Script

Showrunner

What is showrunner in film production?

A showrunner is the person with overall creative and day-to-day responsibility for a television series, usually its head writer and an executive producer. They run the writers' room, approve scripts, and make the decisions on casting, production and post that keep the series consistent and on schedule.

The title is informal — it rarely appears in credits — but the job is real: the showrunner is the person the network, studio and crew all go to.

Most showrunners come up through writers' rooms, which is why staff writing jobs are seen as the training ground for running a show.

Reviewed 2026-10-09

Related terms

Spec script

A spec script is a screenplay written without being commissioned or paid for, on speculation that it will sell or win the writer work. Specs are how most screenwriters break in: as samples that show their voice, and occasionally as scripts a studio buys outright.

Act break

An act break is the point in a screenplay where one act ends and the next begins, marked by a decisive turn that changes the protagonist's situation. In a three-act feature the main breaks fall roughly a quarter and three-quarters through; in television, act breaks often sit before commercial breaks.