Jessica Gao

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jessica Gao
OccupationWriter, producer
Years active2008–present
Notable work
The Mighty B!
Rick and Morty
Silicon Valley
Back at the Barnyard

Jessica Gao is an American television writer and producer. She is best known for her work in the third season of Rick and Morty, writing the episode "Pickle Rick". Gao has also written for numerous shows, including Silicon Valley, Robot Chicken, The Mighty B!, Back at the Barnyard, Star Wars: Detours, and Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness.

Career[]

Gao started her career as a writer on the Nickelodeon shows The Mighty B! and Back at the Barnyard. She continued to work for the network on shows such as Big Time Rush and Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, before leaving to freelance on other shows such as Adult Swim's Robot Chicken, Cartoon Network's The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange, and Disney XD's Lab Rats. Gao has also written for HBO's Silicon Valley, the French series Zip Zip, Seeso/Pluto TV's Bajillion Dollar Propertie$, and Comedy Central's Corporate.

She joined the writing room for the third season of Rick and Morty, acting as story editor on six episodes and writing the episode "Pickle Rick". For writing "Pickle Rick", Gao won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program at the 2018 Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.[1] While working on the show, Gao and the other female writers were subject to sexist harassment by members of the fanbase that were upset about the show hiring women in the writing room.[2][3] Gao and Rick and Morty co-creator, Dan Harmon, collaborated on a podcast series entitled "Whiting Wongs" that discussed race and privilege in Hollywood.[4][5] Gao also wrote and co-executive produced the second season of the show Take My Wife.

Gao left Rick and Morty after the third season to develop a sitcom for ABC,[6][7] which landed a pilot episode order in 2019, directed by Jude Weng.[8][9] The show revolved around a Chinese-American woman's relationship with her family.[10] ABC passed on the sitcom, but the series was being shopped to other networks.[11] In July 2019, she was chosen to write the script for the upcoming movie based on Sweet Valley High.[12] In November 2019, she was hired as the lead writer for the Disney+ show She-Hulk.[13]

Filmography[]

Year Title Credited as Notes
Writer Producer
2008–09 Back at the Barnyard Yes No Episodes: "War of the Pranks" and "The Sun Cow"
2008–11 The Mighty B! Yes No 35 episodes
2010–11 Big Time Rush Yes No 6 episodes
2011 Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness Yes No Episode: "Fluttering Finger Mindslip"
2012–13 Robot Chicken Yes No 9 episodes
2012–13 The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange Yes No 4 episodes
2014 Lab Rats Yes No Episode: "Trent Gets Schooled"
2014 Silicon Valley Yes No Episode: "Signaling Risk"
2015 Zip Zip Yes No Episode: "Rained In"
2016 Bajillion Dollar Propertie$ Yes No Episodes: "Roger Me Rightly" and "Baxter's Confession"
2017 Rick and Morty Yes No Episode: "Pickle Rick", also executive story editor
2017 The Memestar Chronicles Yes No Episode: "Look Mom, I'm on TV"
2018 Take My Wife Yes Yes Co-executive producer, wrote: "Episode 206" and "Episode 208"
2018 Corporate Yes Yes Supervising producer, wrote: "The Expense Report" and "The Fall"
2022 Easter Sunday No Executive
2022 Oh Hell No Yes No Co-writing with Scot Armstrong, Tracy Oliver, and Rodney Rothman
2022 She-Hulk Yes Executive Filming; upcoming Disney+ miniseries
TBA The Undesirables TBA Executive [14]

Awards and nominations[]

Year Award Category Work Result Ref.
2015 Writers Guild of America Awards Comedy Series Silicon Valley Nominated [15]
New Series Nominated
2018 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Animated Program Rick and Morty (for "Pickle Rick") Won [16]

References[]

  1. ^ "Jessica Gao". Television Academy. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  2. ^ "Meet the Women Behind 'Rick and Morty's' Third Season". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  3. ^ Andrew Trendell (2017-09-22). "Rick and Morty creator responds to trolls attacking show's female writers". NME. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  4. ^ "'Rick and Morty' writers have a podcast about race called, wait for it, 'Whiting Wongs'". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  5. ^ Wong, Kristina (2017-11-09). "Talking to Dan Harmon and Jessica Gao About Their New Podcast on Race". Vice. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  6. ^ "'Rick and Morty' writer leaving show, lands ABC sitcom pilot". EW.com. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  7. ^ Otterson, Joe (2018-09-11). "'Rick and Morty' Writer Jessica Gao to Develop Chinese-American Comedy Series for ABC". Variety. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  8. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (2019-03-01). "Jude Weng & Jessica Yu Land Milestone Directing Gigs In Strong Pilot Season For Director Diversity". Deadline. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  9. ^ Otterson, Joe (2019-02-12). "'Rick & Morty' Writer Jessica Gao Lands Comedy Pilot Order at ABC". Variety. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  10. ^ Hughes, William. "Rick And Morty writer Jessica Gao is developing her own sitcom". News. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  11. ^ "TV Pilots 2019: The Complete Guide". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  12. ^ "Sweet Valley High movie update: Jessica Gao takes over as writer". finance.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  13. ^ "Marvel's 'She-Hulk' Finds Its Head Writer With 'Rick and Morty' Scribe (Exclusive)". hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved 2019-11-08.
  14. ^ Hipes, Patrick (July 15, 2020). "Amazon Developing 'The Undesirables' TV Comedy From 'Ellie In Wonderland' Duo, Crab Club & SB Projects". Deadline. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
  15. ^ "2015 Nominees & Winners". WGA.org. Archived from the original on September 1, 2015. Retrieved April 11, 2015.
  16. ^ "Jessica Gao - Emmy Awards, Nominations and Wins". Television Academy. Retrieved August 12, 2021.

External links[]

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