From the
Desk of ...

My days vary, whether I’m in the writers room or on set.

On a streaming show, the writers room typically finishes before production begins, and the post starts after that. On a broadcast show (or a broadcast + streaming hybrid, like Line of Fire), everything is happening at once. So I'm in the writers room, in prep, on set, and in post every day. Right now, the room is breaking episode 14, we're shooting episode 9, prepping episode 10, and in post on episodes 7 and 8. It's a grueling cycle, but working with such amazingly talented people every day makes it fly by.

What’s interesting about showrunning is that the administrative tasks are also creative.

How do you get the budget down but still tell the story you want to tell is a really fun puzzle. Or getting a schedule to work—I love figuring that out. I'd say the hardest thing for me at this point is reading scripts. Having the time during this schedule to sit down and read the episodes when they come in as fast as they have is probably the hardest thing, cause I have to shut everything out to do it.

Lunch at my desk, if often the only option.

Also, I don't love the cast, crew, writers or post team seeing me eat. There's something about watching them have to wait for me to finish chewing to speak that feels off.

The schedule for a showrunner can be tough.

The writers' room always starts at 9:30 a.m., but 12-hour shooting times shift as the week goes on. On Monday, we tend to start at seven to take advantage of the daylight, but by Friday due to turnaround (a labor rule) or scenes set at night, it can creep up to a noon or 1 p.m. start. So Mondays, I can keep to a pretty good 7 a.m to 7 p.m. schedule, but by Friday, I can be in the room at 9:30 a.m., but still on set at one in the morning.

My current tactic for staying on track ...

Is probably inflexible deadlines. Truly it's the only thing that works for me. When I'm not running a show, I don't do a very good job of staying on track. I can get easily distracted.

I try not to set unrealistic expectations.

This is why I don't believe in “inbox zero.” To be honest, right now, I have 3,260 unread emails. And counting.

Line of Fire is my sixth series.

I've learned by now that I need a wind-down between set and home. If I go home directly, my heart and head are still racing too much. So either I spend time with my kid doing something active (even a walk around the block works), or if we wrap after he's asleep, I'll meet my boyfriend and/or our friends for dinner somewhere. Having a transition that isn't just zig-zagging from professional to personal and back again has been incredibly important to me. Of course, at 2 a.m. on a Friday night it isn't always possible, but then I might sit at my piano for a little bit, or try to read, or do anything that keeps me off a screen.

Being decisive has been so important to my growth in this business.

I have so many decisions to make on a daily basis, minute to minute sometimes—costumes, casting, props, locations, music, editing—did it rain and we need to move everything onto our sets, did a location fall through and we're fucked—you just have to make a decision right away. Right or wrong, you just have to do it.

I’ve come a long way from my first desk job.

I was an assistant for a while. I would count that as my first desk job. That desk had to be so incredibly organized because it was in an open space and on display for the producers I worked for. While I can have some piles of clothes here and there, I try to keep my current desk pretty clean and open now. When I work it helps if I face a totally white wall, for instance, with no distractions—not even art on the wall. A lack of distraction is the best thing, I've found. Increasingly difficult, but I try my best. But I think what I've learned most is to prioritize your life. Your output is only as good as your intake. If I don't see theatre and movies, have dinner with my friends, spend time with my kid, cook for my family, travel, etc.—my work will start to feel like a prison instead of the thing that keeps my life going.