Jenji Kohan
Jenji Kohan
Jenji Leslie Kohanis an American television writer and producer. She is best known as the creator of the Showtime comedy-drama series Weeds and the Netflix comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black. She has received nine Emmy Award nominations, winning one as supervising producer of the comedy series Tracey Takes On......
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScreenwriter
Date of Birth5 July 1969
CityLos Angeles, CA
CountryUnited States of America
It can go two ways with girls: They either bond or eat each other alive.
I'm a huge Ira Glass fan; I'm a huge fan of radio in general.
I am a huge, huge Regina Spektor fan.
Pot is a vehicle for the show. It's so in the zeitgeist. It's talked about in the news, in the courts. It's a morally ambiguous narcotic (and) the universal rebellion drug.
I think what strikes a chord is, this is a mother. She has children and she's doing something illegal. We have a history of the father doing what he needs to do to support his family. Mommy is not supposed to take these kinds of risks. She's supposed to be at home nurturing. But I guess you weigh your options and do what you think is gonna work.
I was broke when I lived in New York City during college, so I'd spend weekends walking around town, grabbing something to eat, and interacting with strangers. That ritual has stuck with me.
We still have this prudish, puritanical culture, but we also have so little exposure to a diversity of bodies. Bodies are beautiful and great and compelling.
When I got out of college in 1991, I had four jobs in four different parts of L.A. There was I Love Juicy, a smoothie bar in Venice, and the Videotheque on Sunset Boulevard, across from the old Tower Records. I was also an intern at the 'Los Angeles Reader' in the Miracle Mile and at 'High Performance' magazine downtown.
I think great writers should write great shows, and I have trouble with, like, what you are in life shouldn't automatically make you what you do in your art. It doesn't necessarily translate.
What offends me more than something sexist is something poorly written or unfunny or cliched.
'Be nice' is my family's basic rule but one that often goes unfollowed in Hollywood. There's always a moment when you can choose between being snarky and being kind. I opt for the latter - it's much less exhausting!
We dont vilify. We present them as is, and Im really proud to have remained neutral.
We're throwing everything in ... I think Showtime's mandate is to make some noise. And this is a pretty noisy show.
A TV touchstone for me is 'The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd.' That series was whimsical and smart and had the mix of comedy and drama that I now trade in - but with a dash of magical realism. I wanted to be Molly Dodd, but more than that, I wanted to be Jay Tarses, who created the show.