Born: 14th July 1964 (as Jane Amanda Espenson)
Episodes Broadcast: 2011

Jane Espenson was born in Ames, Iowa in the United States. She aspired to be a writer from a young age, when she would create her own scripts for the classic sitcom M*A*S*H and saw a role model in Lou Grant's star reporter, Joe Rossi. While pursuing graduate studies in linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, Espenson submitted scripts for Star Trek: The Next Generation. None were taken forward for development, but one of her ideas was ultimately repurposed for a 1993 episode. Espenson finally broke into television after winning an ABC/Disney Writing Fellowship in 1992. It led to her employment on a number of sitcoms including Monty, Dinosaurs and Me And The Boys; she was at last able to write for the Star Trek franchise with a 1996 installment of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Espenson's profile rose towards the end of the decade when she worked as both a writer and story editor on Something So Right and, more notably, the Ellen DeGeneres vehicle Ellen. However, it was on Buffy The Vampire Slayer that she firmly established her television credentials. Espenson wrote nearly two dozen episodes of the beloved horror-comedy, on which she also earned her first credits as a producer. She went on to become a writer and producer for shows like Gilmore Girls, The Inside and Battlestar Galactica; she was also the showrunner on the latter's short-lived prequel, Caprica. Espenson created the science-fiction programme Warehouse 13, which debuted in 2009.

Espenson worked on the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood during 2011, when the series was made as a partnership between the BBC and the American network Starz. She contributed three scripts, and co-wrote two others; she received a credit as co-executive producer on all five installments. Espenson went on to write and produce the likes of Once Upon A Time, Husbands and Jessica Jones. During the Twenties, she held similar duties on The Nevers, and she also wrote for the relaunched version of Fantasy Island.