The Spin-off
Showrunners Ilene Chaiken & Michelle Ashford
Michelle Ashford, creator of Masters of Sex and Empire showrunner Ilene Chaiken sit down with Michael Schneider to talk about their process of becoming TV writers and executive producers, and why they don’t typically call themselves "showrunners."
By Michael Schneider • • 34m ListenIn this special edition of The Spin-off, we're bringing you a conversation with showrunners Ilene Chaiken and Michelle Ashford, recorded earlier this year at the National Association of Television Program Executives, an annual conference that takes place in Miami.
Chaiken created the Showtime drama The L Word. Now she is a writer and executive producer on the Fox mega-hit Empire. The hip hop soap opera about the Lyons family and their record label recently came roaring back with a ratings bang.
Ashford is also a television writer and executive producer. She developed the Showtime drama Masters of Sex, which returns for its fourth season later this year.
These are only their most recent projects -- both women have worked in television for more than 20 years. So when we sat down at NATPE we started...where else? At the beginning.
Photo: (L-R) Michael Schneider with executive producers Michelle Ashford from Masters of Sex and Ilene Chaiken from Empire at the National Association of Television Program Executives gathering.
