Jessica Gao is an American television writer and producer who was creator and head writer of the TV series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. She also worked on the third season of Rick and Morty, writing the episode "Pickle Rick" and co-creating the reoccurring character of Dr. Wong, and wrote for Silicon Valley, Robot Chicken, The Mighty B!, Back at the Barnyard, Star Wars: Detours, and Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness.
Career After winning the Nickelodeon Writers Fellowship in 2006, Gao began her career writing for the network's shows like The Mighty B!, Back at the Barnyard, Big Time Rush and Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, before leaving to freelance on other shows such as Adult Swim's Robot Chicken, Cartoon Network's The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange, and Disney XD's Lab Rats. Gao has also written for HBO's Silicon Valley, the French series Zip Zip, Seeso/Pluto TV's Bajillion Dollar Propertie$, and Comedy Central's Corporate.
She joined the writing room for the third season of Rick and Morty, acting as story editor on six episodes and writing the episode "Pickle Rick". For writing "Pickle Rick", Gao won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program at the 2018 Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. While working on the show, Gao and the other female writers claimed they were subject to sexual harassment by members of the fanbase that were upset about the show hiring women in the writing room. Gao and Rick and Morty co-creator, Dan Harmon, collaborated on a podcast series entitled "Whiting Wongs" that discussed race and privilege in Hollywood. Gao also wrote and co-executive produced the second season of the show Take My Wife.
Gao left Rick and Morty after the third season to develop a sitcom for ABC, which landed a pilot episode order in 2019, directed by Jude Weng. The show revolved around a Chinese-American woman's relationship with her family. ABC passed on the sitcom, but the series was being shopped to other networks. In July 2019, she was chosen to write the script for the upcoming movie based on Sweet Valley High. In November 2019, she was hired as the lead writer for the Disney+ show She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
Personal life Gao is engaged to Truck Torrence, who is known for creating emojis of Marvel characters under the name 100 Soft.
Filmography YearTitleCredited asNotesWriterProducer2008–09Back at the Barnyard Episodes: "War of the Pranks" and "The Sun Cow"2008–11The Mighty B! 35 episodes2010–11Big Time Rush 6 episodes2011Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness Episode: "Fluttering Finger Mindslip"2012–13Robot Chicken 9 episodes2012–13The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange 4 episodes2014Lab Rats Episode: "Trent Gets Schooled"2014Silicon Valley Episode: "Signaling Risk"2015Zip Zip Episode: "Rained In"2016Bajillion Dollar Propertie$ Episodes: "Roger Me Rightly" and "Baxter's Confession"2017Rick and Morty Episode: "Pickle Rick", also executive story editor2017The Memestar Chronicles Episode: "Look Mom, I'm on TV"2018Take My Wife Co-executive producer, wrote 2 episodes2018Corporate Supervising producer, wrote 2 episodes2022Easter Sunday She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Creator and head writer, wrote 3 episodes, also actor in "Whose Show Is This?"TBAStepdude Co-wrote with Scot Armstrong, Tracy Oliver, Rodney Rothman, and Eric AppelThe Undesirables
Awards and nominations YearAwardCategoryWorkResult2015Writers Guild of America AwardsComedy SeriesSilicon Valley New Series 2018Primetime Emmy AwardsOutstanding Animated ProgramRick and Morty (for "Pickle Rick")
References
External links