What Do These Women Have in Common?

Television has taken me to hospital rooms, courtrooms, and decades past. From New Amsterdam to Inventing Anna, Elsbeth and the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, I've had the chance to live inside wildly different worlds.

From left: Rachael Meyers, Dylan Gelula, Ellie Kemper, Olivia Khoshatefeh

Across every project I've worked on, I find strength in the women I play - even when strength looks different than what we expect. I had the privilege of being on the NBC show New Amsterdam for 5 seasons. I played Dr. Yasmin Turan, a confident, hijabi doc whose presence on screen meant a lot to me. She portrayed a Muslim women in a powerful and positive light. Still, in terms of representation, I often think about how much further we can go. There are so many more dimensions to be explored with our Middle Eastern characters. I hope one day we can celebrate their nuance and complexities the same way we do with other characters. We may have only scratched the surface with Turan, but I'm proud to have been part of that beginning.

From Left: Ehad Berisha, Olivia Khoshatefeh, Janet Montgomery, Shiva Kalaiselvan

Then there are shows like Dickinson, which was it's own kind of rebellion. Bold, poetic, unapologetically feminist. And Elsbeth, one of the funniest, most joyful sets I've ever been on, filled with New York theater legends like Jane Krakowski (who I also worked with on the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt AND Dickinson!)

From Left: Tony Roach, Ann Arvia, Linda Lavin, Jane Krakowski, Olivia Khoshatefeh

Okay pause...I just realized something as I was writing this. Dickinson, Kimmy Schmidt, Elsbeth, Inventing Anna. They are all TV shows about complex, fierce women with their names in the title! I WISH I could say I planned that...

Whether I'm acting, producing or writing, it's never just about the project; it's about the women at the center of it.

Let's keep expanding what strength, humor and complexity look like on screen!

On set for Inventing Anna

XO,

Olivia