ABC

Women Behind the Scenes Spotlight: Lauren Schmidt Hissrich

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Today’s Women Behind the Scenes spotlight is focused on television writer, executive producer and showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich.

She was raised in Westerville, Ohio and graduated from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio with a BA in English literature and creative writing. During her junior and senior years of college, she visited family in California where she got to answer phones on a little show called The West Wing [thorough a friend of her aunts, who – ironically – later became her husband]. When she finished college, she returned to California and the set of that show, starting out as a Writers’ PA. She spent 7 years on The West Wing, working as a researcher, story editor and eventually a staff writer. [Soucre: Of Writers and Women]

From there, Lauren worked on the short-lived 2006 series Justice as a writer and executive story editor; a writer and executive story editor on the 2007 short-lived drama Drive before landed work as a writer and producer on Private Practice.

A few seasons later she was a writer and supervising producer on Parenthood and then spent time as a supervising producer and writer on the short-lived drama Do No Harm before spending one season as a writer and co-executive producer on the Starz drama Power.

Over the last few seasons she has been working with Netflix on Daredevil, as a writer and co-executive producer; The Defenders as writer and co-executive producer and The Umbrella Academy as writer and co-executive producer.

Her latest project, for which she is not only writer and executive producer but also showrunner is the highly anticipated Netflix series The Witcher, starring Superman himself Henry Cavill, which is set to debut on December 20, and is based on the original book series by Andrzej Sapkowski.

Lauren lives in Los Angeles with her husband Michael Hissrich, who is also a TV producer, and their two children. You can follow her on Twitter @LHissrich.

Using her favorite online handle, Rueben is an East Coast-bred gal who is now a permanent Californian and a lifelong tv-oholic. She watches at least 25 TV shows a week, goes to the movies as often as possible, listens to music every waking moment, reads every day and “plays” on the internet every chance she can. Some of her current favorite TV shows are Outlander, Sweet Magnolias, Wednesday, The Mandalorian, The Equalizer, Fire Country, Miss Scarlet, Hudson & Rex, SkyMed, The Rookie, Bridgerton, Cobra Kai, Virgin River, The Witcher, Leverage: Redemption and School Spirits. She is looking forward to the fall TV season, including the return of Outlander, Tracker and The Equalizer and the debuts of the new dramas Matlock, Murder In a Small Town, NCIS: Origins and Cross. Follow her at @ruebenrambling or contact her at rueben@nicegirlstv.com. Please also check out her Rueben's Ramblings website for even more entertainment news.