Ilene Chaiken (born June 30, 1957) is an American television producer, director, writer, and founder of Little Chicken Productions. Chaiken is best known as being a co-creator, writer and executive producer on the television series ''

The L Word ''The L Word'' is a television drama series that aired on Showtime in the United States from 2004 to 2009. The series follows the lives of a group of lesbian and bisexual women who live in West Hollywood, California. The premise originated wit ...

'', and was recently an executive producer on ''

Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...

'', ''The Handmaid's Tale'', and '' Law & Order: Organized Crime''.

Early life and education

Chaiken was born in

Elkins Park, Pennsylvania Elkins Park is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is split between Cheltenham and Abington Townships in the northern suburbs outside of Philadelphia, which it borders along Cheltenham Avenue roug ...

to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family. She studied at the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase th ...

and graduated with an undergraduate degree in graphic design in 1979.

Career

She began her career as an agent trainee for

Creative Artists Agency Creative Artists Agency, LLC (CAA) is an American talent and sports agency based in Los Angeles, California. With 1,800 employees in March 2016, it is regarded as an influential company in the talent agency business and manages numerous client ...

and as an executive for

Aaron Spelling Aaron Spelling (April 22, 1923June 23, 2006) was an American film and television producer and occasional actor. His productions included the television series ''Family'' (1976–1980), ''Charlie's Angels'' (1976–1981), ''The Love Boat'' (1977� ...

and

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (March 14, 1933 – November 3, 2024) was an American record producer, composer, arranger, conductor, trumpeter, and bandleader. Over the course of his seven-decade career, he received List of awards and nominations re ...

Entertainment. In 1988, she was the coordinating producer for ''

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air ''The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'' is an American television sitcom created by Andy and Susan Borowitz that aired on NBC from September 10, 1990, to May 20, 1996. The series stars Will Smith as a fictionalized version of himself, a street-smart ...

'' and the associate producer for '' Satisfaction.'' She then wrote the screenplay ''

Barb Wire file:Barbed Wire Roll.jpg, Roll of modern agricultural barbed wire Barbed wire, also known as barb wire or bob wire (in the Southern United States, Southern and Southwestern United States), is a type of steel fencing wire constructed with sharp ...

'' (1996), and the television films '' Dirty Pictures'' (2000), and '' Damaged Care'' (2002). ''Dirty Pictures'' won the Golden Globe for Best Miniseries or Television Film in 2000. Chaiken co-created ''

'' in 2004, inspired largely by her own experiences as a

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

. Her first romance with another woman, which ended in heartbreak when the woman revealed she had a long-distance girlfriend, served as a loose inspiration for the relationship of the characters Marina Ferrer and Jenny Schecter. In 2007, she and a group of women in the entertainment and tech industries launched a social networking site called OurChart for lesbians and their friends. OurChart was online until 2008 when it was shut down. At that time, a spin-off show of ''The L Word'' entitled ''The Farm'' was in development and two pilots were being written by Chaiken, although Showtime never bought the series. Chaiken produced a documentary for Showtime in 2014 titles '' L Word Mississippi: Hate the Sin.'' The film focused on multiple lesbian women, telling their experiences of being gay in the

Deep South The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion of the Southern United States. The term is used to describe the states which were most economically dependent on Plantation complexes in the Southern United States, plant ...

. During this time, Chaiken was also a showrunner on ABC's '' The Black Box,'' which was cancelled after one season''.'' Chaiken is credited with first developing the TV adaptation of ''

The Handmaid's Tale ''The Handmaid's Tale'' is a futuristic dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood published in 1985. It is set in a near-future New England in a patriarchal, totalitarian theonomic state known as the Republic of Gilead, which has ...

,'' which became a successful

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

original show. Chaiken left the project during development to become the show-runner on Fox's ''

,'' but was still credited as an executive producer. In January 2019, Showtime announced that it had ordered a full season of the sequel to ''The L Word.'' The show aired December 8, 2019, titled '' The L Word: Generation Q'', and picks up where the original series ended, set ten years later. More recently, her company, Little Chicken Productions, signed an overall deal with

Universal Television Universal Television LLC (abbreviated as UTV) is an American television production company that is a division of NBCUniversal Television and Streaming#Universal Studio Group, Universal Studio Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which, in turn, is ...

. In 2020, Chaiken co-created the show '' Law & Order: Organized Crime'', a spin-off of the long-running series ''

Law & Order ''Law & Order'' is an American police procedural and legal drama television series created by Dick Wolf and produced by Wolf Entertainment and Universal Television, launching the ''Law & Order'' franchise. ''Law & Order'' aired its entire ...

.'' The following year, she worked as a writer and showrunner for the series but was replaced by Barry O'Brien part-way through production of the second season.

Personal life

Chaiken has been married to LouAnne Brickhouse, a former executive at

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

, since 2013. They live in the Laurel Canyon area of the

Hollywood Hills The Hollywood Hills is a residential neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. It borders Studio City, Universal City and Burbank on the north, Griffith Park on the north and east, Los Feliz on the southeast, Hollyw ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and have nurtured more than 100 species of birds and other

fauna Fauna (: faunae or faunas) is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding terms for plants and fungi are ''flora'' and '' funga'', respectively. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively ...

, which they document regularly on an

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

account. Chaiken is co-parent to twin daughters Tallulah and Augusta with her former partner, English architect Miggi Hood.

Filmography

Television

Awards

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chaiken, Ilene 1957 births Living people 20th-century American screenwriters 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American screenwriters 21st-century American women writers American television directors American women television writers Television writers from California American women screenwriters American LGBTQ screenwriters American lesbian artists American lesbian writers GLAAD Media Awards winners LGBTQ television directors Lesbian screenwriters American showrunners American women television directors American women television producers Jewish American screenwriters Lesbian Jews LGBTQ people from California American television show creators Television producers from California People from Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles LGBTQ people from Pennsylvania Television producers from Pennsylvania People from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Rhode Island School of Design alumni Empire (2015 TV series) Screenwriters from Pennsylvania Writers Guild of America Award winners