45. Mindy Kaling
Major Shows: “The Mindy Project”
Parlaying her success on the U.S. “The Office,” on which she graduated from writer-performer (the most prolific single writer on the show) to exec-producer and occasional director, Kaling’s real graduation came when her eponymous, self-created, self-starring and self-run series was picked up by Fox. “The Mindy Project,” in some ways, is quite the old-fashioned, personality-led, bright and breezy sitcom, yet simply having the diminutive Indian-American Kaling as its pole star gives it a fresh edge. It was cancelled by Fox in 2015 but picked up by Hulu for two more seasons afterwards, with the sixth and final season airing in September. She has a couple of pilots in development, and if anything, we’re actually more excited to see what she does next.
44. Jay and Mark Duplass
Major Shows: “Togetherness,” “Room 104” (upcoming)
Surely two of the busiest men in show business, brothers Jay and Mark Duplass juggle so many acting, producing and feature-filmmaking commitments that they should hardly have time to create TV shows, let alone evolve a recognizable style. But their wonderful “Togetherness,” though cancelled way too early, really established their episodic TV bona-fides: what could have been a very standard family dramedy was elevated to a whole other level by the quality of the incisive, witty, painfully relatable writing, and the performances, especially from ongoing Playlist crush Melanie Lynskey. The brothers will return this year with HBO‘s “Room 104,” which should show all the strings in their bows, as it’s an anthology series (so hot right now) set in the titular hotel room with each episode featuring a different cast of characters and a new storyline.
43. Aline Brosh McKenna & Rachel Bloom
Major Shows: “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”
The first of several “auteur teams” to feature on this list, it’s always a little harder to ascribe authorial personality to two people rather than one. But when they speak with a single voice as distinctive and idiosyncratic as “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” with its mix of witheringly self-aware humor, slapstick, pathos and musical song-and-dance numbers, and when the team-up has produced a more coherent and satisfying result than anything either had done separately before (bar perhaps Brosh McKenna’s screenplay for “The Devil Wears Prada“), there’s no real way around it. Benefitting both from Brosh McKenna’s light rom-com touch and Bloom’s inhabitation of a character she also plays onscreen, the show is a great example of taking the initiative and boldly creating the show you want, even in the absence of an established formula, and we’re glad it’s turned into a success for the CW, the only network brave enough to take a punt on it.
42. Frank Darabont
Major Shows: “Mob City,” “The Walking Dead”
With just two shows, Darabont’s TV career has been, in terms of reception, about as eclectic as his film work, which includes slow-burn hit “The Shawshank Redemption” and grand miss “The Majestic.” TNT‘s “Mob City” was a short-lived noir in the “L.A. Confidential” mold that was moderately well-received by critics but failed to find an audience. And then came AMC‘s zombie comic-book adaptation “The Walking Dead” that debuted to an impressive five or six million viewers per episode, and seven seasons later regularly pulls in more than double that, despite a relentlessly downbeat and dark tone. Which should hardly be a surprise coming from the man who gave us that ending to “The Mist” (the TV adaptation of which has nothing to do with Darabont).
41. David E. Kelley
Major Shows: “The Practise,” “Boston Public,” “Boston Legal,” “Ally McBeal,” “Goliath” “Big Little Lies,” “Mr. Mercedes” (upcoming)
After a period of cancellations and rejected pilots, TV stalwart Kelley only had the under-the-radar Amazon series “Goliath” on the go, and possibly wouldn’t have made this list despite his long, long list of creator credits. But then a big little thing happened: “Big Little Lies.” Undoubtedly aided by being in a limited format (which meant the stellar cast of Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley and Laura Dern could all commit), and by all episodes being directed by one (big-screen) director in Jean-Marc Vallée, it does also feel like a sublimation of Kelley’s style. Liane Moriarty‘s novel provided him with the same female-centric, spiky drama/comedy mix that “Ally McBeal” traded in, and Kelley’s tart dialogue and seemingly effortless TV storytelling nous made it the breakout hit of the year so far. And 2017 has even more in store for Kelley: this fall, he’ll be on Audience with detective show “Mr. Mercedes” starring Brendan Gleeson, based on the Stephen King book.
