Where are you from and what inspired you to become a television writer?

I grew up in Midwestern suburbs, Chicago then Detroit. I started my career in improvisation and sketch comedy, first performing and soon writing comedy. Writing became like improvising on the page to me, only better because I got to go back and edit it! As I was working with sketch comedy shows I started learning more about television writing: taking classes, reading books, listening to DVD commentaries. And without fail, whenever I heard TV writers talk about life in the writers’ room, I felt like they were speaking my language. Pitching ideas, punching up jokes and working together with others, it was stressful for sure…but it was also all the things I loved about improv and sketch. Plus, a bigger and more diverse audience. And the ability to follow characters and stories over multiple seasons (one hopes). That’s inspiration enough for a TV groupie like me.

What Spec did you write to get into the workshop?

The Sarah Silverman Program

What Spec did you write while you were in the workshop?

The New Adventures of Old Christine

Who is your all time favorite television character and why?

Kevin Arnold (The Wonder Years) – he was the first television character who spoke to me and what I was going through. Other than the fact he was a boy and I was a girl, we had a lot in common. We were both adolescents who still had baby round faces and were struggling to understand the world and people around us,. And although I lacked the bittersweet voiceover that spoke to my childhood lessons with a refreshing wryness about loss of childhood innocence, I more than related to Kevin, I ‘came of age’ right along with him.