Women’s History Month: 15 most influential women in TV history

Netflix

Melissa Rosenberg

You might have seen her name in the producer credits for Dexter (2006) or maybe even as the screenwriter for the Twilight series. But for me, Jessica Jones (2015) was a revelation in feminist television and creator/producer Melissa Rosenberg was essential to its making.

I had never seen a female-led television show that resonated with my experience as a woman so completely. There’s so much about how women are portrayed, their relationships with each other, and the representation of their every day struggles that is so relatable.

It explains so much that women have been struggling to say to those who practice even inadvertent sexism. Like why it’s rude to tell a woman to smile.

Mindy Kaling

You probably first knew her as Kelly Kapoor from The Office (2005), but Mindy Kaling is so much more. Not only was she also a writer and producer for The Office, but she was a writer/producer/actor for her own television series The Mindy Project (2012).

She’s also written bestselling books and hit plays and popular blogs. She’s self-aware and open about her rare position in Hollywood. Not only is she a woman but also an Indian American. She knows she’s been called a pioneer, but she refuses to see herself as an outsider.

She’s smart, insightful, and funny, and maybe the hardest working writer/director/producer/actor on television. She makes being a pioneer look easy.