Mara Brock Akil

Mara Brock-Akil began her writing career on Fox's critically acclaimed "South Central." She later moved on to writing for the UPN series "Moesha," where she earned her Producer title after four seasons. She received the 1999 SHINE (Sexual Health in Entertainment) Award presented by The Media Project for her "Moesha" episode "Birth Control."

Akil later served as Supervising Producer on the comedy series "The Jamie Foxx Show." For the 2000-01 television season, Akil created her first show, "Girlfriends" (2000), which she and Kelsey Grammer executive produced. "Girlfriends" was presented with a 2001 SHINE Award for "The Burning Vagina Monologues" episode. It was also honored with 2002 and 2003 NAACP Image Awards nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series. Akil also developed the spin-off series "The Game," which premiered in 2006 and continued for a total of 9 seasons, earning her two NAACP Image Awards.

In addition to her work on "Girlfriends," Akil developed "Being Mary Jane" for BET, "Black Lightning" for The CW, and "Love Is___" for OWN. She is currently co-executive producing Netflix's adaptation of Ibram X Kendi's three anti-racism books. Her contributions to television have been recognized multiple times by The Hollywood Reporter, being named to their top 50 Showrunners list for five consecutive years.

Akil draws inspiration for her storylines from her own group of good friends, including Felicia D. Henderson (creator of Showtime's "Soul Food") and Gina Prince-Bythewood (writer/director of New Line Cinema's "Love & Basketball"). She is an active philanthropist and mentor, involved with several charities and non-profits. Currently, she serves on the board of directors for the Writers Guild of America, West.