Showrunner Jenji Kohan has taken the industry by storm since bringing audiences Nancy Botwin and the world of Weeds. Since the highly successful show ended she has gone on to make Netflix a lot of money, creating Orange Is The New Black and GLOW, among other popular titles on the streaming giant. Her unconventional style and point of view make her a very in-demand name in the business, with many valuing her opinion and advice.
Many who have had the pleasure of working with her have enjoyed the experience due to her unique personality quirks like her love of cursing and making the office fun with rounds of poker and dominos between work. Her success along with her colorful hair and unique glasses have made her face pretty recognizable and well known. But many might not be aware of these little-known facts about the Emmy Award-winning creator who is also a great mother and wife.
She Comes From A Showbiz Family
Talent runs deep in the Kohan family. Jenji Kohan has three members of her immediate family with successful careers in the television and film industry, making it no mystery where her talents originated from. Her father is Buz Kohan, an Emmy Award-winning television writer and producer, most well known for his work on The Carol Burnett Show and writing for the Oscars.
Jenji Kohan's mother Rhea is a television writer who has also done some acting and her brother David is also an Emmy Award-winning television producer. Jenji has worked with her brother David on few projects as well, including an episode of Will and Grace and the unsuccessful tv show The Stones.
Her First Writing Job Was On The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air
Many might not know this fact since Jenji doesn't seem to have the fondest memories of her time on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, claiming that the show was a "rough entrance" to the business. She was one of only two women in the writing room and was considered a baby writer at the time.
She ultimately only ended up writing one episode for the show before moving on, but the time seemed to at least influence her own approach to leading a writer's room.
She Owns The Historical Hayworth Theatre In Los Angeles
By 2013, after establishing herself as a successful show creator, Jenji Kohan had the freedom to work from wherever she chose and have the office of her dreams.
The eccentric creator found the perfect fit for her new production home when she discovered the Hayworth Theater, a historical building in Los Angeles. She converted the second floor to offices for her production company and uses the notorious theater to inspire her work.
An Exes' Mean Words Inspired Her To Go All In
With the huge amount of success Jenji Kohan has created for herself, it's hard to believe anyone ever doubted her. But sadly, in her early days of trying to hack it as a writer, an ex-boyfriend told her that she had "a better chance of getting elected to Congress than getting on the staff of a television show".
Kohan didn't let it shake her, instead, she immediately packed her bags and headed to Hollywood, where she managed to prove him more than wrong. Jenji Kohan is inspiring in her refusal to let people's doubts rub off on her, instead of turning them into fuel to keep turning out great shows.
She Has A.D.D.
This multitalented creator who wears many hats in the industry actually deals with attention deficit disorder, something that can make it really hard to focus and can often impede productivity. But Jenji Kohan said forget that, and used the disorder to her advantage and made it part of what people love about her.
Her former coworker, who worked for her on Weeds described her as a really fun boss who seems to run an office that's far from boring. Her energy and her love of cussing make her a relatable boss who creates a positive workspace and whether it's due to her A.D.D. or in spite of it, she seems like she has found the right balance between having fun and getting stuff done.
She Has An Overall Deal With Netflix
Jenji Kohan has been widely attributed for launching Netflix into success with her show OITNB. And while this might mean Netflix owes its success to her, she also is very thankful for the platform for having such blind faith in her show. Netflix loved the concept of the series so much they bought the whole season, something studios rarely did without seeing a pilot.
Seeing how that decision paid off for both parties, Netflix refused to let Jenji go, and they gave her an overall deal with the company, where she creates and produces content for them over two years. She has already gone on to run the hit 1980s themed wrestling show GLOW and was an executive producer on Teenage Bounty Hunters. And even though sadly both of these shows won't be returning with future seasons, this frees up Kohan to give viewers some more great shows.
She Pitched Weeds Using Just 4 Words
Weeds ran for 5 seasons on Showtime and fans loved watching Nancy Botwin evade the law as she balanced being a mom and maintaining her side hustle of drug dealing. The show, which came years before Breaking Bad, was a unique concept for the time. Marijuana was still very much illegal and any shows on television showing drug deals usually were ones like Law and Order and other crime shows.
But even though there were tons of reasons why this show might not work, Jenji Kohan managed to get the show approved with only a four-word pitch: suburban widowed pot-dealing mom. The show obviously ended up being about way more than just Nancy and her side hustle but it was the perfect pitch to launch the show
She Can Thank A Literal Elevator Pitch For Her Career
The term elevator pitch is well-known to anyone who wants to get a show or movie made, named so because the best way to do so is to be able to describe the concept in the amount of time it takes to ride the elevator. This doesn't necessarily mean that these pitches take place in an actual elevator, but in the case of Jenji Kohan's career, it actually did.
Kohan received her first shot at television writing after her sister-in-law's father handed her pitches to an agent in an elevator at the building her worked and he actually liked her stuff enough that he hired her.
She Considered Becoming A Rabbi
Viewers of Kohan's shows may have picked up on Jenji Kohan's knowledge of the Jewish community with characters like Andy from Weeds and Cindy from OITNB exploring Judaism. But if it wasn't for one detail, she might very well be known as the funniest Rabbi around instead of the creator of the funniest characters on television.
According to Jweekly, Kohan was seriously considering going to school to become a Rabbi but was unable to due to the fact that her husband is not a born Jew. The fact that she was denied over such a technicality alone was enough to steer Kohan away from that goal, and many fans of her work are probably pretty grateful for that.
She Got Fired From Friends
It's hard to imagine since she is so in demand these days and has more than proven her skill as a writer, but Jenji Kohan was actually let go from one of the most well-known sitcoms on television. She worked on Friends for one season before getting fired for what she speculates was for the fact that she talked too much.
But though she had a hard time getting her ideas across or just had them stolen, it motivated her to want to make her own show where her voice was the loudest and the characters could be however she wanted them to be.