Nichelle Tramble Spellman

Last updated
Nichelle Tramble Spellman
Born (1967-02-11) February 11, 1967 (age 57) [1]
NationalityAmerican
Other namesNichelle D. Tramble
Occupation(s)Television writer and producer
Years active2007–present
Spouse Malcolm Spellman

Nichelle D. Tramble Spellman (born February 11, 1967) is an American television producer and writer. [2]

Contents

Career

In 2017, Spellman, and her husband, Malcolm Spellman, began to co-produce and co-write an alternate history television series for HBO, called Confederate, set in a present day America where slavery remained legal. [2] The pair found themselves called upon to explain how African-American producers could be involved in a show focused around slavery. [3]

She has worked as a writer or producer on The Good Wife , Justified, Mercy, Harper's Island and Women's Murder Club. [4] [5]

Nichelle Tramble Spellman is the creator and showrunner of the Apple TV+ drama series Truth Be Told , starring Octavia Spencer, Aaron Paul, Lizzy Caplan, Elizabeth Perkins, Ron Cephas Jones, Mekhi Phifer, Michael Beach, Tracie Thoms, and Annabella Sciorra. [6] The limited series is inspired by the 2017 novel Are You Sleeping .

Truth Be Told debuted on Apple TV+ on December 6, 2019. In February 2020, Spellman won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Dramatic Series for "Monster", the first episode of the series. [7]

Spellman is also the author of the novels The Dying Ground and The Last King, published by Random House/Ballantine. [5]

Filmography

YearTitleCredited asNotes
WriterProducer
2007–08 Women's Murder Club YesNoWrote: "No Opportunity Necessary" and teleplay: "Never Tell"
2009 Harper's Island YesNoEpisode: "Seep"
2010 Mercy YesNoEpisodes: "I Saw This Pig and I Thought of You" and "There is No Superwoman"
2012 Justified YesNoStory and teleplay: "When the Guns Come Out", also executive story editor
2012–16 The Good Wife YesYesWrote 5 episodes
Also co-producer, supervising, co-executive, and consulting producer
2019–21 Truth Be Told YesExecutiveCreator, wrote 3 episodes
2021 Snowfall NoYesConsulting producer

Awards and nominations

YearAwardCategoryWorkResultRef.
2013 Spur Awards Spur Award for Best Drama Script (Fiction) Justified Nominated [8]
2014 Writers Guild of America Awards Drama Series The Good Wife Nominated [9]
2015 Nominated [10]
2020 NAACP Image Awards Outstanding Writing in a Dramatic Series Truth Be Told (for "Monster")Won [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Weiner</span> American screenwriter, director, producer and author

Matthew Hoffman Weiner is an American television writer, producer, and director best known as the creator and showrunner of the television series Mad Men, and as a writer and executive producer on The Sopranos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">D. B. Weiss</span> American writer and producer

Daniel Brett Weiss is an American television writer and producer. Along with his collaborator David Benioff, he is best-known for co-creating Game of Thrones (2011–2019), the HBO adaptation of George R. R. Martin's series of books A Song of Ice and Fire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Sarnoff</span> American television writer and producer

Elizabeth Sarnoff is an American television writer and producer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Nagle</span> American film producer

Margaret Nagle is a screenwriter, producer, and activist. She has been nominated for three Emmy Awards and won three Writers Guild of America Awards.

Anthony Sparks is an American television showrunner, writer-producer, and playwright. He is also an essay writer who focuses on media, performance, and African American politics and culture. He has a Ph.D. in American studies & ethnicity from USC and began his career as an actor in classical acting and was also a lead performer in New York in the show Stomp and in the Emmy-winning HBO film Stomp Out Loud.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liz Heldens</span> Television screenwriter and producer

Elizabeth Heldens is a television writer and producer. She is the creator of Deception, a drama on NBC which premiered on January 7, 2013. She has worked on the NBC drama series Friday Night Lights. She was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for Best New Series at the February 2007 ceremony for her work on the first season of Friday Night Lights. She was nominated for the WGA Award for Best Dramatic Series the following year at the February 2008 ceremony for her work on the second season of Friday Night Lights. Heldens was nominated for Best Dramatic Series a second time at the February 2009 ceremony for her work on the third season of Friday Night Lights. She was nominated for the WGA Award for Best Drama Series for the third consecutive year at the February 2010 ceremony for her work on the fourth season. Her production company is Selfish Mermaid.

Aaron Rahsaan Thomas is an American television and film screenwriter and producer, as well as an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Gould</span> American television writer and producer

Peter Gould is an American television writer, director and producer. He worked on all five seasons of the AMC drama Breaking Bad. He was nominated for four Writers Guild of America (WGA) Awards for his work on the series. After Breaking Bad ended, he went on to become the co-creator and co-showrunner, with Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, of the show's spinoff, Better Call Saul. He became the series' sole showrunner after Gilligan left the writers room.

The Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Dramatic Series is an award presented by the Writers Guild of America to the writers of the best dramatic television series of the season. It has been awarded since the 58th Annual Writers Guild of America Awards in 2006. The year indicates when each season aired. The winners are highlighted in gold.

The Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Comedy Series is an award presented by the Writers Guild of America to the writers of the best television comedy series of the season. It has been awarded since the 58th Annual Writers Guild of America Awards in 2006. The year indicates when each season aired.

Ashley Nicole Black is an American comedian, actress, writer and producer. She was a writer and correspondent for Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (2016–2019), for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special.

