Women Behind the Scenes Spotlight: Moira Kirland

Moira Kirland

Today’s Women Behind the Scenes spotlight is shone on Producer and Writer Moira Kirland.

Moira got her start as an assistant to the producers of the animated series Capitol Critters that first aired 7 episodes in 1992 and then another 6 episodes in 1995. Capitol Critters featured the voices of Neil Patrick Harris, Bobcat Goldthwait and Dorian Harewood. In 1993, she worked as a producer on a small independent film called Saint Crispin’s Day.

Her big break came at the turn of the century (2000) when she landed a job as a story editor on the popular, though short-lived, FOX drama Dark Angel. She eventually moved up to writer and co-producer of the show over its two seasons on the air. In 2002, she worked as a writer and co-producer of the UPN series Haunted that starred Matthew Fox (in his pre-Lost role), Russell Hornsby (who will be seen in the new NBC series Grimm next week), Lynn Collins (who appeared in the Wolverine movie) and Michael Irby (The Unit).

The next year, she became a writer and producer on the remake of The Twilight Zone that featured Forrest Whitaker as the host. In 2004, she moved on to be a writer and producer of the USA Network series Dead Zone (based on the Stephen King novel).

It was in 2005 that she made the leap back to the major networks, working as a writer, supervising producer and eventually a co-executive producer on the CBS drama Medium where she stayed until 2009. Over the last two years she has worked as a consulting producer and writer on the popular ABC series Castle and she became a co-executive producer for the show last season.

Moira also has a new project in the works at ABC with fellow Castle co-executive producer Laurie Zaks called The Murder Season, an hour-long drama for which she wrote. This potential series revolves around Mia Donnelly, a gifted but troubled FBI profiler who struggles to hide a dark secret from her past as she works with an elite team to catch the country’s worst criminals.