Martha Mills Noxon (born August 25, 1964) is an American television and film writer, director, and producer. She is best known for her work as a screenwriter and executive producer on the supernatural drama series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003). She was also executive producer, writer, and creator of the Bravo comedy-drama series Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce (2014–18) and the Lifetime drama series UnREAL (2015–18), and an executive producer of the CBS medical drama series Code Black (2015–17).

Noxon also wrote the science fiction action film I Am Number Four (2011), the horror thriller film Fright Night (2011), and the biographical drama film The Glass Castle (2017). She wrote and directed the drama film To the Bone (2017).

Noxon created the AMC dark comedy series Dietland and the HBO limited series Sharp Objects, both of which premiered in 2018.

Early life

Noxon was born in Los Angeles, California, to National Geographic documentary filmmaker father, Nicolas Noxon, and Mary Straley. Noxon has said that she grew up in nearby Santa Monica, and that her mother was gay. She has a brother, Christopher Noxon, who is a writer and was previously married to TV writer Jenji Kohan. Her grandmother was painter Betty Lane. Noxon would often accompany her father when he traveled to shoot documentary films and was already in love with the idea of movies.

Noxon graduated from Oakes College at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1987 with a B.A. in Theater Arts.

Career

Early career

Initially Noxon wanted to be an actor because it seemed glamorous, but after trying for a while realized it was not something that she wanted to do. She said that she had always been told that writing was her strength, and eventually that was what she focused on. At the season's conclusion, fan reaction was mixed, leading some to criticize Whedon for abandoning creative control and stewardship of Buffy to Noxon. In response, Whedon said:

Noxon was executive producer of Buffy between 2001 and 2003, for its sixth and seventh seasons.

Other projects

In 2004, Noxon wrote and produced a pilot entitled Still Life for Fox about a family recovering from the death of their son, a police officer. Despite being picked up to series the show has never been aired in the U.S. as FOX cancelled the show after seven episodes were produced, due to the subject matter.

In January 2005, Noxon co-created the supernatural drama Point Pleasant with John McLaughlin. Despite an initial strong following, viewership dropped dramatically, and only 11 of the 13 filmed episodes were aired on Fox. In the fall of 2005, halfway through its first season, Noxon left Prison Break, where she had been a consulting producer. She said she wasn't connecting with the material and the vision of the writer's room. In September 2006, Noxon joined the ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy for its third season, as consulting producer. In February 2007, Noxon co-wrote the third-season Grey's Anatomy episode "Some Kind of Miracle" with series creator Shonda Rhimes. In late 2007, Noxon served as head writer during the first season of Private Practice. She won the WGA Award for Best Drama Series (after being nominated for the second consecutive year) at the February 2010 ceremony for her work on the third season of Mad Men.

In 2011, Noxon joined the writing team of FOX's Glee for its third season, she did not return for its fourth season.

In 2014, Noxon, along with co-creator Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, began working on the Lifetime comedy-drama series UnREAL. While working on UnREAL, Noxon was also working on Bravo's first original scripted TV series Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce. Noxon is also one of the executive producers of the CBS medical drama series Code Black which premiered in the fall of 2015.

Film

Noxon co-wrote the 1998 film Just a Little Harmless Sex with Roger Mills.

She wrote the screenplay of the 2011 remake of Fright Night, directed by Craig Gillespie.

She wrote and directed the 2017 film To the Bone.

Personal life

Noxon met her now ex-husband Jeff Bynum while they were both working on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She has two children.

Noxon said that her show, Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce, is not about her divorce, but is about divorce.

One of her hobbies is baking. As part of that interest, she opened a flour mill in Pasadena, California, called Grist & Toll that supplies local restaurants with ground flour for baking.

Filmography

Television

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable"

! rowspan="2" scope="col"| Title

! rowspan="2" scope="col"| Year

! colspan="4" scope="col"| Credited as

! rowspan="2" scope="col"| Network

! rowspan="2" scope="col" class="unsortable"| Notes

|-

! Creator

! Director

! Writer

! Executive<br>producer

|-

! scope=row | Buffy the Vampire Slayer

| 1997

|

|

|

|

| The WB (seasons 1–5)<br>UPN (seasons 6–7)

|

|-

! scope=row | Angel

| 2000

|

|

|

|

| The WB

| Also consulting producer

|-

! scope=row | Still Life

| 2003

|

|

|

|

| Fox

|

|-

! scope=row | Point Pleasant

| 2005

|

|

|

|

| Fox

|

|-

! scope=row | Brothers & Sisters

| 2006

|

|

|

|

| ABC

|

|-

! scope=row | Grey's Anatomy

| 2007

|

|

|

|

| ABC

| Also consulting producer

|-

! scope=row | Private Practice

| 2007–2008

|

|

|

|

| ABC

|

|-

! scope=row | Mad Men

| 2008–2009

|

|

|

|

| AMC

| Consulting producer

|-

! scope=row | Gigantic

| 2010

|

|

|

|

| TeenNick

|

|-

! scope=row | Glee

| 2011–2012

|

|

|

|

| Fox

| Consulting producer

|-

! scope=row | Unreal

| 2015–2018

|

|

|

|

| Lifetime (2015–18)<br>Hulu (2018)