40. John Ridley
Major Shows: “Barbershop,” “American Crime,” “Guerrilla”
Almost certainly the only writing alum of “The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air” to have won a Screenplay Oscar, it’s a source of some amusement that before his win, Ridley served time on such heavyweight shows as “Team Knight Rider” and the animated “Justice League” series. Indeed, his first creator credit was on the short-lived “Barbershop: The Series,” a TV spinoff of the comedy movie franchise. But Ridley’s profile changed dramatically after “12 Years A Slave,” as he put together the critically acclaimed, socially aware and highly provocative “American Crime” anthology series (not to be confused with “American Crime Story,” the true crime anthology series of which “The People v. O.J. Simpson” was the first season). More recently, he debuted another passion project in the Idris Elba-starring “Guerrilla,” which weathered some controversy over its casting but which, after a slow start, has matured into one of the best new shows of the year.
39. Marti Noxon
Major Shows: “Girlfriends’ Guide To Divorce,” “UnREAL,” “Sharp Objects” (upcoming)
One of the most successful alumni of Joss Whedon‘s “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” (on which she was showrunner for its final seasons), Noxon’s influence has been felt on the small screen ever since, with writing and often producing stints on shows like “Brothers And Sisters,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Mad Men” and “Glee.” That’s to say nothing of her big-screen career, which has seen her pen the scripts for “Fright Night” and “I Am Number Four,” and recently make her directorial debut with well-received indie “To The Bone.” But it’s more recently that Noxon has emerged as a real TV power player, especially with the brilliant insider satire “UnREAL,” which details the bitchery and politics behind the scenes of a ‘Bachelor‘-style reality TV show. Season 2 of that show didn’t quite match the heights of season 1, but with HBO‘s “Sharp Objects,” starring Amy Adams, based on a Gillian Flynn novel and directed by “Big Little Lies”‘ Jean-Marc Vallée coming later this year, her brand of witty, darkly comic, woman-centric storytelling is due to get its biggest outing yet.
38. Ava DuVernay
Major Shows: “Queen Sugar”
Featuring a unique blend of soapiness and social conscience, but shot with a lusciously cinematic eye for beauty, Ava DuVernay’s “Queen Sugar” is luxuriant, considered prestige TV that perhaps just slightly falls short of the sky-high expectations that its provenance created. Kind of a black female real-life superhero team-up (based on the novel by Natalie Baszile, it is not only spearheaded by the brilliant DuVernay, but exec-produced by Oprah Winfrey, on whose network it airs), it’s nonetheless an auspicious debut in the medium for DuVernay, and one that delivered record ratings for the network and contributed to its best-ever quarter in terms of viewership. It’s getting a second season, inevitably, but whether DuVernay, as one of the busiest and most high-profile women in Hollywood, will devote much of her time to it, or any TV project, going forward, remains to be seen.
37. Nic Pizzolatto
Major Shows: “True Detective”
There are people who didn’t find season two of “True Detective” a crushing disappointment, but none of them live at The Playlist. So this same list compiled before it had aired would no doubt have featured Pizzolatto in a much higher position as the kind of straight-out-of-the-gates wunderkind that would be a no-brainer inclusion. In retrospect, we now have to wonder how much of season 1’s greatness was also down to the presence across all episodes of one director, and a director as talented as Cary Joji Fukunaga at that. However, there’s no doubt that Pizzolatto has a unique voice, and distinctive, metaphysically inclined, somewhat doomy noir/southern Gothic leanings, so we remain cautiously hopeful that season 3 of his hit show will see him get his groove back, not least because it’s due to be co-written by David Milch (a fascinating, potentially volatile pairing), who’s been away too long.
36. Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Major Shows: “Fleabag”
Part of the new wave of UK comedy that we investigated last week, Waller-Bridge’s spiky, sad and very funny “Fleabag” is a curious charmer: based on her own one-woman play, on the surface it could be just another R-rated comedy about being young and single in a major city — not an underpopulated category. But the undertow of grief and melancholy, while still in the context of a bawdy sex-obsessed relationship comedy, is what makes it so unusual and what has announced Waller-Bridge as such a singular talent to watch. She might even be higher on this list were we sure that she was definitely going to make TV her regular home — however, her feature acting career is taking off now, too (she’s in the Han Solo movie), so it’s not a guarantee.