Savannah Dooley (born August 31, 1985) is an American screenwriter and

television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of video production on a television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television networks, but upon ...

, best known as the co-creator of the television series ''

Huge Huge may refer to: * Huge cardinal, a number in mathematics * ''Huge'' (Caroline's Spine album), 1996 * ''Huge'' (Hugh Hopper and Kramer album), 1997 * ''Huge'' (TV series), a television series on ABC Family * Huge (digital agency) * ''Huge'' ...

''.

Early life

Dooley was born in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, New York to

Winnie Holzman Winnie Holzman (born August 18, 1954 in Manhattan) is an American dramatist, screenwriter, and poet. She is known for having created the ABC television series ''My So-Called Life'', which led to a nomination for a scriptwriting Emmy Award in 199 ...

, a writer, and

Paul Dooley Paul Dooley (born Paul Brown; February 22, 1928) is an American character actor, writer and comedian. He is known for his roles in '' Breaking Away'', '' Sixteen Candles'', and ''Popeye''. Early life Dooley was born Paul Brown on February 22, ...

, an actor. Dooley has said that her mother's work on ''

My So Called Life ''My So-Called Life'' is an American teen drama television series created by Winnie Holzman and produced by Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz. It originally aired on ABC from August 25, 1994, to January 26, 1995. It is distributed by The B ...

'', "doing some groundbreaking stuff with gay teenagers," helped her to come out as queer herself to her parents. She attended

Bennington College Bennington College is a private liberal arts college in Bennington, Vermont. Founded in 1932 as a women's college, it became co-educational in 1969. It claims to be the first college to include visual and performing arts as an equal partner in ...

, where she studied screenwriting and video production, and graduated in 2007.

Career

Dooley was still in college when television producer

Robin Schiff Robin Schiff is a Hollywood writer-producer, best known for the movie ''Romy and Michele's High School Reunion'' starring Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino. Schiff was a member of the comedy troupe The Groundlings. She does an interview series once a y ...

, a family friend, asked Dooley in 2007 to script a

television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

for ABC Family based on Sasha Paley's novel ''Huge'', about a group of teenagers at a weight-loss camp. Schiff had been interested in directing the adaptation but, having been Dooley's longtime writing mentor, wanted her to write the script. Dooley completed the script but ABC Family dropped the project when the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike began in November 2007 and halted development. When the strike ended, Dooley began to work on several other projects, including a

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

for

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

which was never picked up. In 2009, ABC Family approached Dooley again about rewriting her adaptation of ''Huge'' as a 10-episode television series. Since Schiff was unable to work full-time on the show and the network wanted an experienced producer, Dooley suggested that her mother

join the show as a writer and producer. ''Huge'' also features Dooley's father

in a small acting role as the camp cook and her uncle Ernest Holzman as the

director of photography The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...

. Dooley co-wrote and directed a short film, ''Snapshot'', with Miranda Sajdak, about the first meeting between a girl's mother and her prom date, which premiered at the 2010

Outfest Outfest is an LGBTQ-oriented nonprofit that produces two film festivals, operates a movie streaming platform, and runs educational services for filmmakers in Los Angeles. Outfest is one of the key partners, alongside the Frameline Film Festival ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dooley, Savannah 1985 births American television writers Television producers from New York City American women television producers Bennington College alumni LGBT screenwriters American LGBT writers Living people Writers from Manhattan Jewish American screenwriters American women screenwriters American women television writers Screenwriters from New York (state) 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American screenwriters