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Creator and executive producer of Sony Pictures Television’s STRONG MEDICINE, the longest-running drama created for cable television, Tammy Ader began her successful writing career in medical school. “I am a medical school dropout,” she admitted with a laugh, acknowledging the irony. “But mind you, I was in medical school for six days,” she added. Ader had always dreamed of being a writer but wasn’t quite sure how to go about it. While attending Boston’s esteemed Brandeis University, her uncertainty about how to follow her dream of being a writer led her to take science classes instead. “The whole thing snowballed,” she remembered, “the next thing I knew I was in medical school.”
She recalled the defining moment, “I was sitting in class in medical school, one of these big classes, and there was the professor saying, ‘for Monday you have such and such chapter to read,’ and I had this kind of out-of-body experience where something said to me, ‘you don’t have to read those chapters for Monday, because you won’t be here Monday!’” She literally got up in the middle of class, started sobbing and, mistakenly, walked right into the men’s room. “I really wanted to be a writer, not a doctor.”
She moved to Los Angeles and started out like many other top producers -- at the bottom. She learned about production when she became a production coordinator on “The Wonder Years.” She sold her first freelance script to the producers at “thirtysomething,” a script that became a memorable, controversial episode about abortion. She then wrote several scripts for “The Wonder Years” and soon became a staff writer on the CBS drama series “W.I.O.U.,” followed by a writing job under “Northern Exposure’s” Josh Brand and John Falsey on “Going to Extremes.” She became a supervising producer on the hit drama “Sisters” and then co-executive producer on the popular drama series “Party of Five.”
Currently, Ader executive produces the series STRONG MEDICINE with producing partner Whoopi Goldberg. STRONG MEDICINE is an hour drama, which revolves around the ongoing struggles of two dedicated physicians (Rick Schroder and Rosa Blasi) in the exciting and inspiring world of women’s health. Ader and STRONG MEDICINE were recently honored with the Gracie Allen Award from The Foundation of American Women in Radio and Television for Outstanding Producing and Best Dramatic Series as well as by the American Red Cross, The Foundation for Cardiovascular and Transplant Research at UCLA, The Heart Fund at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the Angel Award for Excellence in Media, The White House Project and The Media Project with the SHINE (Sexual Health In Entertainment) Award for Best Drama.
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