J. J. Philbin

Jennifer Joy Philbin (born August 30, 1974) is an American producer and screenwriter, best known for her work on the drama series The O.C. She is the daughter of television stars Regis and Joy Philbin.

Philbin's career began soon after she graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1996 when she became a writer for Mad TV, and then joined the script department of Saturday Night Live until 1999.

While working on Saturday Night Live in January 1998, she met The Office writer Michael Schur, who had also been hired to write for the show.

Philbin and the other Saturday Night Live writers were nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award in 2000 in the category of "Comedy/Variety Series".

Philbin was born in New York City to Regis Philbin and Joy Philbin.

She attended The Loomis-Chaffee School in Windsor, Connecticut, where she was a boarding student, and the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.

She has said that, growing up, she always wanted to be a writer of some sort, but she particularly enjoyed writing scripts for amateur short films she made with her friends.

In 2002, she moved on to That Was Then, an ABC drama series, as a writer, and in 2003 began work on the comedy-drama series Dead Like Me, for which she served as both writer and script supervisor for several episodes.

She had a meeting with the executive producers of The O.C. in late 2003 and was keen for a job, but another job came up and so she worked shortly as story editor for the sitcom Coupling.

In 2004, she joined the O.C. crew after Coupling was canceled and The O.C. 's producers offered her a writing position.

In 2004, she served as story editor, but was promoted to executive story editor for the remainder of the show's duration, from 2005 to 2007, and during that time wrote twelve episodes and co-produced another four.

Following The O.C. ' s end, she became a co-executive producer and writer on the first season of the science fiction drama Heroes.

The couple married in October 2005 in New York.

Their son was born in February 2008 and their daughter was born in July 2010.

In 2011, Philbin became a Consulting Producer on the TV series New Girl.

Between 2018 and 2020 she was also co-creator and executive producer of the ABC sitcom Single Parents.