Elizabeth Meriwether

She also created the ABC sitcoms Single Parents, Bless This Mess, as well as the Hulu dramas The Dropout and Dying for Sex.

• Name — Elizabeth Meriwether • Birth Name — Elizabeth Hughes Meriwether • Born — 11 October 1981 • Birthplace — Miami, Florida, U.S. • Occupation — Playwright, screenwriter, television producer, showrunner • Years Active — 2000–present • Education — Yale University (BA) Juilliard School (GrDip) • Notable Works — New Girl No Strings Attached • Children — 3

Meriwether was born on October 11, 1981, in Miami, Florida. Her family moved from Miami to Detroit, Michigan, when she was five years old, and then to Ann Arbor, Michigan, when she was 10. Her father, Heath J. Meriwether, was the publisher of the newspaper Detroit Free Press, and her mother, Patricia Hughes Meriweather, was a painter. Meriwether grew up aspiring to be an actress, but when she wrote her first play, she realized she wanted to be a playwright instead. Meriwether graduated from Greenhills High School in Ann Arbor. in 2000. Meriwether graduated from Yale University in 2005. She double-majored in English and theater studies.

Meriwether wrote the plays Heddatron (2006), The Mistakes Madeline Made (2006) and Oliver Parker! (2010). She held a showcase of her plays in Los Angeles, in which a young Emma Stone was cast. Meriwether has credited the showcase and Stone's participation as an important point in her career trajectory. Upon moving to Los Angeles, Meriwether developed a play called Sluts. As part of a program to help aspiring playwrights adapt their scripts for television, she turned the idea into a television pilot. The pilot, described as "a raunchy, honest look at the messy dating lives of twentysomething women" was filmed for 20th Century Fox Television, but ultimately not picked up. However, it succeeded in establishing Meriwether as a distinctive comedic voice. In 2010, she wrote an episode of Adult Swim's Childrens Hospital.

Meriwether received put pilot commitment from ABC for the show Woman Up. She worked on the project with Zoe Lister-Jones, and Jason Winer. In 2025, Elizabeth's show Dying for Sex was nominated for nine Primetime Emmy Awards. She was personally nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. In March 2026, her deal with 20th Television was renewed again. In 2026, it was announced Meriwether will pen the screenplay for Universal's upcoming Britney Spears biopic from director Jon M. Chu. The movie will be based on Spears' memoir "The Woman in Me."

Meriwether is part of "The Fempire", a group of female screenwriters that includes Dana Fox, Diablo Cody and Lorene Scafaria. In 2012, the Fempire received the Athena Film Festival Award for Creativity and Sisterhood at Barnard College in New York City. Meriwether is also a well-known feminist, who has done stand-up comedy, and performed for The Vagina Monologues in Las Vegas.

• Year — Title — Credited as — Network • Creator — Writer — Executive Producer — Director • 2011–2018 — New Girl — Fox • 2018–2020 — Single Parents — ABC • 2019–2020 — Bless This Mess • 2022 — The Dropout — Hulu • 2025 — Dying for Sex — FX on Hulu • 2026 — Furious — Hulu

Meriwether wrote the 2011 romantic comedy film No Strings Attached, directed by Ivan Reitman and starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. The film's working title was Fuckbuddies. After her success with No Strings Attached, 20th Century Fox Television approached Meriwether about developing another television series. Meriwether pitched an idea about an "offbeat girl moving in with three single guys", inspired by her experience of "bouncing from Craigslist sublet to Craigslist sublet, for four years in L.A." when she was in her twenties. The show, New Girl, was greenlit in 2011 with an initial order of 13 episodes and Zooey Deschanel in the title role. It aired 146 episodes over seven seasons. It was well received by critics and nominated for a number of awards, including five Golden Globe Awards and five Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2013, she signed a multi-year overall deal with 20th Century Fox Television, to develop additional projects for the studio. Her deal was renewed in 2019.

• Year — Title — Writer — Co-producer • 2011 — No Strings Attached