Gail Lerner

Writer Gail Lerner helped supply the barbed banter, bon mots, and double entendres that made "Will & Grace" one of the wittiest sitcoms of the late 1990s and early 2000s. The roommate comedy was also one of the biggest hits of NBC's post-"Seinfeld" Thursday-night lineup. In addition to serving as show scribe, Lerner also worked as a co-executive-producer for the series. When "Will & Grace" ended its top-rated run in 2006, Lerner wrote an episode for "Andy Barker, P.I.," a short-lived show that later attained cult status. Co-created by talk-show host Conan O'Brien, the sitcom featured Andy Richter (O'Brien's sidekick on "Late Night") as a mild-mannered accountant turned private investigator. Lerner later worked on the ill-fated Kelsey Grammer vehicle "Back to You" and the dead-in-the-water "Worst Week." But Lerner had been there before. Before landing her plum gig at "Will & Grace," she labored for the short-lived shows "The Trouble with Normal" (featuring Jon Cryer and Paget Brewster) and "Inside Schwartz," a terrible "Dream On" rip-off. Lerner had better luck as a co-executive-producer and writer on the Spanish-language import "Ugly Betty," which premiered in 2006 and ran for four seasons.