent work was the much-buzzed about HBO limited series Sharp Objects that starred Amy Adams but her AMC drama Dietland ended unceremoniously at the end of its freshman year. She was also the showrunner on the Lifetime series UnReal.

Issa Rae – Working with comedy vet Prentice Penny, Issa is the star and co-creator of the HBO comedy Insecure, which just got a fourth season renewal, and made her a household name when she garnered an Emmy nomination for her role in the show.

Shonda Rhimes – Naturally, no showrunner list would be complete without Shonda, right? After all, she has Grey’s Anatomy, How to Get Away With Murder, For the People and Station 19 under her belt as well as her eight – yes eight – series that are slated to air on Netflix.

Amy Sherman-Palladino – The woman who brought the world Gilmore Girls now has The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon, which – by the way – earned eight Emmys this year. Of course, she created this show with her husband Dan and they have an overall deal with the streaming service.

Jennie Snyder Urman – Jennie has been the showrunner on the long-running but soon-to-end CW series Jane the Virgin and was the one who brought the reboot of Charmed back on the network. She also has several projects in the works with CBS TV Studios.

Lena Waithe – Lena wowed A LOT of people by her 2017 Emmy speech when she won the award for writing an episode of Master of None, and then she followed that up by creating the Showtime drama The Chi. She also has a pilot in the wings at TBS and is writing an indie feature that will star Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge – The actress-series creator is highly sought after because of her Amazon streaming series Fleabag, and a little BBC America show called Killing Eve, which will be back for a second soon next year. She also provided the voice for L3-37, the robot in Solo: A Star Wars Story, and she also has a pilot called Run at HBO.

No list like this would be complete without the inclusion of Julie Plec, the woman behind The CW shows The Vampire Diaries, The Originals, the short-lived Containment and the recent debuted Legacies or Mindy Kaling from The Mindy Project.

There are also the following female shownrunners (please keep in mind this list does not include every single female showrunner):

Melissa Rosenberg from Marvel’s Jessica Jones
Maurissa Tancharoen from Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Jessica Queller from Supergirl
Beth Schwartz from Arrow
Rachel Bloom and Aline Brosh McKenna from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
I. Marlene King from Famous in Love and Pretty Little Liars
Misha Green from Underground
Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner from Girls
Jill Soloway from Transparent and I Love Dick
Michelle Ashford from Masters of Sex
Ilene Chaiken from Empire
Erica Messer from Criminal Minds
Sarah Treem from The Affair

Needless to say, while men make up the majority of the showrunners on television, women aren’t that far behind and should be given credit where credit is due.

[Featured Image Photo Credit: Nile Post News]