Dee Johnson will take you to Mars before Elon Musk even launches his next car out of the atmosphere.
Yeah, time to trade up.One word that best describes how you work:Seated.
Ive always written and Ive always loved TV.
Somehow the idea of writing for TV emerged and became a singular goal.
And on my own timeearly mornings, nights and weekendsI was writing, writing, writing.
I got my first written by onIll Fly Awayand got my first staff writing job on the originalMelrose Place.
From there, I went on toProfilerfor a season, toAny Day Nowfor two, toERfor five.
Take us through a recent workday.
Up at 6 a.m. to write on one of my own development projects.
My laptop is my everything.
A close second is Google, with Thesaurus.com on its heels.
And since I live in L.A., Waze.
Whats your workspace setup like?
When in production, a boring little office ideally sandwiched between the writers room and editorial.
When Im in purely writing mode I float around the house.
At the moment, Ive planted myself in the library, which sounds snootier than it really is.
What do you wish more people understood about how TV is made?
How labor-intensive it is and how many people are involved in the production of every single episode.
Whats your best life hack?
Take us through an interesting, unusual, or finicky process you have in place at work.
How do you keep track of what you have to do?
My iPhone is my calendar.
I use event alerts to manage everything from meetings to doctors appointments, to picking up pet food.
How do you recharge or take a break?
And when thats not possible, friends and wine.
Whats your favorite side project?
What are you currently reading, or what do you recommend?
I just startedHomegoingby Yaa Gyasi.
Who else would you like to see answer these questions?
Showrunners with multiple shows in production, like Ryan Murphy or Shonda Rhimes.
I stand in amazement.
Whats the best advice youve ever received?
From David Chase: Start every scene like youve never seen it done before.
Whats a problem youre still trying to solve?
How to get a show of my own creation on the air.
