Ilene Chaiken (born June 30, 1957) is an American television producer, director, writer, and founder of Little Chicken Productions. Chaiken was co-creator, writer and executive producer on the television series The L Word and an executive producer on Empire, The Handmaid's Tale, and Law & Order: Organized Crime.
Early life and education Chaiken was born in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, on June 30, 1957, to a Jewish family.Jewish Journal: "The Jewish writer and actor who's 'the voice of black America'" by Curt Schleier September 11, 2015 She studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and graduated with an undergraduate degree in graphic design in 1979.
Career She began her career as an agent trainee for Creative Artists Agency and as an executive for Aaron Spelling and Quincy Jones Entertainment. In 1988, she was the coordinating producer for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and the associate producer for Satisfaction. She then wrote the screenplay Barb Wire (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 The L Word in 2004, inspired largely by her own experiences as a lesbian. 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 titled L Word Mississippi: Hate the Sin. The film focused on multiple lesbian women, telling their experiences of being gay in the Deep South. 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, which became a successful Hulu original show. Chaiken left the project during development to become the show-runner on Fox's Empire, 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. In 2020, Chaiken co-created the show Law & Order: Organized Crime, a spin-off of the long-running series Law & Order. 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, since 2013. They live in the Laurel Canyon area of the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles and have nurtured more than 100 species of birds and other fauna, which they document regularly on an Instagram account.
Chaiken is co-parent to twin daughters Tallulah and Augusta with her former partner, English architect Miggi Hood.
Filmography Film Associate producer Satisfaction (1988)
Writer Barb Wire (1996)
Television Year Title Writer Producer Creator Notes 1991–1992 The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air 2000 Dirty Pictures TV movie 2002 Damaged Care 2004–2009 The L Word 2010–2012 The Real L Word 2014 L Word Mississippi: Hate the Sin Documentary film 2015–2020 Empire 2017–2025 The Handmaid's Tale 2019–2023 The L Word: Generation Q 2021–2022 Law & Order: Organized Crime
Awards Year Award Category Nominated work Result1997 17th Golden Raspberry Awards Worst Screenplay Barb Wire200058th Golden Globe AwardsBest Miniseries or Television Film Dirty Pictures200820th GLAAD Media Awards Davidson/Valentini AwardThe L Word201673rd Golden Globe AwardsBest Television Series- Drama Empire 201769th Primetime Emmy AwardsOutstanding Drama Series The Handmaid's TalePGA Awards 2017Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, DramaWriters Guild of America Awards 2017Drama SeriesWriters Guild of America Awards 2017New Series 201870th Primetime Emmy AwardsOutstanding Drama SeriesPGA Awards 2018Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, DramaWriters Guild of America Awards 2018Drama Series
See also List of female film and television directors List of lesbian filmmakers List of LGBT-related films directed by women
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