Female Screenwriters

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During my research on both terms I realised there was a lack of female screenwriters in comedy/sitcoms. Therefore, I decided to do research on female screenwriters and if any opportunities are available for us to come into the lime light.

Since the hit show 'Girls' debuted there has been a surge of female driven TV shows. Channel 4 commissioned Phoebe Waller-Bridges show "Crashing" and its described as "one of the most sophisticated debut scripts". Waller-Bridge stated that she became a screenwriter because of the lack of interesting and diverse female characters. Also Julia Davi's "Morning has broken", Roisin Conaty's "Game Face", Caitlin and Caroline Moran's "Raised by Wolves" and Michaela Coel's "Chewing Gum".

Sky Atlantic has another Julia Davis show, "Robin's Test". Sky has shows like Ruth Jones's "Stella", "Mount Pleasant" and "Dunham's Girls".

The US also introduced a comedy by Issa Rae "Insecure" which premiered on HBO. Likewise HBO introduced new comedies such as "Divorce", and Comedy Central introduced "Idiotsitter" starring Jillian Bell and "Another Period".

February 2018 a group of 76 female TV writers wrote an open letter complaint, asking that women be given greater opportunities. Although some female writers are on the development slate there is still a very big gap between being commissioned and being produced.

Caroline Amer, Natalie Bray, Rebecca Tanwen Morgan and Isobel Hughes have launched Double Yay Production to produce comedy series with their first project comedy series "Nutoriously Nicola!" about an unhealthy food blogger. Natalie Bray, who is producer and creative director, says "we make comedy thats not just for comedy's sake...our work features female leads who are kind heroines".

The screenplay development program, The Writers Lab, will be run by New York women in Film and Television and IRIS, a collective of women film makers, launched in 2015. This was introduced because women accounted for just 11% of writer working on the top 250 films of 2014 & 79% of those films had no female writers at all. A report by the BFI reported that 84% of all UK independent films released between 2010 and 2012 were written by men, but in recent years figures have shows a higher female representation of 37%


20 female screenwriters working today: 

  1. Diablo Cody: unashamedly unlikable, unusual and undeniably complex female characters. Female centric narratives present innovative, elaborate arcs. "Jennifers body", "Young Adult", "Juno", "Rikki" and "The Flash"
  2. Lucinda Coxon: "Wild Target", "The heart of me", "The Danish Girl" and "Crimson Peak" 
  3. Karen Croner: female characters with great presence and narratives. "Admissions", "One True thing" and "Girl Soldier" 
  4. Shuana Cross: "Whip it", "What to expect when you're expecting" and "If I stay" 
  5. Leslie Dixon: "Mrs Doubtfire", "Freaky Friday", "Hairspray" and "Limitless" 
  6. Gillian Flynn: utopia-adapting her own book 
  7. Jane Goldman: "Kick-Ass" and "Kingsman: The secret service", "The woman in black", "The limehouse Golem" and "Miss Peregrines hotel for peculiar children"  
  8. Kelly Marcel: "Fufty shades of grey" and "Saving Mr Banks"
  9. Melissa Mathison: "The BFG" 
  10. Abi Morgan: "Sex Traffic", "The hour", "Steve McQueen's shame", "The Ironlady" and "The suffragette" 
  11. Nancy Oliver: "Lars and the real girl" and "True blood"
  12. Nicole Perlman: "Guardians of the Galaxy", "Captain Marvel"
  13. Melissa Rosenberg: "Step up" and the "Twilight saga" and "Highlander"
  14. Amanda Silver: "Jurassic Park", "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", sequel to Avatar, "The hand that rocks the cradle" and "in the heart of the sec" 
  15. Karen McCullah/Kristen Smith: "Legally Blonde", "She's the man", "10 things I hate about you"
  16. Vanessa Taylor: "Divergent", "Hope Springs", "Game of thrones" 
  17. Emma Thompson: "Sense and Sensibility", Nanny McPhee films and "Effie Grey
  18. Juliette Towhid: "Calendar Girls", "Testament of youth and love", "Rosie", "Nottinghill carnival", "Project Ajez" and "The brokes" 
  19. Linda Woolverton: 1991 "Beauty and the beast", "The lion king", Tim Burtons "Alice in Wonderland" and "Maleficent" 
  20. Philippa Bogens/Fran Walsh: "The lord of the rings", "The hobbit", "King Kong" and "The Lovely bones". 


https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/jan/10/television-comedy-why-women-are-taking-over

http://variety.com/2018/tv/news/female-tv-writers-uk-demand-better-shot-at-top-series-1202712935/#article-comments

http://lwlies.com/articles/20-best-female-screenwriters-working-today/

http://deadline.com/2018/01/british-comedy-writers-launch-female-led-production-company-to-address-on-screen-imbalance-1202275144/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/goodlife/11555737/Why-are-there-so-few-female-screenwriters.html

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