Erika L. Johnson
Writer • Producer • Co-Founder • Mentor
Bio
Erika L. Johnson is an Executive Producer on the upcoming PEACOCK limited series, FIGHT NIGHT, starring Kevin Hart, Samuel L. Jackson and Don Cheadle. As well as Co-Executive Producer on the highly anticipated HBO MAX limited series, THE PENGUIN, starring Colin Farrell. Previously, she was a Co-Executive Producer on the acclaimed Showtime limited series, THE GOOD LORD BIRD and NBC’s THE VILLAGE. Prior to that, Erika was a Supervising Producer on the OWN series, QUEEN SUGAR and NBC’s SHADES OF BLUE.
After earning her BA in Film and Television at UCLA, Erika held down several industry jobs, however, the opportunity that led her into TV writing was landing an Assistant job on the groundbreaking ABC series, LOST. From there, Erika was accepted into the Disney|ABC Writing Program, and staffed on UGLY BETTY, where she remained for two seasons. She then spent three seasons on the hit BET drama, BEING MARY JANE.
Erika is the co-founder of Black Women Who Brunch (BWB) - a network of Black women TV writers. BWB was featured in The Hollywood Reporter’s 2018 Women In Entertainment issue, which was their biggest photoshoot ever. Erika is a Southern California native who resides in Los Angeles.
Writer & Producer
Fight night
PEACOCK
Limited Series
The Good Lord Bird
Showtime
Limited Series
The Penguin
HBO Max
Limited Series
The Village
NBC
TV Series
Queen Sugar
OWN
TV Series
Shades of Blue
NBC
TV Series
Being Mary Jane
BET
TV Series
Ugly Betty
ABC
TV Series
Co-Founder
Erika is the co-founder of Black Women Who Brunch (BWB) - a network of Black women TV writers. BWB was featured in The Hollywood Reporter’s 2018 Women In Entertainment issue, which was their biggest photoshoot ever.
“This group is the proof” against and antidote to “people saying,‘We can’t find any black female writers.'”
- Erika l. johnson
Read the article
Featured In
Press
Photograph: Peacock via Blavity
Executive producers include Kevin Hart, Will Packer and Sabrina Wind for Will Packer Media, Bryan Smiley and Mike Stein for Hartbeat, Conal Byrne and Carrie Lieberman for iHeartPodcasts, Jeff Keating of Doghouse Pictures, LLC, Lars Jacobson, Erika L. Johnson and Mike Daniels.
Photograph: Aude Guerrucci/Reuters via The Guardian
Erika L Johnson, a writer for Ugly Betty, Queen Sugar and The Good Lord Bird, who started out as a Hollywood assistant during the last writers’ strike, said it had been heartening to see more writers of color in the industry. A networking group she founded for Black women writers now has more than 200 members, she said.
Photograph: via Deadline
Erika L. Johnson (The Good Lord Bird) and others share best practices and common experiences as women in Hollywood.
Photograph: Mega via Deadline
Photograph: William Gray/Showtime via The New York Times
Photograph: unknown via 2019austinfilmfestivalconfe
Erika L. Johnson, a writer/producer who’s worked on shows like Queen Sugar, Shades Of Blue, and Showtime’s The Good Lord Bird, will pen the adaptation and serve as an executive producer.
Working with a directing and writing team that included established Black artists like Albert Hughes, Darnell Martin, Kevin Hooks and Erika L. Johnson (and with McBride as an executive producer), Hawke and Richard have if anything been too respectful of the book’s themes and plot.
Austin Film Festival’s Screenwriters Conference hosts panels, roundtables, pitch sessions, and workshops, covering every nook and cranny of the art, craft, and business of storytelling through film, television, and online platforms.
Photograph: Claudia Lucia via The Hollywood Reporter
For THR's largest shoot ever, members of Black Women Who Brunch, co-founded by Erika L. Johnson, gathered to discuss how the industry can do better and what they wish their colleagues knew about being a black woman in the business.
Photograph: Courtesy of Subject via The Hollywood Reporter
Erika L. Johnson - Co-Executive Producer, 'The Good Lord Bird' (Showtime)
Photograph: unknown via Deadline
Fox has given a script commitment with significant penalty to 8 Count, a drama inspired by the life of famed choreographer and creative director Laurieann Gibson, from multi-Grammy Award winner Mary J. Blige, writer Erika L. Johnson and Gail Berman’s The Jackal Group.
Award nominee
Akilah Green, Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Erika L. Johnson, and Francesca Butler at the 2019 Writers Nominee Reception
Photograph: Invision/AP via Emmys.com
Image Awards (NAACP)
Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series
The Good Lord Bird (2020)
Episode: "The Good Lord Bird: A Wicked Plot (2020)"
Writers Guild of America, USA
Adapted Long Form
The Good Lord Bird (2020)
Contact
Agency
Creative Artists Agency | CAA
Ann Blanchard, Brandon Lawrence, Wilhelmina Ross
(424) 288-2000
Management
Grandview
Merideth Bajana, Matt Rosen
(323) 297-3440