Michelle Lesley Johnson

"Let's Stay Together: There Goes The Groom" (2011) Screenwriter

"Let's Stay Together," an urban-romantic comedy with an unconventional take on the lives of young, ambitious African Americans was created by Executive Producer Jacque Edmonds Cofer & produced by Cofer, Dana "Queen Latifah" Owens and Shakim Compere. I assisted Cofer during the week of pilot production and contributed to the season 1 episode, "There Goes The Groom" ("Story by" credit, Episode 9). The series debuted to 4.4M viewers in '11. Season 1 averaged 2.9M viewers. S1E9 rated 2.31M viewers.

HUSTLE & FLOW

I served as assistant to the producers during pre-production in LA, on location in Memphis, TN, and in post back in LA on HUSTLE & FLOW, an independently produced film written and directed by Craig Brewer and produced by John Singleton and Stephanie Allain, Terrence Howard stars as a Memphis hustler and pimp who must overcome obstacles to become a rapper. The film won the ACADEMY AWARD for Best Original Song for Three 6 Mafia's song "It's Hard out Here for a Pimp," while Howard was nominated for Best Actor.

"House of Payne" (2007) Screenwriter

Beginning fall 2005, as a member of the initial writing staff of 10 episodes that led to a production deal for Perry to create 100 episodes, I wrote 7 episodes of "House of Payne," along with an episode of "Meet the Browns." For a time, my first episode, Episode 102 "I Can Cry If I Want To," was ad-supported cable's top sitcom telecast of all time among adults 18-54 (first-night viewership of 5.82M people and 3,55M households). My third episode, Episode 201 "A House is Not a Home" was the 2nd season premiere.