Confederate was a planned American alternate history drama television series developed for the network HBO by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, who had previously developed the HBO series Game of Thrones. The series was to be set in a timeline where the American Civil War ended in a stalemate. The announcement of Confederate was followed by anger and criticism on social media with some describing it as slavery fan fiction. This led to the hashtag #NoConfederate, which trended number one in the United States and number two worldwide on Twitter in mid 2017. Although development of the series continued after the controversy, plans for the series were ultimately confirmed as canceled in January 2020.

<i>Truth Be Told</i> (2019 TV series) American drama television series

Truth Be Told is an American legal/crime drama television series. The series was created by Nichelle Tramble Spellman for Apple TV+ and is based on Kathleen Barber's 2017 debut novel Are You Sleeping. Spellman also acts as executive producer and writes for the show. Unlike the book, Poppy Parnell plays the main role, as a podcaster who revisits the case that made her famous with the hope of finally getting to the truth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natasha Rothwell</span> American actress, writer and comedian (born 1980)

Natasha Rothwell is an American writer, actress, and comedian. She is known for working on the HBO television series Insecure as a writer, series regular, and supervising producer. She is also known for her work in HBO's The White Lotus, which earned her a nomination for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kathleen Barber</span> American novelist

Kathleen Barber is an American writer and non-practicing lawyer. Television rights to her 2017 debut novel Are You Sleeping were sold to Hello Sunshine, and a series called "Truth Be Told", based on the book, was produced for Apple TV+ and debuted in December 2019.

<i>Are You Sleeping</i> (novel) 2017 mystery novel by Kathleen Barber

Are You Sleeping, the debut novel of Kathleen Barber, is a murder mystery. Barber draws on her knowledge of the law, practicing in Chicago and New York. Barber acknowledges that she was influenced by the Serial podcast, and a key element of the novel is a podcast that looks into the case of a prisoner who may have been wrongfully convicted of murder. The hardcover edition was published in 2017 and the paperback in 2018.

"This Extraordinary Being" is the sixth episode of the HBO superhero drama miniseries Watchmen, based on the 1986 DC Comics series of the same name by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. The episode was written by Damon Lindelof and Cord Jefferson and directed by Stephen Williams, and aired on November 24, 2019. It is principally the origin story of Hooded Justice, a minor character from the original comic.

Malcolm Spellman is an American screenwriter and producer best known for his work on Empire (2015) and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021).

LaToya Morgan is an American writer and producer. She held two multi-year deals with AMC and was a writer for Parenthood, Shameless, and Complications, and both writer and co-executive producer for Into the Badlands and Turn: Washington's Spies. She signed an overall deal with Warner Bros. Television Group in 2020.

Amy Aniobi is a Nigerian-American writer and producer. She is the head writer and co-executive producer of Insecure and was also an executive producer for the HBO special 2 Dope Queens. Aniobi signed a two-year overall deal with HBO in 2019.

References

  1. "Nichelle D Tramble, Born 02/11/1967 in California |". CaliforniaBirthIndex.org. Retrieved December 6, 2019.
  2. 1 2 Eric Deggans (2017-07-27). "Black Producers, HBO Defend Upcoming Series 'Confederate'". National Public Radio . Archived from the original on 2019-07-23. Retrieved 2019-07-22. All we know is HBO's Confederate will be a TV show set in a modern America where the Confederacy never lost the Civil War and slavery still exists. After days at the center of the controversy, Executive Producer Nichelle Tramble Spellman says the experience has been like getting 'a crash course in crazy.'
  3. Josef Adalian (2017-07-20). "The Producers of HBO's Confederate Respond to the Backlash and Explain Why They Wanted to Tell This Story". New York magazine . Archived from the original on 2017-07-21. Retrieved 2017-07-21. As the backlash to Confederate began to build on Twitter, Malcolm Spellman — a frequent and vocal presence on Twitter for years, often commenting on political and social-justice issues — quietly began responding to some concerned commenters, assuring them the show would not be about 'whips and plantations.'
  4. Jessica McBride (2017-07-31). "Malcolm Spellman & Nichelle Tramble Spellman: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy . Archived from the original on 2019-07-23. Retrieved 2019-07-22. They include: Writer and supervising producer for The Good Wife on CBS/Paramount for four years. Writer and executive story editor for Justified on F/X Network for 10 months. Writer/story editor for Mercy by NBC/Universal for 10 months. Staff writer for Harper's Island, CBS Paramount Studios, for six months. Staff writer on Women's Murder Club for ABC for one year.
  5. 1 2 "2019 Austin Film Festival & Conference: Nichelle Tramble Spellman". 2019 Austin Film Festival . Retrieved 2020-04-29. Nichelle began her career as a journalist, and is the author of the novels THE DYING GROUND and THE LAST KING published by Random House/Ballantine.
  6. "Video: "Truth Be Told" - Official Trailer - Apple TV+". The Futon Critic . 2019-10-10.
  7. 1 2 Schaffstall, Katherine; Howard, Annie (February 22, 2020). "NAACP Image Awards: Lizzo Named Entertainer of the Year; Just Mercy, Black-ish Among Top Winners". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved February 24, 2020.
  8. Cowboy, American (March 20, 2013). "Western Writers of America Announces 2013 Spur Awards". American Cowboy. Retrieved August 27, 2021.
  9. "WGA Awards 2014: Complete list of winners and nominees". Los Angeles Times . January 30, 2014. Retrieved August 27, 2021.
  10. McNary, Dave (February 14, 2015). "'Grand Budapest Hotel,' 'True Detective' Top WGA Awards". Vulture . Retrieved August 27, 2021.