In TV writing, no one showrunner makes it to the top of their game the same way. Everybody has a different route, and everybody gets to where they are using a different set of skills.
Some make it from the theater world, others come by way of movies.
Others just move up in position throughout the ranks of TV writers' rooms and make it to showrunner that way.
Others still just skip any sort of trajectory altogether and find themselves at the top of the heap through pure luck. (Those are much less helpful to pay attention to.)
But what is helpful is looking at what others before you have done to get to where they are. And we'll start with one of the most famous showrunners around...
How Shonda Rhimes Got Her Start in TV Writing
Shonda Rhimes has written and showrun some of the biggest TV shows of all time. But her foray into TV writing actually happened in the opposite trajectory of what you normally see.
After graduating from USC, Rhimes bounced around LA from job to job, taking internships when she could. She eventually was able to pull together and direct a short film, Blossoms and Veils, which got her some notoriety.
From there, she became entrenched in the writing community, though on the film side of things.
She co-wrote an HBO movie, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, and then went on to write the Britney Spears movie, Crossroads. (I know, I was shocked when I learned that too!)
THEN came the TV pilots. ABC commissioned her to write a couple scripts, and one took off. That one was Grey's Anatomy. That was a pretty much instant hit, and the success continued from there.
How Vince Gilligan Got His Start in TV Writing
Compared to Shonda Rhimes, Vince Gilligan had a much more typical route into becoming a showrunner, though it also bounced back and forth between film and TV.
Gilligan graduated from NYU and got a little heat from winning a screenwriting competition called Home Fries, though it wouldn't actually be sold and become a movie for another ten years.
Following that, he was a struggling writer for a number of years, submitting freelance scripts to various TV shows (a practice not done anymore today) until one struck. And it was a big one.
Gilligan became a staff writer on The X Files and eventually rose the ranks until he was a producer on the show.
But it wasn't until an X Files spinoff came around, The Lone Gunmen, that Gilligan was given the chance to showrun as a creator and Executive Producer of the show.
Of course, from there, there were movies like Hancock with Will Smith, and little known TV shows like Breaking Bad. But it all started as a staff writer on The X Files.
How Damon Lindelof Got His Start in TV Writing
There's a lot of hits under Lindelof's belt - Watchmen, The Leftovers, Lost. But it all started with a feature screenplay competition.
In 1999, Lindelof placed as a semi-finalist in the Nicholl Fellowship. Now, usually a semi-finalist placement in a competition doesn't mean much, particularly these days.
But this is the premiere competition, put on by the Academy, as in the same people who do the Oscars.
From there, he was hired on as a staff writer for a couple forgotten TV shows on Fox, before winding up on Nash Bridges and Crossing Jordan.
There was a pretty steady trajectory up before he was asked to rewrite a little pilot called Lost.
And, well, the rest is history.
