Nell Scovell

{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2021}} {{Infobox person | name = Nell Scovell | birth_name = Helen Vivian Scovell<ref name="nyt1985"/> | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_date =  | birth_place = | alma_mater = Harvard University | occupation = Journalist, writer, producer | years_active = 1986–present | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Thomas Jonah Tisch|1985|1986|end=div}} * {{marriage|Colin Summers|1993}} }} | children = 2 | relatives = Claire Scovell LaZebnik (sister) }}

'''Helen Vivian''' "'''Nell'''" '''Scovell''' is an American television and magazine writer, and producer. She is the creator of the television series ''Sabrina the Teenage Witch'', which aired on ABC and The WB from 1996 until 2003 and co-author of the book ''Lean In''.<ref>{{cite news |author1=Laura Bennett |title=From Vanity Fair to Letterman to Lean In: The Long, Strange Journey of Nell Scovell |url=https://www.thecut.com/2013/12/long-strange-journey-of-nell-scovell.html |access-date=24 September 2021 |work=The Cut |date=4 December 2013 |quote=She was Sheryl Sandberg’s co-writer on Lean In}}</ref>

==Early life and education== Nell Scovell, the middle of five children, grew up in a Jewish family outside of Newton, Massachusetts.<ref name="nymag2013">{{cite magazine|url=https://nymag.com/thecut/2013/12/long-strange-journey-of-nell-scovell.html |title=From Vanity Fair to Letterman to Lean In: The Long, Strange Journey of Nell Scovell |magazine=New York Magazine |date=December 4, 2013 |first=Laura |last=Bennett |access-date=October 8, 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.harvardwood.org/blogpost/1130950/184625/November-2013--Nell-Scovell-82 |title=Nell Scovell '82 |publisher=Harvardwood |date=November 2013 |first=D. Dona |last=Le |access-date=October 8, 2014 |archive-date=November 14, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161114231924/http://www.harvardwood.org/blogpost/1130950/184625/November-2013--Nell-Scovell-82 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Her father, Melvin E. Scovell, was chairman of the board of Scovell & Schwager, a health-care management company in Boston.<ref name="nyt1985"/> In high school at Newton South High School, she was the manager of the boys' track team. Scovell attended Harvard University, where she spent her time reporting and editing sports stories for ''The Harvard Crimson''. In her senior year at Harvard, she wrote for the sports desk of the ''Boston Globe''.<ref name="nymag2013"/> She graduated ''cum laude'' from Harvard University in 1982.

==Career== After graduation, she moved to New York and was the first staff writer hired by ''Spy'' magazine in 1986.<ref name="nymag2013"/> Tina Brown recruited her to work at ''Vanity Fair'', where she contributed quirky visual features about money and culture. Scovell later ran into an old ''Spy'' editor, who recommended she write for television.<ref name="nymag2013"/>

Scovell wrote a spec script for ''It's Garry Shandling's Show'', which was bought. After serving as story editor for the final season of ''Newhart'', she worked on ''Late Night with David Letterman''.<ref name="nymag2013"/>

As a television writer, Scovell wrote the season two episode of ''The Simpsons'', "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish"; she also wrote the season 32 episode "Sorry Not Sorry". She was one of the first women to write an episode of ''The Simpsons''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thecut.com/2013/12/long-strange-journey-of-nell-scovell.html|title=From Vanity Fair to Letterman to Lean In: The Long, Strange Journey of Nell Scovell|date=December 4, 2013 |access-date=April 11, 2018}}</ref> Other TV writing credits include ''The Wilton North Report'', ''Coach'', ''Monk'', ''Murphy Brown'', ''Charmed'', ''Newhart'', ''The Critic'', ''NCIS'', and many others. She also wrote the season two episode of ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'', "Urges".

Scovell has directed two television films: ''Hayley Wagner, Star'' for Showtime, and ''It Was One of Us'' for Lifetime.

