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Statistically speaking, progress for women in TV has been creeping steadily upward. The Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film reports that the number of women on both sides of the camera has grown by 2 to 3 percent annually for the past several years. And while that translates to only 28 percent of directors, producers, and executives, last year seemed to mark a true shift in the landscape: There were the barn-burning, female-produced-and-led smash hits, like Big Little Lies and The Handmaid’s Tale. There were big award wins for female writing talents, like Master of None’s Lena Waithe. And more broadly, women in all industries, led predominantly by actresses, stood up and told their difficult personal stories to unmask sexual predators. Our 2018 power list celebrates these risk takers—disrupters who are sidestepping the status quo and coming out ahead.
This article originally appears in the February 2018 issue of ELLE.
Elisabeth Moss
Actress and Producer, The Handmaid’s Tale
Moss took home an Emmy (after six previous nominations) for her fierce portrayal of Offred, a woman at the forefront of resistance, in Hulu’s dystopian drama; a second season arrives in April. Added 2017 cred: her role as a hardened detective, in the second season of Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake.
Lisa Joy
Cocreator and Executive Producer, Westworld
Her robots-gone-wild HBO series—which had the most-watched first season in the premium cable giant’s history—is full of smart, determined (if not altogether human!) women played by strong actresses like Evan Rachel Wood and Thandie Newton. In the upcoming second season, Joy also directs.
Samantha Bee
Star and Executive Producer, Full Frontal With Samantha Bee
In her second season on TBS’s Full Frontal, Bee used her indispensable voice to intensify its blinding spotlight on issues that matter to women (and men), from the environment to gun control. Her reach just keeps growing.
Reese Witherspoon
Actress and Producer
Hot off starring in and executive-producing HBO’s Big Little Lies, Witherspoon is teaming up with Jennifer Aniston for a drama about morning TV, which scored a two-season order from Apple as the company launched original programming.
Bonnie Hammer
Chairman, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Group
Big hits: A 137-show portfolio that includes Mr. Robot, the Housewives franchise, and the Kardashians’ series.
On staying creatively energized: "We can’t be complacent, because nothing is the same. There used to be 40 new original series a year; now there are 300-plus. There’s so much competition, so much noise, so much change every day, that the world itself keeps us on our toes."
Shonda Rhimes
Founder, Chair, and CEO, Shondaland
Big hits: Grey’s Anatomy, How to Get Away With Murder, and a new development deal with Netflix.
Dana Walden
Chairman and CEO, Fox TV Group
Big hits: Empire, American Crime Story, and This Is
Us, produced by Fox.
Cindy Holland
Vice President, Original Content, Netflix
Big hits: Stranger Things, 13 Reasons Why, and The Crown.
Nancy Dubuc
President and CEO, A&E Networks
Big hits: Lifetime’s UnREAL; History’s Roots; and Viceland, which scored an Emmy.
Issa Rae
Star and Executive Producer, Insecure
Her hit 2011 web series, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, set the stage for the incredibly smart, original Insecure on HBO. Now Rae is developing a drama for the cable giant based on Angela Flournoy’s acclaimed novel The Turner House, about a black family in 1990s L.A.
On her riskiest move: “Refusing television for Awkward Black Girl. After our first season, we got a bunch of offers, but there wasn’t anyone who appreciated the show’s vision. It worked out because Pharrell Williams’s online network picked us up, so it continued to live on the internet.”
Kate McKinnon
Actress, Saturday Night Live
Even in a post-Hillary SNL season, McKinnon’s characters—from a wild-eyed Kellyanne Conway to a dancing Ruth Bader Ginsburg to a woman convinced she was abducted by aliens—keep us laughing and sane. (Emmy voters feel the same way: They’ve given her two statuettes.) This star also has four film projects in the hopper.
Robin Thede
Star and Executive Producer, The Rundown With Robin Thede
With her weekly satirical pop culture/political BET series, Thede (previously head writer on Larry Wilmore’s Nightly Show) is the only black woman hosting her own late-night talk show. Her unapologetic point of view—applied to everything from Confederate statues to the Black Panther movie trailer—is a cable godsend.
Jenji Kohan
Creator and Executive Producer, Orange Is the New Black; EP, GLOW
With series like Weeds, OITNB, and last year’s GLOW, Kohan is a master at endearing us to unexpected heroines. Her next project, American Princess, about a socialite who joins a Renaissance fair, got a straight-to-series order from Lifetime.
The Women of MSNBC
Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid, Nicolle Wallace, Katy Tur, Hallie Jackson, and Kasie Hunt
The Rachel Maddow Show now pulls in more than 2 million viewers a night for her intellectually curious, deeply reported segments. And the amazing women alongside her have at least an hour of airtime each. There’s Reid, an opinionated, laser-sharp interviewer, and Wallace, a voice of reasoned analysis. And then there’s Tur, Jackson, and Hunt—all tenacious reporters.
Maddow on her dream interview: “All these years later, I’m still waiting for my Dick Cheney interview. I live in hope!”
Susan Wojcicki and Susanne Daniels
CEO, YouTube; Global Head of Original Content, YouTube
Wojcicki is one of tech’s most respected execs. Daniels is a programming vet from MTV and the WB. Together, they aim to make YouTube and its Red subscription channel a major player by working with names like Demi Lovato and Ellen DeGeneres, and green-lighting series like the sci-fi drama Origins, from the producers of The Crown.
Jennifer Salke and Pearlena Igbokwe
President, NBC Entertainment; President, Universal Television
Salke’s Female Forward initiative brings female directors to NBC. Five of her six direct reports are women, including Igbokwe, the first African American woman to run a major production studio, which feeds shows to NBC and beyond. We can thank them for gems like This Is Us and The Good Place.
Lisa Nishimura
Vice President, Original Documentaries and Comedy, Netflix
Thanks to her, Netflix is reaching new levels of excellence for docs—like Ava DuVernay’s 13th and Errol Morris’s Wormwood—and stand-up, with specials from Sarah Silverman, Jerry Seinfeld, and, in a big-money deal, Chris Rock.
On finding her career path: “In my traditional Japanese American household, my parents wanted safety and opportunity for their children: Be a doctor, something reliable. I didn’t even know my job was one you could aspire to. That’s the exciting part of life. Can you imagine this thing that hasn’t been seen yet?”
Marti Noxon
Writer and Executive Producer, Dietland and Sharp Objects
The Buffy alum is one of TV’s consummate creators, working on UnREAL and delivering Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce. This year, she’ll produce HBO’s Amy Adams thriller, Sharp Objects, from Gillian Flynn’s novel; and AMC’s delightfully weird-sounding Dietland, about an obese woman who takes on the beauty industry and sexual harassment.
On her career-changing move: "I was working on Private Practice, and as much as I’d learned from Shonda [Rhimes], I realized I was becoming very comfortable in that solid-second role. I thought, If I keep signing up to be a great lieutenant, I’m never going to know if I can do this. One day, I just stood up and said, ‘Oh my God, I think I quit.'"
Yara Shahidi
Actress
She’s graduating from ABC’s Blackish, where she plays oldest child Zoey, to star in her own spin-off, Grown-ish, on sister channel Freeform, which follows Zoey to college.
On her professional future: “I’m about to cast my first short that I’m directing. I definitely want to do more work behind the camera. But I’ve also always wanted to play two roles: a superhero and a sociopath. Opposite ends of the spectrum.”
Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Actress and Writer
After creating and starring as the sharp-tongued, sexually frank heroine of Amazon’s Fleabag—we’ll see season two in 2019!—Waller-Bridge wrote the spy-thriller series Killing Eve, starring Sandra Oh, for the BBC.
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