Female Emmy Winners/Nominees for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series
In order of nomination by year.
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- Writer
- Producer
- Script and Continuity Department
Madelyn Davis was born on 15 March 1921 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. She was a writer and producer, known for I Love Lucy (1951), The Tom Ewell Show (1960) and Yours, Mine & Ours (2005). She was married to Dr. Richard Merrill Davis and Quinn Martin. She died on 20 April 2011 in Bel-Air, California, USA.Nominee for I Love Lucy (1955, 1956)
Nominee for Here's Lucy (1971)- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Most familiar to TV audiences as the diminutive but feisty court bailiff on Night Court (1984), Selma Diamond's entrance into acting was not through the usual venue of vaudeville, stage work or modeling - she was a writer for TV shows, once having been nominated for an Emmy for Caesar's Hour (1954). Although she had that tough New York accent and street demeanor, she was actually born in London, Ontario, Canada, then raised in Brooklyn. A graduate of New York University, she at first made a living by selling cartoons and fiction to the "New Yorker" magazine. NBC hired her as a writer for one of its radio shows, "The Big Show," and she later made the transition into writing for television. Her film debut was as the voice on the telephone of Spencer Tracy's wife in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), where the world got a sample of the distinctive Diamond voice: nasal, high-pitched and one that could never be mistaken for anyone else's. She did a lot of TV work and was a regular on another series, Too Close for Comfort (1980) before Night Court (1984). She died due to lung cancer in 1985.Nominee for Caesar's Hour (1956)- Dorothy Cooper was born on 30 September 1911 in Vermillion, South Dakota, USA. She was a writer, known for Father Knows Best (1954), On an Island with You (1948) and Rich, Young and Pretty (1951). She died on 26 November 2004 in Palm Desert, California, USA.Nominee for Father Knows Best (1960)
- Script and Continuity Department
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Ruth Brooks Flippen was born on 14 September 1921 in New York, USA. Ruth Brooks was a writer, known for That Girl (1966), The ABC Afternoon Playbreak (1972) and Love Is Better Than Ever (1952). Ruth Brooks was married to Jay C. Flippen. Ruth Brooks died on 9 July 1981 in Marina del Rey, California, USA.Nominee for That Girl (1968)- Writer
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Gail Parent was born in 1940 in the USA. She is a writer and producer, known for Tracey Takes On... (1996), The Golden Girls (1985) and The Carol Burnett Show (1967).Nominee for The Carol Burnett Show (1969)- Judith Viorst was born on 2 February 1931 in Newark, New Jersey, USA. She is a writer, known for Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014), Annie, the Women in the Life of a Man (1970) and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Road Trip. She has been married to Milton Viorst since 30 January 1960. They have three children.Winner for Annie, the Women in the Life of a Man (1970)
- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Treva Silverman was born on 20 May 1936 in the USA. She is a writer and producer, known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970), Captain Nice (1967) and That Girl (1966).Winner for The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1974)- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Linda Bloodworth-Thomason was born on 15 April 1947 in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, USA. She is a writer and producer, known for Designing Women (1986), Bridegroom (2013) and Evening Shade (1990). She has been married to Harry Thomason since 23 July 1983.Nominee for M*A*S*H (1974)
Nominee for Designing Women (1988)- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Mary Kay Place (born September 23, 1947) is an American actress, singer, director, and screenwriter. She is known for portraying Loretta Haggers on the television series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, a role that won her the 1977 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Comedy Series. Her numerous film appearances include Private Benjamin (1980), The Big Chill (1983), Captain Ron (1992) and Francis Ford Coppola's 1997 drama The Rainmaker. Place also recorded three studio albums for Columbia Records, one in the Haggers persona, which included the Top Ten country music hit "Baby Boy." For her performance in Diane (2018), Place won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress.Nominee for M*A*S*H (1974)- Writer
- Producer
- Actress
Anne Beatts was born on 25 February 1947 in Buffalo, New York, USA. She was a writer and producer, known for Saturday Night Live (1975), Square Pegs (1982) and Funny Boys. She died on 7 April 2021 in West Hollywood, California, USA.Nominee for Saturday Night Live (1979)- Writer
- Actress
- Additional Crew
Rosie Shuster was born on 19 June 1950 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is a writer and actress, known for Saturday Night Live (1975), The Blues Brothers (1980) and The Larry Sanders Show (1992). She was previously married to Lorne Michaels.Nominee for Saturday Night Live (1979)
Nominee for The Larry Sanders Show (1993)- Producer
- Writer
- Actress
Holly Holmberg Brooks' early credits include Emmy-nominated script writing for "Taxi" and "The Tracey Ullman Show." She has received credit for several Academy Award winning and nominated feature films including, "Terms of Endearment," "Broadcast News," "Jerry Maguire" and "As Good As It Gets." Last season she produced "Liberty's Kids" for PBS.Nominee for Taxi (1982)- Writer
- Producer
- Script and Continuity Department
Susan Harris was born on 28 October 1940 in New York City, New York, USA. She is a writer and producer, known for Soap (1977), The Golden Girls (1985) and It Takes Two (1982). She was previously married to Paul Junger Witt and Berkeley Harris.Nominee for The Golden Girls (1986)- Producer
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Janet Leahy, executive producer and showrunner, is a name often associated with prestige television. Ms. Leahy spent the past fifteen years writing and producing one hour television dramas, including "Mad Men," "Boston Legal" and "Gilmore Girls," for which she has received six Emmy nominations, two Writers' Guild Awards and a Peabody Award for best drama.
