Writer

“I grew up around a lot of women who have followed their dreams,” says Kitty Green, a previous AACTA winner for Best Feature-Length Documentary and now director and writer of The Assistant, starring Julia Garner and Matthew Macfadyen, which covers a day in the life of a young assistant working for an exploitive and predatory executive. Originally conceived as a project on consent and institutional power, the film shifted focus when the Harvey Weinstein story broke.

“Women head up 69% of key departments on the show,” says Workin' Moms' multi-hyphenate  Catherine Reitman, who conceptualized the idea of a series dealing with realistic, flawed women, struggling with the real issues that undo 51% of the population and make women feel alone and unworthy. She executes this task with humor and honesty.

Lena Waithe is so fly and so swaggy. That she also happens to be the first African-American woman to win an Emmy for outstanding writing for a comedy series, which she shared with Aziz Ansari for the Thanksgiving episode of Master of None, based on Lena’s real life when she came out to her family, is payoff for a life of stepping up.

“What’s it like to be a guy? To just get to be funny and not have someone yelling something about your tits every time you step on stage?” The lines are spoken by a female comic in Showtime’s I’m Dying Up Here (Jim Carrey is one of the Executive producers) in an episode entitled: Women Are Funny Too, written by Cindy Caponera. Set in LA in the 70s, the show is based on a nonfiction book by the same title and follows a group of stand-up comics.

The opening of The Rider - winner, with A Ciambra, of the Directors Fortnight-  focuses on a horse’s mane, spreading and floating in slow motion as the animal bucks and whinnies. It’s an indication that this cowboy story is going to be told differently and hints at the visuals to come that capture the vast open spaces and rugged isolation of South Dakota.

I Love Dick. The very title titillates.

Better Things (premiering on FX September 8, 2016) gives Pamela Adlon titles few women are able to access individually, never mind altogether. “Yeah, I’m the writer, producer, actor.

“I’m the executive producer and writer on Underground. I’ve been mistaken for a PA”, notes Misha Green who has written for such testosterone-drenched shows as FX’s Sons of Anarchy and NBC’s Heroes.

First in an occasional series featuring prominent women working in Hollywood today.   Nancy Meyers is the most financially successful female filmmaker of all time.