Screenwriter and Producer Jennie Snyder Urman ’99 Brings Bold Women to the Screen

If you want to learn how to overcome the steep challenge of standing out in a crowded Hollywood market, talk to Jennie Snyder Urman ’99. A writer, producer, and showrunner based in Los Angeles, she’s helped write or produce a slew of well-known TV shows including Jane the Virgin, Gilmore Girls, Charmed, and the recent CBS hit Matlock starring Kathy Bates in the titular role. 

Over the years, as streaming networks have multiplied the number of shows available for us to enjoy, “it’s hard to break out, and to make a show that people know about, because there are so many fantastic shows out there. And that’s exciting,” Urman says.

After two seasons, Matlock has become one of those breakout hits. When it debuted in 2024, the reception impressed executives so deeply that they picked it up for the second season after just two episodes. Its freshman season ended with an impressive accolade: It was the second most-watched broadcast show overall that year.

Riffing only slightly off the 1980s original, the show follows Madeline “Matty” Matlock, played by Bates, a brilliant attorney who decides to reenter the workforce after decades away from a desk. She joins a popular firm in New York City but her ulterior motives begin to reveal themselves episode by episode.

“The guiding principle in writing this show, that borrowed from the original, was that it’s about an older person being underestimated and being great at their job,” Urman says, adding how working with Bates has been inspiring thanks to the Oscar winner’s “rigorous attention to the craft of acting.”

Writing about strong and principled women has been a thread running through Urman’s career. She cut her teeth as a writer on the final season of Gilmore Girls before creating her own show, a medical comedy called Emily Owens M.D. that only lasted 13 episodes. 

“Still, I was really proud of that show,” she recalls.

But her life-altering break came when The CW Network greenlit her pilot for Jane the Virgin, an offbeat comedy about a devout Catholic woman in her early 20s who becomes pregnant after her doctor mixes her up with another patient seeking a treatment of artificially insemination.

“When I first began in Hollywood, I felt like I was imitating someone’s voice, but with Jane, I wanted to create really interesting characters and dynamics in something we hadn’t seen before on TV. And in doing that, I awakened my understanding of myself as an artist,” Urman says. 

She adds that in an industry “when so many things are out of your control, it’s miraculous once all the things come together.”

When Urman looks back at her days at Princeton, where she majored in English, she smiles wide. “There’s one reason that drew me to Princeton and her name is Toni Morrison. Her writing blew my mind. I didn’t know writing like that existed.”

As for what’s next for Urman, she’s working on Matlock’s third season and also toying with a new idea for a show that once again tells the story of adventurous and bold women. “I have a project about a woman who practiced medicine in Boston in 1872 by dressing as a man,” Urman says. “I’m curious what happens to gender identity when it’s changed from the outside in.”