Jenji Kohan, creator and showrunner of “Orange Is the New Black” and “Weeds,” has been named recipient of the Writers Guild of America West’s Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement.
She will be honored at the Writers Guild Awards show on Feb. 17 at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif.
“Jenji Kohan’s work is what all good writers aspire to – touching on the harsh but also comedic realities of life through characters that don’t sound written, that talk like real people,” said WGA West president David A. Goodman. “Her scenes can be comic and tragic simultaneously; while she engages, she also unnerves, pushing us out of our comfort zone. Her work has truly advanced the literature of television, and the WGAW Board of Directors considers it our honor to give her this award.”
Kohan is also an executive producer and writer on “GLOW.” She has been a WGA member since 1993 and got her debut credit a year later on “Fresh Prince of Bel Air.” She has credits on “Will & Grace,” “Gilmore Girls,” “Tracey Takes On…,” “Sex and the City,” “Mad About You,” “Boston Common,” and “The Stones,” which she created.
She won a 2006 Writers Guild Award for episodic comedy for her “Weeds” episode “You Can’t Miss the Bear.” Kohan has received multiple WGA nominations for her work on “GLOW,” “Orange Is the New Black,” “Weeds,” and “Tracey Takes On…”
She won an Emmy for “Tracey Takes On…” and a Producers Guild Award for “Orange Is the New Black.” Kohan is executive producing the docuseries “Worn Stories” and the comedy “Slutty Teenage Bounty Hunters” for Netflix.
Past television laurel award recipients include Diane English, Aaron Sorkin, Steven Bochco, Susan Harris, Stephen J. Cannell, Shonda Rhimes, David Chase, Marta Kauffman & David Crane, Larry David, Garry Marshall, and most recently Alison Cross.