Lisa Joy

Lisa Joy is an American screenwriter, director and producer. She is best known as the co-creator, writer, director, and executive producer of the HBO science-fiction drama series Westworld (2016–present). For her work on the series, she received multiple Primetime Emmy Award nominations.[1] Joy's other work includes the ABC comedy series Pushing Daisies (2007–2009) and the USA Network crime drama series Burn Notice (2009–2011).

Lisa Joy
Joy at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con
Born	New Jersey, U.S.
Alma mater	Stanford University Harvard Law School
Occupation	Writer director producer
Years active	2007–present
Spouse(s)	Jonathan Nolan ​ (m. 2009)​
Children	2
Relatives	Christopher Nolan (brother-in-law)

Early life

Lisa Joy was raised in New Jersey. Her parents are both immigrants, her father is English and her mother is Taiwanese.[2]

Joy graduated from Stanford University and worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company in Los Angeles before attending Harvard Law School.[3] Joy was admitted to the bar in 2009 and practiced law in California prior to her career in entertainment.[4]

Career

While studying for the bar, Joy submitted a sample script for the ABC fantasy comedy-drama series Pushing Daisies. A friend passed the script along to a television producer, helping her get the job as a staff writer in 2007. She went on to become the only female writer on the USA Network crime drama series Burn Notice. She later served as a co-producer on the series.

In 2016, Joy co-created the HBO science fiction series Westworld and serves as its co-showrunner for up to six seasons.[5] The series focuses on "a futuristic theme park gone wrong where robots start rebelling against humans". The series went on to become one of the most popular series on television.[6] For her work on the series, Joy earned nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series, among others.

Joy, along with her husband Jonathan Nolan, signed a new deal with Amazon to write and produce a series for the company. The deal is worth $150 million over five years. As a part of the deal, Joy and Nolan were announced as executive producers on a science fiction series The Peripheral,[7] and an adaptation of the post-apocalyptic video game series Fallout.[8]

Personal life

Joy married screenwriter Jonathan Nolan, the younger brother of director Christopher Nolan. The two first met at the premiere of the elder Nolan's film Memento.[9][10]

Joy and Nolan have two children, a daughter and a son.[2][11][12]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Credited as			Notes
		Director	Writer	Producer
2021	Reminiscence	Yes	Yes	Yes	Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Credited as			Notes
		Director	Writer	Producer
2007–2009	Pushing Daisies	No	Yes	No	3 episodes
2009–2011	Burn Notice	No	Yes	Yes	19 episodes
2016–present	Westworld	Yes	Yes	Executive	Co-creator 28 episodes
TBA	The Peripheral	No	No	Executive	Upcoming
TBA	Fallout	No	No	Executive	Upcoming
TBA	The Son	No	Yes	Executive	Upcoming

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Work	Result	Ref.
2008	Writers Guild of America Awards	Best New Series	Pushing Daisies	Nominated	[13]
2016	Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards	Best Television Presentation	Westworld	Nominated
2017	Writers Guild of America Awards	Best New Series		Nominated
		Best Dramatic Series		Nominated
	Producers Guild of America Awards	Best Episodic Drama		Nominated
	Gold Derby Awards	Drama Episode of the Year		Nominated
	Dragon Awards	Best Science Fiction or Fantasy TV Series		Nominated
	Edgar Allan Poe Awards	Best Episode in a TV Series		Nominated
	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Drama Series		Nominated
		Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series		Nominated
2018	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Drama Series		Nominated

References

1. Miller, Matt (September 29, 2016). "Westworld Is Not the Next Game of Thrones—It's Much More Than That". Esquire. Hearst Magazines. Retrieved October 19, 2016.
2. Fortini, Amanda (April 17, 2018). "With 'Westworld', Lisa Joy Is Rewriting Women's Power Story Line in Hollywood and Beyond". Elle. Joy, who is 40, was raised in a hardworking immigrant family (her dad is from England; her mom is from Taiwan) in suburban New Jersey.
3. Heather Wood Rudulph, Get That Life: How I Became the Co-Creator of Westworld, Cosmopolitan, https://www.cosmopolitan.com/career/a8664279/lisa-joy-westworld-co-creator-get-that-life/
4. California, The State Bar of. "State Bar of CA :: Lisa Joy". members.calbar.ca.gov. Retrieved October 20, 2016.
5. Goldberg, Lesley (April 22, 2020). "'Westworld' Renewed for Season 4 at HBO". The Hollywood Reporter. Valence Media.
6. Rudulph, Heather Wood (February 6, 2017). "Get That Life: How I Became the Co-Creator of "Westworld"". Cosmopolitan. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
7. Otterson, Joe (April 5, 2019). "Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy Exit Warner Bros. TV for Massive Overall Deal at Amazon". Variety. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
8. "Kilter Films Teams with Amazon Studios to Develop Series Based on Fallout". Bethesda.net. July 2, 2020. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
9. Staff, The Playlist. "On The Rise 2014: 13 Screenwriters To Watch | IndieWire". www.indiewire.com. Retrieved October 20, 2016.
10. Gire, Jamie Sotonoff and Dann (October 18, 2016). "A-minus at Loyola Academy fueled 'Westworld' creator". Daily Herald. Retrieved October 20, 2016.
11. King, Larry (April 15, 2014). "What Does A Showrunner Bring To A Deserted Island?". YouTube. Retrieved September 12, 2016.
12. "Is 'Westworld' HBO's Next Big Hit?". New York Times. September 29, 2016.
13. "Lisa Joy – Awards – IMDb". Retrieved April 21, 2020.

External links

• Lisa Joy at IMDb