“What drew me to USC as a student, and also as a professor, was that we were working with professional writers in the department, and who best to learn from than somebody who's doing it,” says Sonja Warfield, explaining why she left a full-time position in the John Wells Division of Writing for Screen & Television. “When I came to USC (as an undergrad) I was in critical studies, and so you get to do a little bit of everything. I took a writing class with Pam Douglas and that was really an inspiration, because Pam was a working writer at the time. And so I thought, ‘well, if this woman is teaching me how to write and she's writing professionally; I can do that too!’”

Now, Warfield is the inspiration. HBO’s The Gilded Age, the show she executive produces, is one of the most buzz-generating dramas currently on air. Set in New York during the industrial boom of the late nineteenth century, The Gilded Age follows women of White and Black society as they use knowledge and guile to bend society, and the men who ostensibly control it, to their will. The show was created by none other than Julian Fellowes of Downton Abbey fame. In the last few years, he and Warfield have created a joyful writing relationship that is reflected in the care given to the historical realism that anchors the show and makes the melodrama of 1880s business, romance and race relations must-see television.

But rewind a bit to understand how and why Warfield was the perfect writer to help Fellowes bring this world to life. “I was in Jack and Jill,” explains Warfield, referring to the leadership organization of accomplished African American mothers and their children that boasts invitation-only membership, and is known for its debutante ball for teenage girls. Warfield grew up in an Ohio suburb, the daughter of Cleveland Browns wide receiver Paul Warfield. She attended an all-girls private school where she became involved in theatre, but quickly realized she wasn’t going to be allowed to make a mark. “I never got any sort of substantial role,” she says. “We were doing a lot of those old Gilbert and Sullivan musicals. It was the 80s, and our theatre director was not going to cast a person of color as the lead.” She realized improv was more inclusive. That led to an interest in comedy writing and eventually to her enrolling at SCA. 

Although she majored in Cinema & Media Studies (then called Critical Studies) Warfield realized her talent for screenwriting. “I applied for the Television Academy internship in Writing, and I wrote a spec Seinfeld episode,” she says. “By the time I was a senior, I was having meetings with showrunners.”