"I feel like film and television are often representing corrupt power and evil in leaders. That exists. But I've been writing about people in that world for a long time and have had the privilege of talking to a lot of them. And for the most part, they're smart people with integrity and good values, and they're good at what they do, and they just want to help people in their own country and around the world.

And even with good people at the helm, it can all go to hell and that, to me, is what's most interesting. I always had a hard time reading the newspaper. I found it very overwhelming in the suffering that you're seeing described every single day. And for me, coming at it through the lens of what's a story that I can relate to that I can follow a character through that they're surviving. For me was a kind of a way to come at it and not have to turn away from the darkness."

Debora Cahn is the Emmy-nominated showrunner and executive producer of Netflix’s The Diplomat, a political thriller series starring Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell. She’s worked with television’s leading showrunners, including Shonda Rhymes, Terence Winter, Steven Levinson, and Howard Gordon. Her career began working on Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing which has led to projects such as the hit Showtime series Homeland, ABC’s long-running medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, and HBO’s Vinyl, which was co-created by Martin Scorsese. She’s the winner of two Writers Guild of America Award for The West Wing and FX’s limited series Fosse/Verdon.

www.imdb.com/name/nm1263223
www.netflix.com/tudum/the-diplomat

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Images courtesy of Netflix/Alex Bailey