Diane English (born May 18, 1948) is an American screenwriter, producer and director. She is best known for creating the television show Murphy Brown which won multiple awards, including 18 Primetime Emmy Awards from 62 nominations. She also wrote and directed the 2008 feature film The Women. She has won numerous awards, including 3 Emmy Awards, and received numerous nominations.
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Early life
English was born in Buffalo, New York, the daughter of Anne English and Richard English who was an electrical engineer. She graduated from Nardin Academy in Buffalo, and then from Buffalo State College in 1970.
Career
English began her career at WNET, the PBS affiliate in New York City, working first as a story editor for The Theatre in America series, and then as associate director of TV Lab. From 1977 to 1980, she wrote a monthly column on television for Vogue magazine.
In 1980, she co-wrote PBS' The Lathe of Heaven, an adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin's science fiction novel of the same name, and received her first Writers Guild Award Nomination. She followed that with the television movies Her Life as a Man (1984) and Classified Love (1986).
In 1985, English created Foley Square, her first half-hour comedy series, which aired on CBS during the 1985-1986 television season. It starred Margaret Colin, Hector Elizondo, Michael Lembeck and Jon Lovitz. The show premiered on December 11, 1985, and languished near the bottom of the Nielsen ratings in the weeks that followed. After being put on hiatus after only 11 episodes, CBS rescheduled it to another night and aired the three remaining episodes of the season. With ratings low, CBS cancelled the show after only 14 episodes with the last episode airing on April 8, 1986. During 1986 and 1987, English executive produced and wrote the CBS comedy series My Sister Sam, starring Pam Dawber which lasted for two seasons with 12 episodes that never aired before being cancelled.
