Debora Cahn On How Her Work On ‘West Wing’, ‘Homeland’, And ‘Greys Anatomy’ Led Directly To Creating Her Emmy Nominated ‘The Diplomat’ – Behind The Lens

For Debora Cahn getting to create and run her own Netflix hit series was simple. First, get jobs and spend years writing and producing on iconic shows like The West Wing, Homeland, and Grey’s Anatomy.

Cahn is creator, showrunner, and Executive Producer of Netflix’s The Diplomat which she thinks of as sort of the flip of West Wing, a show she joined in its fourth season and stayed through the finale, with a focus on international affairs rather than domestic politics. Now for its third season it has received more Emmy nominations than ever with seven including two for Cahn – Outstanding Drama Series and Writing in a Drama Series – and it is especially sweet because this reps her first Emmy writing nomination, although she is a past two time WGA Award winner (for “The Supremes” episode of West Wing, as well as writing on the Limited Series, Fosse/Verdon). In all three years of the series, star Keri Russell has been nominated, and the show itself was also up for Drama Series last season too.

Cahn says she has learned from the best, including of course West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin and Grey’s Anatomy creator Sondra Rhimes, the latter show she joined early on in 2006 before leaving in 2013. She also worked under Martin Scorsese and Terence Winter as a writer and co-ep of HBO’s Vinyl, and wrote the TV Movie Paterno starring Al Pacino among other impressive credits.

Cahn joins me for this episode of my Deadline video series, Behind The Lens where we talk about her remarkable career, the upward trajector of The Diplomat at the Emmys, how the show resonates in this upside down political climate and how she keeps it relevant, plus where it is going in the fourth season now underway in the writers room, and so much more including the meeting during the production of Homeland where Cahn jotted down just five words that led to the creation of The Diplomat.

To watch our conversation and to go ‘behind the lens’ with Debora Cahn just click on the link above.

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