Outside of television, Scovell is a former contributing editor at ''Vanity Fair'', and has written for ''Vogue'', ''Rolling Stone'', ''Self'', ''Tatler'', and ''The New York Times Magazine''. She currently blogs for ''Vanity Fair'''s web site.

In 2019, Scovell joined other Writers Guild of America (WGA) members in firing their agents as part of the WGAs' stand against the Association of Talent Agents (ATA) and the practice of movie packaging.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Andreeva |first1=Nellie |title=Writers Share Signed Termination Letters As Mass Firing Of Agents Begins After WGA-ATA Talks Fail |url=https://deadline.com/2019/04/writers-form-letters-agencies-mass-firing-of-agents-begins-wga-ata-talks-fail-1202595219/ |magazine=Deadline}}</ref>

==Letterman and late-night comedy controversy==

In 2009, after Letterman admitted to having sexual relationships with his female staffers,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/david-letterman-admits-sexual-affairs-staffers-details-extortion/story?id=8728424|title='Terrible Things': Letterman Confesses to Sex With Staffers; Target of Extortionist|date=October 2, 2009|website=ABC News|access-date=April 11, 2018}}</ref> she published an essay in ''Vanity Fair'' calling his show a "hostile work environment" for women.<ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2009/10/david-letterman-200910|title=Letterman and Me|first=Nell|last=Scovell|website=Vanity Fair |date=October 27, 2009 |access-date=April 11, 2018}}</ref> She noted that Letterman's shows had hired only seven female writers in 27 years. Male writers had spent a combined total of 378 years on staff, and women had spent 17. Scovell alleged that late-night TV executives excused gender disparities in their writers rooms by claiming that women don't apply for writing jobs. Women did apply in lower numbers than men, she acknowledged, but, in her view, that was because "the shows often rely on current (white male) writers to recommend their funny (white male) friends to be future (white male) writers." She recommended targeted outreach to women bloggers, improv performers, and stand-ups.<ref name="auto"/>

Spinning off her piece, the ''New York Times'' reported that three of the top late-night television shows—''The Jay Leno Show'', ''Late Show with David Letterman'' and ''The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien''—had no female writers.<ref name="auto1">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/business/media/12women.html|title=Among Late-Night Writers, Few Women in the Room|first=Bill|last=Carter|newspaper=The New York Times|date=November 11, 2009|access-date=April 11, 2018}}</ref> The ''Times'' interviewed comedy writer Merrill Markoe, who mentioned an "odd shift toward more boys' humor in the '90s" that in her view might have kept women from landing late-night jobs.<ref name="auto1"/> Scovell encouraged women to apply for jobs and matched them with executives and head writers. When Jimmy Kimmel began his show on ABC, she wrote a letter to ABC Television Group president Anne Sweeney about having more women in late night. She was contacted by Molly McNearney, the head writer for the show, and passed along the names of two writers—Bess Kalb and Joelle Boucai—who were hired.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/07/arts/television/nell-scovell-television-comedy-me-too.html|title=Nell Scovell Speaks Truth to the Funny Men in Power|first=Jason|last=Zinoman|newspaper=The New York Times|date=March 7, 2018|access-date=April 11, 2018}}</ref>

In 2019, Scovell wrote a followup article for ''Vanity Fair'' about how she had met with Letterman to discuss the original piece, which he admitted he had not read but that Scovell "assigned" to him for the later meeting "as homework". Scovell alleges Letterman was contrite, quoting him as saying "I'm sorry I was that way and I was happy to have read the piece because it wasn't angering. I felt horrible because who wants to be the guy that makes people unhappy to work where they're working?" She also wrote that since 2009 "the number of female writers and writers of color in late night has improved, in part because you can't go lower than zero," citing ''Full Frontal with Samantha Bee'' as the only late night show that had "gender parity" in the writers' room. She wrote about her discussion with Letterman, "We need more dialogue so men can understand the difference between criticism and condemnation. And we need more dialogue so women can voice discomfort without fear of retaliation."<ref name="VanityFair2019">{{cite web |last1=Scovell |first1=Nell |title=Ten Years Ago, I Called Out David Letterman. This Month, We Sat Down to Talk. |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2019/10/david-letterman-conversation-with-nell-scovell |website=VanityFair.com |date=October 30, 2019 |publisher=Vanity Fair |access-date=October 31, 2019}}</ref>

