LILLAH MCCARTHY
Lillah McCarthy serves as Senior Vice President of Original Programming for TNT and TBS and is responsible for the development and production of new drama series for TNT and new comedy series for TBS.
Since joining the Turner networks in 2003, Ms. McCarthy has been instrumental in the development of all original series for both networks including: "The Closer", starring Emmy winner Kyra Sedgwick, "Rizzoli and Isles" starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander, "Saving Grace" starring Holly Hunter, "Perception" starring Eric McCormack, "Leverage" starring Tim Hutton, the critically acclaimed "Men of a Certain Age", Stephen Spielberg’s "Falling Skies", the irreverent dramedy, "Franklin & Bash", the gloriously devilish "Dallas", and the highly anticipated new medical drama from David E. Kelley and Sanjay Gupta, "Monday Mornings", which will premiere in early 2013. At TBS, Ms. McCarthy was instrumental in the development and production of the highly acclaimed My Boys, the hour comedy series "Wedding Band", and two new half-hour series about to begin their second seasons, "Men At Work" and "Sullivan & Son". When McCarthy joined the networks, there were no original series on the air. In the summer of 2012, TNT was the home of basic cable’s top 5 original series and TBS had its own original successes with "Conan" and the new original comedies. Ms. McCarthy was recently put in charge of heading up the network’s in house original productions division as a result of the networks continued expansion of its original programming.
During McCarthy's extensive career, she has proven herself as a network executive, studio executive, producer, manager and director. Beginning as a current programming executive at ABC, she worked her way to the position of senior vice president of series programming for FBC, where she was instrumental in the development and production of both comedy and drama series during the network’s early years. Some of the series for which she was responsible include: "The Simpsons", "Married…With Children", "Get a Life", "Herman’s Head", "True Colors", "Parker Lewis Can’t Lose", "Alien Nation" and "21 Jump Street". She was the executive producer of the CBS series "Early Edition" (starring Kyle Chandler), she has directed half-hour multi-camera television comedies, she was vice president of development for Stephen Cannell Productions and executive vice president for Kopelson Productions.
Lillah McCarthy began her career in the entertainment business as an actress. The daughter of actors, Kevin McCarthy and Augusta Dabney, she is a graduate of Connecticut College and the National Theatre Institute. She serves on the board of Women in Film Foundation; she initiated a television director shadowing program between WIF and TNT; she is on the board of the Echo Theatre; she is a member of the DGA; and for the past two years, she has been a mentor and participant for Team in Training for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society . She is the proud mother of a teenage girl.
