While at Harvard, Jordana Lewis Jaffe spent her free time writing for THE HARVARD CRIMSON and every summer working in print or broadcast journalism. But her plans to move to New York City and become a journalist were postponed after 9/11 happened during her senior year of college. “I panicked. And I thought maybe there was a different city for me out there,” Jordana recalls. “I went through on-campus recruiting, and I got a job working in Disney's Strategic Planning Department.” 

In her heart, though, Jordana knew she wanted to write, even after she’d signed the contract with Disney. This was confirmed later in her senior year when she wrote a column in THE CRIMSON about procrastination. Evan Thomas, an editor at NEWSWEEK, happened to read it and sent her a (real, handwritten) letter saying that if she had any interest in pursuing writing, he thought she could make a career of it. “It was so huge to have this external voice validate what I knew I loved to do,” Jordana smiles. 

She still went on to fulfill her promise to Disney and worked there until attending law school at UCLA—the age-old story for creatives seeking job security. Jordana described law school as the “safe path” and she maintains her bar license to this day, just in case. But she would rather not have to ever practice law. In fact, she says, “I knew two weeks into school that I had made a terrible life decision once again, so I started freelancing and writing journalism articles the whole time I was in school.” After completing classes in the morning, Jordana covered Hollywood parties, red carpet events, and movie premieres for the Boldface Names column in THE NEW YORK TIMES. Then, in her third and final year of law school, the column was unceremoniously canceled, and the journalism industry started to shift in a way that ultimately pushed Jordana towards her true calling: writing for TV.

While she was still in her last year of law school, Jordana landed an internship at HBO working for ​​Francesca Orsi (as Jordana calls her, “my fairy angel”). At Francesca’s urging, Jordana wrote her first script, and then when Francesca saw something in it, she helped Jordana get an agent. That agent got Jordana her first job on THE WHOLE TRUTH, an ABC legal drama, followed by (shockingly) another legal drama: THE DEFENDERS, on CBS. After that show was cancelled, Jordana joined NCIS: LOS ANGELES and wrote and produced the show for the next 10 years. 

“It was the most wonderful education I could have asked for,” Jordana says fondly. “I worked for Shane Brennan, and then Scott Gemmill, and they were just the greatest showrunners.” The entire time she worked on NCIS: LA, an “elder statesman” kept telling her that she would never be on a show like this again. And he was right. “I knew I would never be on a show that lasted that long again,” she explains. But Jordana also initially chose TV over movies in part because she’s a social extrovert. “I really love collaborating with other people and being a part of something, and writing is such a solitary existence that I thought that would be a nice counter to it.” But after COVID, Jordana spent the next four years in Zoom rooms and “all the joy I got from working with other people really changed.” 

Being home alone was the reason Jordana turned to writing film in addition to TV, which (naturally) she has been very successful at as well. “I've been able to write rom-coms and romance movies, which has brought me endless joy. I feel like I’m eating dessert the whole time I’m writing,” Jordana smiles. Her background in journalism gave her a respect for tight deadlines, so she turned her first feature script around incredibly quickly (in three months!) and her TV agent got it to a film agent.  The script is now in development at a production company, and she’s already finished a second feature. “I love a writing day when I am just so excited to get to those next scenes,” Jordana says. “I know what I want to do with them. And they just work. I’m lucky enough to have a beautiful home office, and when I finally sit down in my chair, I'm just ready to go… I plan out my weeks meticulously, and so if I have a writing day, I'm ready for it, and really grateful for the space to do it.” 

Jordana says all aspiring writers (and employed writers!) should be writing all the time.  “They should be reading scripts as well. I never went to film school, and I never really worked on anyone's desk except for my internship at HBO. But I read all of the scripts that came in, and I read the coverage,” Jordana remembers. “Within a couple of months, I was reading scripts and anticipating what the coverage would say, and that really helped me.”  Jordana also recommends reading the script of your favorite TV show or movie. “Find out how the writer’s vision was conveyed on the page, and then compare the text to what it eventually became.”

In terms of other advice, Jordana has three more things to say: First, “to be a TV writer or a movie writer, you need to treat it like a profession. If no one is going to give you a deadline, it’s really important that you create self-imposed deadlines.” Second, “I'm very realistic that I work for corporations. These corporations have become quite complicated, and there are expectations, and in exchange, I'm able to do this thing I love… People bemoan notes, but the truth is that's part of the job. And I respect that that's what the job is.” Finally, the third piece of advice came to her by way of her old boss, Scott Gemmill. He told her, “Never make the story so complicated that it gets in the way of the characters.” Audiences fall in love with the characters, not necessarily the plot, and the characters are what keep them paying attention. Plus, it tightens the story when you’re forced to consider if those three additional beats are really necessary, or if you could cut them and use that time for character development instead, Jordana explains. 

The skills that are important to being a writer not only include professionalism and understanding what the job is, but also knowing how to read a room. “There's a lot of social intelligence involved… The tricky thing about writing for TV is that being able to write a script is probably less than 30% of the job. So much of it is your ability to contribute to the room, to interact with the actors, to get all of the department heads to deliver your exact vision… It's all about being helpful and participating for the common good. We're all in this together to create the best show.”

As for what’s on the horizon, Jordana says proudly, “I just wrote a pilot for ABC, and I'm waiting to hear what happens. We’re casting this rom-com movie, and I'm taking out this other movie. I love the hustle of this job… I have the rights to a book series that I really want to develop into a film. I have an idea for a spy show. I always have a lot of things in the pipeline.” Jordana is happier when she’s working on “10 projects versus 5 projects.” She adds, “Because nothing is for sure. So what a happy, happy circumstance it is to have too much work to do…. I love coming up with ideas and seeing what I can do with them… and I'm so happy to be able to do this.”