Nell Scovell

Early life and education Nell Scovell, the middle of five children, grew up in a Jewish family outside of Newton, Massachusetts. Her father, Melvin E. Scovell, was chairman of the board of Scovell & Schwager, a health-care management company in Boston. Other TV writing credits include The Wilton North Report, Coach, Monk, Murphy Brown, Charmed, Newhart, The Critic, NCIS, and many others. She also wrote the season two episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast, "Urges".

Scovell has directed two television films: Hayley Wagner, Star for Showtime, and It Was One of Us for Lifetime.

Outside of television, Scovell is a former contributing editor at Vanity Fair, and has written for Vogue, Rolling Stone, Self, Tatler, and The New York Times Magazine. She currently blogs for Vanity Fair'''s web site.

In 2019, Scovell joined other Writers Guild of America (WGA) members in firing their agents as part of the WGAs' stand against the Association of Talent Agents (ATA) and the practice of movie packaging.

Letterman and late-night comedy controversy

In 2009, after Letterman admitted to having sexual relationships with his female staffers, she published an essay in Vanity Fair calling his show a "hostile work environment" for women. She noted that Letterman's shows had hired only seven female writers in 27 years. Male writers had spent a combined total of 378 years on staff, and women had spent 17. Scovell alleged that late-night TV executives excused gender disparities in their writers rooms by claiming that women don't apply for writing jobs. Women did apply in lower numbers than men, she acknowledged, but, in her view, that was because "the shows often rely on current (white male) writers to recommend their funny (white male) friends to be future (white male) writers." She recommended targeted outreach to women bloggers, improv performers, and stand-ups. The Times interviewed comedy writer Merrill Markoe, who mentioned an "odd shift toward more boys' humor in the '90s" that in her view might have kept women from landing late-night jobs.

In 2019, Scovell wrote a followup article for Vanity Fair about how she had met with Letterman to discuss the original piece, which he admitted he had not read but that Scovell "assigned" to him for the later meeting "as homework". Scovell alleges Letterman was contrite, quoting him as saying "I'm sorry I was that way and I was happy to have read the piece because it wasn't angering. I felt horrible because who wants to be the guy that makes people unhappy to work where they're working?" She also wrote that since 2009 "the number of female writers and writers of color in late night has improved, in part because you can't go lower than zero," citing Full Frontal with Samantha Bee as the only late night show that had "gender parity" in the writers' room. She wrote about her discussion with Letterman, "We need more dialogue so men can understand the difference between criticism and condemnation. And we need more dialogue so women can voice discomfort without fear of retaliation."

Books

Scovell co-wrote Sheryl Sandberg's 2013 book Lean In.

In 2018, Scovell's book Just the Funny Parts: ... And a Few Hard Truths About Sneaking into the Hollywood Boys' Club was published with a foreword by Sheryl Sandberg.

Personal life

Briefly married to Tom Tisch, Scovell then married Colin Summers, an architect. They have two sons. Her sister is Claire Scovell LaZebnik, who is married to Rob LaZebnik, whose brothers Philip LaZebnik and Ken LaZebnik are both screenwriters.

Comedian/magician Penn Jillette called her "one of the funniest people alive" in an interview with The A.V. Club''.