Emily Skopov (born 1966) is an American screenwriter and politician.

Personal life

Skopov was born in New York, and is of Jewish descent. She was raised in

Rockland County Rockland County is the southernmost county on the west side of the Hudson River in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population is 338,329, making it the state's ...

. Skopov earned an undergraduate degree in English literature from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, and planned to become an English professor or lawyer before choosing to pursue her dream of screenwriting, which she studied in the Master of Fine Arts program at

UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (UCLA TFT), is one of the 12 schools within the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) located in Los Angeles, California. Its creation was groundbreaking in that it was the first time a leadi ...

. In 2010, Skopov moved to

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

, Pennsylvania, from

El Segundo, California El Segundo ( , ; ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located on Santa Monica Bay, it was incorporated on January 18, 1917, and is part of the South Bay Cities Council of Governments. The population was 17,272 as of t ...

, then settled in Marshall Township with her husband and two children. Skopov is the founder of the non-profit organization No Crayon Left Behind. The organization was established in 2011, soon after Skopov began collecting discarded crayons from restaurants, along with other educational and art supplies, and distributing them to places where they would be used, such as homeless shelters, daycares, and preschools.

Film and television

Skopov worked on several television shows including '' The Client'', '' Xena: Warrior Princess'', '' Pacific Blue'', ''

Crisis Center ''Crisis Center'' is an American drama television series that aired on NBC from February 28 until April 4, 1997. Premise The series revolves around a crisis center in San Francisco where they deal with suicidal callers, hostage situations and m ...

'', and '' Andromeda''. She left the crew of ''

Farscape ''Farscape'' is an Australian-American Science fiction on television, science fiction television series conceived by Rockne S. O'Bannon and produced by The Jim Henson Company and Hallmark Entertainment, originally for the Nine Network. It prem ...

'' after six months due to the health challenges of a family member, but went on to write unproduced feature films for a Hollywood studio. Skopov began work on the 2006 film '' Novel Romance'', which she directed and cowrote, shortly before her son was born.

Political career

2018 election

Skopov sought the

District 28 A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...

seat in the

Pennsylvania House of Representatives The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts. It ...

as a Democratic Party candidate in 2018. During her campaign, Skopov criticized incumbent legislator

Mike Turzai Michael Coyne Turzai (born August 2, 1959) is an American politician and former Republican Party (United States), Republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives who served as Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, S ...

for mounting several unsuccessful bids for higher electoral office. Turzai retained the seat, in the closest contest since he was first elected in 2001.

2020 election

In August 2019, Skopov began her second campaign for the state legislature. Turzai announced his retirement from politics, then resigned his seat before the 2020 general election, and Skopov faced Republican candidate Rob Mercuri. Skopov positioned herself as a moderate Democrat. Skopov was defeated in the general election. Following her defeat and the Democrats' failure to flip the state legislature, Skopov wrote on Twitter that she had been “a casualty/collateral damage of this offensively poor messaging,” referring to the Democratic Party's inability to defend moderate Democrats in swing districts against Republican attempts to inaccurately tag them with positions of supporting "

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

" and " defunding the police".

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Skopov, Emily 1966 births Living people Pennsylvania Democrats Politicians from Pittsburgh Screenwriters from New York (state) Screenwriters from Pennsylvania Screenwriters from California American women film directors American women screenwriters Columbia College (New York) alumni UCLA Film School alumni Film directors from California Film directors from Pennsylvania Film directors from New York (state) People from El Segundo, California Writers from Pittsburgh 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century Pennsylvania politicians Women in Pennsylvania politics 21st-century American women writers Jewish American people in Pennsylvania politics Jewish American screenwriters 20th-century American women writers People from Rockland County, New York 21st-century American Jews American nonprofit chief executives American nonprofit executives