Ms. Leahy's career began in comedy, writing and producing "Cheers," "The Cosby Show," "Newhart," and "Roseanne," among many others. Ms. Leahy returned to comedy as consulting producer for HBO's "Crashing." To date, Ms. Leahy has produced and written over three hundred hours of quality television. She is currently developing a one hour comedy/drama "No Offense" for Showtime with "Shameless" creator Paul Abbott.Nominee for Cheers (1987)- Writer
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Diane English was born on 18 May 1948 in Buffalo, New York, USA. She is a writer and producer, known for Murphy Brown (1988), The Women (2008) and Double Rush (1995). She was previously married to Joel Shukovsky.Winner for Murphy Brown (1989)
Nominee for Murphy Brown (1990, 1991, 1992)- Writer
- Producer
Elaine Pope was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She is known for Seinfeld (1989), Alfie (2004) and Not Necessarily the News (1982).Winner for Seinfeld (1992)- Writer
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Marta Kauffman was born on 21 September 1956 in Broomall, Pennsylvania, USA. She is a writer and producer, known for Friends (1994), Dream On (1990) and Grace and Frankie (2015). She was previously married to Michael Skloff.Nominee for Dream On (1993)- Producer
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Maya Forbes was born on 23 July 1968 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. She is a producer and writer, known for The Larry Sanders Show (1992), Infinitely Polar Bear (2014) and Monsters vs. Aliens (2009). She has been married to Wallace Wolodarsky since 2004. They have two children.Nominee for The Larry Sanders Show (1994, 1996)- Producer
- Writer
- Actress
Emmy-winning talk show host Ellen Lee DeGeneres was born in Metairie, Louisiana, a New Orleans suburb. She is the daughter of Betty DeGeneres (née Elizabeth Jane Pfeffer), a speech therapist, and Elliott Everett DeGeneres, Jr., an insurance agent. Her brother is musician and producer Vance DeGeneres. Her parents divorced when she was 16 years old. Her mother remarried, and her new husband, salesman Roy Gruessendorf, moved the family to Atlanta, Texas.
After graduating from Atlanta High School in 1976, Ellen attended the University of New Orleans as a communications major, but she dropped out after one semester. She held a wide variety of jobs until she turned to stand-up comedy, making her bones at small clubs and coffeehouses before working her way up to emcee Clyde's Comedy Club by 1981. Her comedy was described as a distaff version of Bob Newhart. Beginning in the early 1980s, she toured nationally and was named the funniest person in America after winning a competition sponsored by the cable network Showtime. This led to better gigs, including her first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) in 1986.
Though DeGeneres's early forays into series television were not successful (she appeared as a supporting player in two short-lived TV situation comedies in the period 1989-92, Open House (1989) and Laurie Hill (1992)), she scored a hit headlining her own 1994 sitcom on ABC "These Friends of Mine" (renamed Ellen (1994) after its first season). She made TV history in April 1997, when her character, and DeGeneres personally, revealed that she was a lesbian. However, the show was canceled the following season due to declining ratings, after which DeGeneres returned to the stand-up circuit. In 2001, DeGeneres launched a new series, The Ellen Show (2001), on CBS, but it suffered from poor ratings and was canceled.
Redemption as a television artist came in 2003, when DeGeneres's daytime talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show (2003), proved to be both a critical hit and a commercial success. Along with good ratings, the show has won unprecedented kudos from the industry, winning 15 Emmy Awards in its first three seasons on the air and becoming the first talk show in TV history to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show in its first three seasons.
DeGeneres has also made a name for herself as a host of awards shows. She hosted the Grammy Awards in 1996 and 1997, as well as the Primetime Emmy Awards in 2001 and 2005. In February 2007, she had the ultimate TV awards show gig, hosting the Oscars, which she hosted again in 2014.Winner for Ellen (1997)- Writer
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Tracy Newman is a founding member of The Groundlings Improv Theatre, which is one of the main farm companies for SNL. In 1990, she and her then writing partner, Jonathan Stark, began a long TV writing/producing career. Their first staff job was on Cheers. After that, they worked on Bob, The Nanny, Ellen, The Drew Carey Show and Hiller and Diller. In 1997, they won both an Emmy and a Peabody award for co-writing the groundbreaking "coming out" episode of Ellen (Ellen DeGeneres' 90's sitcom.) In 2001 they created the long-running ABC TV show, According to Jim. Tracy retired from TV writing in 2003 and since then has been a fixture in the Los Angeles acoustic folk music scene. She's now a full-time singer/songwriter, doing shows for both adults and children. She has a new company called Run Along Home, focusing on age-appropriate lyrics for young kids. Tracy's CDs for adults include: A Place in the Sun, I Just See You and That's What Love Can Do to Your Heart. Her CDs for children are I Can Swing Forever, Shoebox Town, and soon to be released, Sing With Me. Websites: www.tracynewman.com and www.runalonghome.comWinner for Ellen (1997)