The 29 Most Influential Women in Television Right Now (2024)

Actress and Producer, The Handmaid’s Tale

Moss took home an Emmy (after six previous nominations) for her fierce portrayal of Offred, a woman at the forefront of resistance, in Hulu’s dystopian drama; a second season arrives in April. Added 2017 cred: her role as a hardened detective, in the second season of Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake.

Cocreator and Executive Producer, Westworld

Her robots-gone-wild HBO series—which had the most-watched first season in the premium cable giant’s history—is full of smart, determined (if not altogether human!) women played by strong actresses like Evan Rachel Wood and Thandie Newton. In the upcoming second season, Joy also directs.

Star and Executive Producer, Full Frontal With Samantha Bee

In her second season on TBS’s Full Frontal, Bee used her indispensable voice to intensify its blinding spotlight on issues that matter to women (and men), from the environment to gun control. Her reach just keeps growing.

Actress and Producer

Hot off starring in and executive-producing HBO’s Big Little Lies, Witherspoon is teaming up with Jennifer Aniston for a drama about morning TV, which scored a two-season order from Apple as the company launched original programming.

Chairman, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Group

Big hits: A 137-show portfolio that includes Mr. Robot, the Housewives franchise, and the Kardashians’ series.

On staying creatively energized: "We can’t be complacent, because nothing is the same. There used to be 40 new original series a year; now there are 300-plus. There’s so much competition, so much noise, so much change every day, that the world itself keeps us on our toes."

Founder, Chair, and CEO, Shondaland

Big hits: Grey’s Anatomy, How to Get Away With Murder, and a new development deal with Netflix.

Chairman and CEO, Fox TV Group

Big hits: Empire, American Crime Story, and This Is
Us, produced by Fox.

Vice President, Original Content, Netflix

Big hits: Stranger Things, 13 Reasons Why, and The Crown.

President and CEO, A&E Networks

Big hits: Lifetime’s UnREAL; History’s Roots; and Viceland, which scored an Emmy.

Star and Executive Producer, Insecure

Her hit 2011 web series, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, set the stage for the incredibly smart, original Insecure on HBO. Now Rae is developing a drama for the cable giant based on Angela Flournoy’s acclaimed novel The Turner House, about a black family in 1990s L.A.

On her riskiest move: “Refusing television for Awkward Black Girl. After our first season, we got a bunch of offers, but there wasn’t anyone who appreciated the show’s vision. It worked out because Pharrell Williams’s online network picked us up, so it continued to live on the internet.”

Actress, Saturday Night Live

Even in a post-Hillary SNL season, McKinnon’s characters—from a wild-eyed Kellyanne Conway to a dancing Ruth Bader Ginsburg to a woman convinced she was abducted by aliens—keep us laughing and sane. (Emmy voters feel the same way: They’ve given her two statuettes.) This star also has four film projects in the hopper.

Star and Executive Producer, The Rundown With Robin Thede

With her weekly satirical pop culture/political BET series, Thede (previously head writer on Larry Wilmore’s Nightly Show) is the only black woman hosting her own late-night talk show. Her unapologetic point of view—applied to everything from Confederate statues to the Black Panther movie trailer—is a cable godsend.

Creator and Executive Producer, Orange Is the New Black; EP, GLOW

With series like Weeds, OITNB, and last year’s GLOW, Kohan is a master at endearing us to unexpected heroines. Her next project, American Princess, about a socialite who joins a Renaissance fair, got a straight-to-series order from Lifetime.

Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid, Nicolle Wallace, Katy Tur, Hallie Jackson, and Kasie Hunt

The Rachel Maddow Show now pulls in more than 2 million viewers a night for her intellectually curious, deeply reported segments. And the amazing women alongside her have at least an hour of airtime each. There’s Reid, an opinionated, laser-sharp interviewer, and Wallace, a voice of reasoned analysis. And then there’s Tur, Jackson, and Hunt—all tenacious reporters.

Maddow on her dream interview: “All these years later, I’m still waiting for my Dick Cheney interview. I live in hope!”

CEO, YouTube; Global Head of Original Content, YouTube

Wojcicki is one of tech’s most respected execs. Daniels is a programming vet from MTV and the WB. Together, they aim to make YouTube and its Red subscription channel a major player by working with names like Demi Lovato and Ellen DeGeneres, and green-lighting series like the sci-fi drama Origins, from the producers of The Crown.

President, NBC Entertainment; President, Universal Television

Salke’s Female Forward initiative brings female directors to NBC. Five of her six direct reports are women, including Igbokwe, the first African American woman to run a major production studio, which feeds shows to NBC and beyond. We can thank them for gems like This Is Us and The Good Place.

Vice President, Original Documentaries and Comedy, Netflix

Thanks to her, Netflix is reaching new levels of excellence for docs—like Ava DuVernay’s 13th and Errol Morris’s Wormwood—and stand-up, with specials from Sarah Silverman, Jerry Seinfeld, and, in a big-money deal, Chris Rock.

On finding her career path: “In my traditional Japanese American household, my parents wanted safety and opportunity for their children: Be a doctor, something reliable. I didn’t even know my job was one you could aspire to. That’s the exciting part of life. Can you imagine this thing that hasn’t been seen yet?”

Writer and Executive Producer, Dietland and Sharp Objects

The Buffy alum is one of TV’s consummate creators, working on UnREAL and delivering Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce. This year, she’ll produce HBO’s Amy Adams thriller, Sharp Objects, from Gillian Flynn’s novel; and AMC’s delightfully weird-sounding Dietland, about an obese woman who takes on the beauty industry and sexual harassment.

On her career-changing move: "I was working on Private Practice, and as much as I’d learned from Shonda [Rhimes], I realized I was becoming very comfortable in that solid-second role. I thought, If I keep signing up to be a great lieutenant, I’m never going to know if I can do this. One day, I just stood up and said, ‘Oh my God, I think I quit.'"

Actress

She’s graduating from ABC’s Blackish, where she plays oldest child Zoey, to star in her own spin-off, Grown-ish, on sister channel Freeform, which follows Zoey to college.

On her professional future: “I’m about to cast my first short that I’m directing. I definitely want to do more work behind the camera. But I’ve also always wanted to play two roles: a superhero and a sociopath. Opposite ends of the spectrum.”

Actress and Writer

After creating and starring as the sharp-tongued, sexually frank heroine of Amazon’s Fleabag—we’ll see season two in 2019!—Waller-Bridge wrote the spy-thriller series Killing Eve, starring Sandra Oh, for the BBC.