I always wanted to be a writer. Even when I talked about wanting to be a marine biologist, or Latin American revolutionary, or designer of artisanal donuts, I really wanted to be a writer • I wrote two novels in college. Both were awful. Sometimes I try to convince myself that writing this solipsistic nonsense was good for me somehow. Most of the time I recognize that it was just a criminal waste of precious youth and I get super sad • The first script I wrote was called Amistad. It did not become the movie • While working for a judge in LA, I started to write television scripts. Eventually, I sold a comedy pilot to NBC, then another one, then a few more. To NBC, Sony, Fox. None ever got made, but I became quite adept at selling comedies that didn’t get made • I left my law firm to work on an ABC drama called BETRAYAL. When BETRAYAL was cancelled, I returned to the law firm for two weeks, then left again, to work on SCANDAL. A few years later, I left SCANDAL to create and run my own show, FOR THE PEOPLE, which ran for two seasons on ABC. I now work at Netflix, with Shonda Rhimes. I’m thinking if I asked to go back to the law firm, they’d probably say no at this point.
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