Diane English

Diane English
Diane English on the set of The Women
Born	Buffalo, New York, US
Occupation	Director, writer and producer
Spouse(s)	Joel Shukovsky (1977–2010)

Diane English (born May 18, 1948) is an American screenwriter, producer and director, best known for creating the television show Murphy Brown and writing and directing the 2008 feature film, The Women.

English was born in Buffalo, New York, the daughter of Anne English and Richard English who was an electrical engineer. She graduated from Nardin Academy in Buffalo, New York, and then from Buffalo State College in 1970.

English began her career at WNET, the PBS affiliate in New York City, working first as a story editor for The Theatre in America series, and then as associate director of TV Lab. From 1977 to 1980, she wrote a monthly column on television for Vogue magazine.

In 1980, she co-wrote PBS' The Lathe of Heaven, an adaptation of Ursula K. LeGuin's classic science fiction novel of the same name, and received her first Writers Guild Award Nomination. She followed that with the television movies Her Life as a Man for NBC (1984) and Classified Love for CBS (1986).

In 1985, English created her first half-hour comedy series, Foley Square, which aired on CBS during the 1985-1986 television season. It starred Margaret Colin, Hector Elizondo , Michael Lembeck, and Jon Lovitz. The show premiered on December 11, 1985, and languished near the bottom of the Nielsen ratings in the weeks that followed. After being put on hiatus after only eleven episodes CBS rescheduled it to another night and aired the 3 remaining episodes of the season. With ratings low CBS was quick to cancel the show after only fourteen episodes with the last episode airing on April 8, 1986. During 1986 and 1987, English executive produced and wrote the CBS comedy series My Sister Sam, starring Pam Dawber which lasted for 2 seasons with 12 episodes that never aired before being cancelled.