|

|-

! scope=row | Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce

| 2014–2018

|

|

|

|

| Bravo

|

|-

! scope=row | [[Code Black (TV series)|

Code Black]]

| 2015–2017

|

|

|

|

| CBS

|

|-

! scope=row | Dietland

| 2018

|

|

|

|

| AMC

|

|-

! scope=row | Sharp Objects

| 2018

|

|

|

|

| HBO

|

|-

! scope=row | The 45 Rules of Divorce

| 2021–2022

|

|

|

|

| MBC 4<br>Shahid VIP<br>OSN Woman<br>OSN Yahala<br>OSN Series First<br>Dubai One

| Arabic adaptation of Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce

|}

Cinema

  • Just a Little Harmless Sex (with Roger Mills) (1998)
  • I Am Number Four (with Alfred Gough and Miles Millar) (2011)
  • Fright Night (2011)
  • To the Bone (2017) (writer and director)
  • The Glass Castle (2017)

Television credits

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Noxon joined the Buffy writing staff in the second season as a story editor and wrote several episodes in her first season. She was promoted to co-producer in season three, supervising producer in season four, co-executive producer in season five, and finally to executive producer in season six and also became the showrunner.

  • 2x09 "What's My Line (Part 1)" (co-writer; with Howard Gordon)
  • 2x10 "What's My Line (Part 2)" (writer)
  • 2x12 "Bad Eggs" (writer)
  • 2x13 "Surprise" (writer)
  • 2x16 "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" (writer)
  • 2x19 "I Only Have Eyes for You" (writer)
  • 3x02 "Dead Man's Party" (writer)
  • 3x04 "Beauty and the Beasts" (writer)
  • 3x09 "The Wish" (writer)
  • 3x15 "Consequences" (writer)
  • 3x20 "The Prom" (writer)
  • 4x02 "Living Conditions" (writer)
  • 4x06 "Wild at Heart" (writer)
  • 4x11 "Doomed (co-writer; with David Fury and Jane Espenson)
  • 4x14 "Goodbye Iowa" (writer)
  • 4x19 "New Moon Rising" (writer)
  • 5x01 "Buffy vs. Dracula" (writer)
  • 5x10 "Into the Woods" (writer and director)
  • 5x17 "Forever" (writer and director)
  • 6x01 "Bargaining (Part 1)" (writer)
  • 6x10 "Wrecked" (writer)
  • 6x20 "Villains" (writer)
  • 7x07 "Conversations with Dead People" (uncredited writer)
  • 7x10 "Bring on the Night" (co-writer; with Doug Petrie)

Angel

Noxon served as consulting producer for the first three seasons of Angel, doing several uncredited rewrites.

  • 1x13 "She" (co-writer; with David Greenwalt)

Point Pleasant

Noxon served as executive producer and showrunner on the series.

  • 1x01 "Pilot" (co-writer; with John J. McLaughlin)
  • 1x02 "Human Nature" (writer)
  • 1x13 "Let the War Commence" (co-writer; with Jenny Lynn)

Private Practice

Noxon served as an executive producer for the first two seasons of Private Practice.

  • 1x03 "In Which Addison Finds the Magic" (co-writer; with Shonda Rhimes)
  • 1x05 "In Which Addison Finds a Showerhead" (co-writer; with Shonda Rhimes)
  • 2x01 "A Family Thing" (co-writer; with Shonda Rhimes)

Glee

Noxon served as consulting producer and writer for the third season. On June 4, 2012, she announced that she would not return for the fourth season.

  • 3x09 "Extraordinary Merry Christmas" (writer)
  • 3x18 "Choke" (writer)

Dietland

Noxon is serving as show-runner, executive producer, writer, and is also directing some episodes.

  • 1x01 "Pilot"
  • 1x02 "Tender Belly"

Sharp Objects

Noxon is the creator, executive producer, and writer for the HBO 8-part miniseries Sharp Objects, adapted from Gillian Flynn's novel of the same name. The project was initially planned as a feature film, but Noxon convinced the network that the story would work better as a limited series. The show, which premiered on July 8, 2018, is directed by Big Little Lies director Jean-Marc Vallée and stars Amy Adams, Patricia Clarkson and Chris Messina.

See also

  • Mutant Enemy Productions

References

  • Deconstructing the Emotional Allure - CityofAngel.com
  • The 'Grr' In Girl: Marti Noxon fansite