Mara Brock Akil

Mara Brock Akil
Akil in 2013
Born	(1970-05-27) May 27, 1970 (age 54) Compton, California, U.S.
Alma mater	Northwestern University
Occupation(s)	Screenwriter, producer
Years active	1993–present
Spouse	Salim Akil ​ (m. 1999)​
Children	2

Mara Brock Akil (born May 27, 1970) is an American television producer, screenwriter and director. She became the youngest African American female showrunner when she created the sitcom Girlfriends (2000–2008), airing on UPN and The CW, and the first African American female showrunner to have two series concurrently on broadcast network television when she created its spin-off The Game (2006–15) on The CW before moving to BET.

She created BET's first drama series Being Mary Jane (2013–19) and The Game sequel (2021–22) on Paramount+. She co-created Love Is (2018) on OWN and executive produced the DC Arrowverse series Black Lightning (2018–21) on The CW. She was a writer on South Central (1994) on Fox, and a writer and producer on Moesha (1996–99) on UPN, The Jamie Foxx Show (1999–2000) on The WB, Cougar Town (2010) on ABC and theatrical film Sparkle (2012). Together with her husband and collaborator Salim Akil, the creative duo founded Akil Productions in 2000. She founded Story27 with Netflix in 2021.

Brock Akil is the only African American showrunner or executive producer to have series on TV every year from 2000 to 2015, and the first to have two series and the only to have two black sitcoms concurrently on broadcast network TV during the 2000s. Her series were two of only three shows in 2007 and 2008 and was one of only two shows in 2009 with a predominantly Black cast on broadcast network TV.^[1]