ladiesmakingcomics: ProFile Friday Felicia D....

Friday, February 17, 2012

ProFile Friday

Felicia D. Henderson is a television writer and producer who has written Teen Titans for DC Comics.

She attended UCLA, where she majored in Psychobiology. After receiving her B.A., she embarked upon a five-year stint in traditional business that began as an investment research manager and ended as a consultant at Kidder, Peabody & Company, after which she decided to go back to school. While pursuing an M.B.A. in corporate finance at the University of Georgia, she received the NBC National Fellowship.

Henderson landed her first job in television at NBC as a Creative Associate. After spending a television season reading and analyzing scripts, she decided to seriously pursue a writing career, she applied and was accepted into the prestigious Warner Bros. Writers Workshop. Upon completing the program she became an apprentice on “Family Matters,” where she was on the writing staff for two years. Then, she moved on to “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” before co-producing “Moesha.” She then co-executive produced “Sister, Sister,” while simultaneously furthering her education.

She returned to her alma mater, UCLA, to pursue an M.F.A. in the University’s School of Theatre, Film and Television. In 1999, she was given the opportunity to create “Soul Food: The Series,” a one-hour drama for the Showtime Network based on the hit film, “Soul Food,” which became the longest running drama in television history to feature an African-American cast.

During the four critically acclaimed seasons that she presided over “Soul Food,” it received NAACP Image Awards for Best Drama Series three years in a row. Henderson also received a Gracie Award for her depiction of women; commendations from The Black Screenwriters Foundation; and the National Organization of Women in Film TV & Radio Diligence Award. She was honored with UCLA’s Tom Bradley Alumnus of the Year award in 2004.

She spent a season as Co-Executive producer on The CW’s “Gossip Girl,” and is currently a Co-Executive Producer on “Fringe.” She is also the Zakin-Hunter Chairholder of Screenwriting in the UCLA film school, where she also teaches television drama writing; a member of the Women in Film Foundation board of trustees; and a doctoral student in Cinema and Media Studies at UCLA. In addition to her television credits, Felicia has written full-length movies for 20th Century Fox, the Disney Channel, and MTV Films.

Henderson came onto Teen Titans on issue #75 and wrote 12 issues. She contributed to the Dwayne MacDuffie tribute Static Shock Special. She is also adapting Phil and Kaja Foglio’s “Girl Genius” into a movie.