==Books==

Scovell co-wrote Sheryl Sandberg's 2013 book ''Lean In''.<ref>{{cite web|title= Sheryl Sandberg's 'Lean In' offers a feminist view from the top|website=Los Angeles Times |date=March 7, 2013|url=https://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-sheryl-sandberg-20130310,0,818617.story}}</ref>

In 2018, Scovell's book<ref name="johnoliver2018">{{cite web|url= https://www.skirball.org/programs/comedy/nell-scovell-just-funny-parts|title= Nell Scovell—Just the Funny Parts|work= Skirball Cultural Center|date= January 31, 2018|access-date= March 25, 2018|archive-date= March 25, 2018|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180325110037/https://www.skirball.org/programs/comedy/nell-scovell-just-funny-parts|url-status= dead}}</ref> ''Just the Funny Parts: ... And a Few Hard Truths About Sneaking into the Hollywood Boys' Club'' was published with a foreword by Sheryl Sandberg.

==Personal life==

Briefly married to Tom Tisch,<ref name="nyt1985">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/06/17/style/nell-scovell-writer-marries-thomas-jonah-tisch.html |title=Nell Scovell, Writer, Marries Thomas Jonah Tisch |newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 17, 1985 |access-date=October 8, 2014 }}</ref> Scovell then married Colin Summers, an architect. They have two sons.<ref name="nym2013">{{cite magazine|url=https://nymag.com/thecut/2013/12/long-strange-journey-of-nell-scovell.html |title=The Long, Strange Journey of Nell Scovell |magazine=New York Magazine |date=December 4, 2013 |access-date=December 9, 2016 }}</ref> Her sister is Claire Scovell LaZebnik, who is married to Rob LaZebnik, whose brothers Philip LaZebnik and Ken LaZebnik are both screenwriters.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nguyen |first=Sophia |date=2018-02-26 |title=Comedy Compulsion |url=https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2018/03/nell-scovell-memoir |access-date=2022-07-04 |website=Harvard Magazine |language=en}}</ref>

Comedian/magician Penn Jillette called her "one of the funniest people alive" in an interview with ''The A.V. Club''.<ref>{{cite web|title= Interview, Penn and Teller Part 2|website=The A.V. Club |date=June 3, 1998 |url=https://www.avclub.com/articles/penn-and-teller-part-2,13525/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091213132948/http://www.avclub.com/articles/penn-and-teller-part-2%2C13525/|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 13, 2009}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{IMDb name|0780051}} * {{Twitter}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20140130141606/http://splitsider.com/2012/12/inside-the-greatest-writers-room-youve-never-heard-of Inside the Greatest Writers Room You've Never Heard Of]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scovell, Nell}} Category:20th-century American screenwriters Category:21st-century American screenwriters Category:20th-century American women writers Category:21st-century American women writers Category:Television producers from Massachusetts Category:American women television producers Category:American women television writers Category:Jewish American non-fiction writers Category:Jewish American screenwriters Category:Jewish American sportswriters Category:Jewish American television writers Category:American television writers Category:Jewish American women writers Category:Living people Category:Writers from Newton, Massachusetts Category:American showrunners Category:American television show creators Category:The Harvard Crimson people Category:The Boston Globe people Category:American magazine writers Category:American women sportswriters Category:Vanity Fair (magazine) people Category:American women non-fiction writers Category:Screenwriters from Massachusetts Category:Sportswriters from Massachusetts Category:Newton South High School alumni Category:Year of birth missing (living people)