Cord Jefferson is a television writer, journalist, and essayist who has worked on the TV series ''Watchmen'', ''Succession'', ''

The Good Place ''The Good Place'' is an American fantasy comedy television series created by Michael Schur. It premiered on NBC on September 19, 2016, and concluded on January 30, 2020, after four seasons and 53 episodes. Although the plot evolves signifi ...

'', and ''

Master of None ''Master of None'' is an American comedy-drama streaming television series, which was released for streaming on November 6, 2015, on Netflix. The series was created by Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang, with the first two seasons starring Ansari in the ...

''. He is the recipient of an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

NAACP Image Award The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. Similar to ...

, and two

Writers Guild of America Awards The Writers Guild of America Awards is an award for film, television, and radio writing including both fiction and non-fiction categories given by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America West since 1949. Eligibility T ...

Early life

Cord Jefferson was born in

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black

ill ILL may refer to: * ''I Love Lucy'', a landmark American television sitcom * Illorsuit Heliport (location identifier: ILL), a heliport in Illorsuit, Greenland * Institut Laue–Langevin, an internationally financed scientific facility * Interlibrar ...

, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive ...

to a white mother and black father. His father is an attorney. After his family lived outside the US for a few years until he was about 5 or 6 years old, he grew up in Tucson. His mother’s father was shocked by her choice to marry a black man and shut her and his grandson out of his life. His parents divorced when he was 14 years old, after he finished his first year of high school. He attended the

College of William & Mary The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William II ...

in Virginia, where he was one of a low number of biracial or black people. His father had attended law school there. After college he lived in Los Angeles and in Brooklyn, New York. His mother died in 2016, of cancer. When his father needed a kidney in 2009, Cord donated one of his kidneys, travelling to Saudi Arabia where his father lives. He wrote a personal essay on this experience. He was treated for atrial fibrillation, after which surgery he stopped smoking and began to take better care of his health.

Career

Journalism

As a writer, Jefferson got his start in journalism. Among his first jobs were writing for both ''Stereohyped'' and ''MollyGood''. He spent several years as an editor at ''

Gawker ''Gawker'' is an American blog founded by Nick Denton and Elizabeth Spiers and based in New York City focusing on celebrities and the media industry. According to SimilarWeb, the site had over 23 million visits per month as of 2015. Founded ...

'' until Gawker failed financially in 2016. He also wrote for publications including ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virg ...

'', '' Huffington Post'', ''

The Root "The Root" is a song by American recording artist D'Angelo. It is the eighth track on his second studio album, '' Voodoo'', which was released on January 25, 2000, by Virgin Records. "The Root" was recorded and produced by D'Angelo at New York's ...

'', and ''

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...

''.

Television writer

Jefferson wrote for ''

The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore ''The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore'' is a 2015–16 American late-night panel talk show hosted by Larry Wilmore that aired for two seasons on Comedy Central. The show was a spin-off of ''The Daily Show'', which featured Wilmore as a recurr ...

'' and then for ''

''. He and Damon Lindelof won the Emmy for outstanding writing for the sixth episode ('' This Extraordinary Being'') of ''

Watchmen ''Watchmen'' is an American comic book maxiseries by the British creative team of writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins. It was published monthly by DC Comics in 1986 and 1987 before being collected in a single-vo ...

'', which aired in November 2019. In the middle of 2020, Jefferson worked on a TV series about his time writing for ''Gawker''. He is developing the show for

Apple TV+ Apple TV+ is an American subscription streaming service owned and operated by Apple Inc. Launched on November 1, 2019, it offers a selection of original production film and television series called Apple Originals. The service was announced ...

. Later in that year, he signed an overall deal with Warner Brothers TV.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * 21st-century American screenwriters Living people African-American screenwriters Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century African-American writers Writers Guild of America Award winners Primetime Emmy Award winners {{US-tv-writer-stub