Jenji Kohan

Early life

Kohan was born to a Jewish family in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Rhea Kohan (née Arnold), and Alan W. "Buz" Kohan. She is the youngest of three siblings, the other two being twins Jono and David. Much of the family is in show business:

Kohan's paternal grandparents were Charles Kohan and May E. Charles. He was born in Romania in 1902, while she was born in New York City, to parents from Russia. The two knew each other from childhood, growing up in a New York City settlement house on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Kohan says that her father was the "king of variety television in his day," writing and producing the Oscars and other variety shows. Her mother was a novelist. She grew up in Beverly Hills, California. She first attended Brandeis University, and transferred to Columbia University as a sophomore, where she graduated, with a degree in English language and literature, in 1991.

Early career

On her beginnings, an ex-boyfriend told her that she had "a better chance of getting elected to Congress than getting on the staff of a television show".

Kohan's first job in the industry was with Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, of which Kohan wrote one episode, and later said was a "rough entrance" to the business. After a series of writing jobs on shows such as Mad About You, Tracey Takes On..., and Friends, she collaborated with her brother, David Kohan, writing an outside script for Will & Grace. The siblings also worked together on the sitcom The Stones for CBS, which was ultimately unsuccessful. She has discussed the differences between her and her brother's career saying, "David took the big, commercial, funny route; I was always a little darker personally, and not terrific within the system. I had to make my own way."

Weeds

Kohan was the creator of the Showtime dark comedy-drama television series Weeds, which she executive produced as showrunner and head writer at her writing studio, Tilted Productions, in Los Angeles, California throughout its entire eight season airing.

Orange Is the New Black

Kohan created the Netflix comedy-drama Orange Is the New Black, an adaptation that was inspired by Piper Kerman's memoir Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison about her experiences in a minimum-security women's prison. Kohan's executive producing duties as showrunner and head writer consists of running the writer's room, which is located at her writing studio, Tilted Productions, in Los Angeles, California. Principal photography takes place in New York.

Netflix, as a streaming service distribution model of TV and movie content, is unique in that it does not provide ratings information, so Kohan does not know exact ratings for Orange Is the New Black, which has been characterized as the most watched original series on Netflix, in a new distribution model where binge viewing is enabled by full seasons of shows being made available at once.

Producing

Kohan has an overall deal with Lionsgate TV.

Hayworth Theatre

Kohan owns the historic Hayworth Theatre in Los Angeles. She plans to use the second floor as production offices.

Personal life

In 1997, Kohan married author and freelance journalist Christopher Noxon, a convert to Judaism. They have three children, a son Charlie, a daughter Eliza, and youngest son Oscar. They live in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles, California. Kohan and her family are Jewish; they belong to two synagogues and a chavurah group, and her children attend Jewish day school and summer camp. Every Friday, Kohan and her extended family have Shabbat dinner together.

Filmography