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
For a lot of people, film is still the dream - the captive audience in the darkened theater - but I love TV. I think it's fantastic.
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.
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.
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.
It can go two ways with girls: They either bond or eat each other alive.
I remember one of my writers on 'Weeds' got a new apartment and didn't get cable or a dish. He just hooked his computer up to the TV. I was like, 'This is it. This is how it's happening.'
I love flawed characters, male or female, and I only want to talk about flawed characters, really, in what I do.
By nature, I sit alone in a room and type... My goal was never celebrity.
Home is where your family is. Wherever you are, it's about the people you're surrounded by, not necessarily where you lay your head.
As long as there are still interesting stories and still interesting people that we want to meet, I can keep it going. But, we all have to be invested. If the room starts getting bored or I start getting restless, then we'll either have to change something in the show or maybe end it.
But if I had my way, there would be so much more, in everything. It's so vital and integral in life, and it should be reflected in what we're watching, if we're reflecting our experiences. And it's hot. I love the sex stuff, and I want more.
You spend so much of your life crafting this stuff that you want to laugh in the room. I don't want to sit there and slit my wrists. And I think it reflects reality. People use humor to survive, even in the most horrific situations.
But, I like the challenge of, "How can we stretch this out? Where can we go with it?" It's an open road, especially at Netflix. You can take it anywhere you want.