Mara Brock Akil

American screenwriter and television producer (born 1970)

Mara Brock Akil is an American television producer and writer. She began her screenwriting career at age 23 on South Central (1994) on Fox. At age 30, she became the youngest African American showrunner on broadcast network television when she created the sitcom Girlfriends, airing on UPN (2000–06) and its successor The CW (2006–08), and is the first African American female showrunner to have two series concurrently on broadcast network TV when she created its spin-off The Game on The CW (2006–09) before its revival on BET (2011–15).