Ali Schouten is a showrunner, executive producer, and writer who is quickly establishing herself as a creative on the rise as her formidable talent and artistic versatility continue to make waves.    

Schouten currently serves as the showrunner and executive producer of the wildly successful iCarly revival for Paramount+, which set 10 years later, features Miranda Cosgrove reprising her iconic role. The series was renewed for a second season and will return on April 8th after swiftly becoming one of the streaming service’s top acquisition drivers, ranking among their most streamed titles since the series’ debut. The series, which holds an impressive rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, continues to receive praise for its modernized and inclusive approach from audiences and critics alike, with Variety applauding its ability to “straddl[e] the line between childhood nostalgia and newfound maturity”. 

This follows her role as co-executive producer on the Latinx-led family series from Disney+, Diary of a Future President, created by Ilana Peña and executive produced by Gina Rodriguez. Schouten also served as a supervising producer on the Netflix holiday miniseries, Merry Happy Whatever, starring Dennis Quaid, Bridgit Mendler, Brent Morin, and Ashley Tisdale.

Additional credits include serving as consulting producer and writer on the CBS All Access series No Activity, supervising producer and writer on the Hulu series ALL NIGHT, and co-producer and writer on the NBC series Champions from Mindy Kaling and Charlie Grandy. Schouten also served as an executive story editor and writer on the hit ABC Family series, Young and Hungry, in addition to the Verizon go90's series, Relationship Status, for which she received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for ‘Outstanding Writing in a Digital Drama Series’.

ALI SCHOUTEN

What we deal with more in the second season is how your online persona and your real-life persona sometimes can't help but be at odds with one another. In the first episode back we get into how women are treated, how women in relationships are treated online. In a later episode, we deal with how women are or are not allowed to express their anger online as content creators. So it’s something we talked a lot about in the room. That fracturing of self, that even in a goofy show that's very lighthearted and entertaining, it’s something that we do discuss and try to sneak little tidbits in there.

In developing Harper’s character, it felt like just very realistic. We’re in a major city that's very liberal, that’s very creative, that this would be someone who would be a stylist, who would not necessarily need to have a coming out story because maybe they aren't from a background where… She might have come out as pansexual when she was 13. That probably didn’t need to be said. Carly wouldn't be someone you needed to sit down and hold her hand and say, “I’ve got something to tell you.” That this is someone who would say, “Oh, cool, my roommate brought home a woman.” Or, my roommate brought home someone nonbinary. That's not something that we have to discuss. And Laci has talked a lot about how there is a place for that in a lot of shows and it's really important to have art like that, but it’s also equally important to have shows where it's not this big deal coming out scene. That these are people just existing joyfully and living their lives and pursuing their dreams and relationships. That’s equally valuable. I think we really felt that with the nature of the show that was the opportunity we had. It’s such a joyful show that why not just show someone dating who they want to date and who they connect with.

This interview was conducted by Mia Funk & Katherine Ritter with the participation of collaborating universities and students. Associate Interviews Producer on this podcast was Katherine Ritter. Digital Media Coordinator is Phoebe Brous.
Mia Funk is an artist, interviewer and founder of The Creative Process & One Planet Podcast (Conversations about Climate Change & Environmental Solutions).