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Women Behind the Scenes Spotlight: Jennifer Gwartz

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Jennifer Gwartz (via Getty Images)

Today’s Women Behind the Scenes spotlight is shone on Executive Producer Jennifer Gwartz.

Jennifer, a graduate of The University of Pennsylvania, got her start as a production assistant at Lorimar Television before she transitioned into feature films at Silver Pictures. She later moved over to the Miramax-based production company Woods Entertainment where she helped develop the Scream movie franchise as well as the films Kids, Copland and Beautiful Girls.

In 1997, she returned to Silver Pictures where she oversaw feature film projects like Lethal Weapon 4, House on Haunted Hill and The Matrix. She also oversaw TV shows like Tales From the Crypt and the short-lived UPN series The Strip.

A year later, she transitioned into network TV as an executive at ABC Entertainment, overseeing shows like Wasteland, Vengeance Unlimited and the remake of Fantasy Island.

In 1999, Jennifer joined Columbia TriStar Television running the drama department with colleague Danielle Stokdyk. Over the course of the next couple years, they executive produced the Homeward Bound pilot for ABC and held a production deal with Universal Television. From 2003 to 2005, she headed up Joel Silver’s TV division at Warner Brothers, where she executive the Veronica Mars pilot as well as the shows Prodigy and The Studio.

She continued as an executive producer on Veronica Mars for three season and she also co-executive produced the ABC series Big Shots, was the executive producer of the 90210 pilot and worked on the short-lived remake of Cupid and Party Down.

She then joined Lin Pictures in 2011, getting an exclusive deal with Warner Bros., where she produced three pilots: The Secret Lives of Wives for Lifetime, To My Assistant for FOX and the short-lived Forever series on ABC.

Her current projects include the pilot of the small screen adaptation of Lethal Weapon on FOX and the upcoming small screen adaptation of Frequency on The CW.

Frequency will debut on October 5 and Lethal Weapon will debut on September 21.

Picture Credit: Getty Images

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 on Bluesky @ruebensramblings.bsky.social or contact her at rueben@nicegirlstv.com. Please also check out Rueben's Ramblings website for even more entertainment news.