Jill Goldsmith is a writer and producer for television, with credits on many Emmy-winning series, including NYPD Blue, The Practice, Ally McBeal, Law & Order, Boston Legal, and also Rizzoli & Isles. Currently in development with a project at Universal, she was previously the Showrunner and Executive Producer for a one-hour drama in development at BET. Jill was also a Finalist for the Humanitas Prize for an episode of Boston Legal, and has sold pilots to ABC, NBC, and Universal. She has been a featured speaker at many conferences and writing programs and has appeared on C-Span Close Up, CBS News, and CNN.
Jill received an MFA in Screenwriting from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, and is a professor in the MFA programs at UCLA and USC, where she teaches Writing Television Drama Scripts, Developing Drama Series, and Running the Television Drama Room. She is a contributing author to the book, Lawyers In Your Living Room! Law On Television, published in 2009, in which she wrote the chapter entitled, Writing For Television: From Courtroom to Writers’ Room.
Prior to writing for television, Jill spent seven years as a Public Defender in the Juvenile and Felony Trial Divisions of the Cook County Public Defender’s Office in Chicago, Illinois, where she represented indigent clients in all aspects of felony cases, from arraignment through sentencing. She has first- chaired over 400 trials. She also served an internship with U.S. Senator Paul Simon on the Senate Judiciary Committee.