Great Comedies Written by Women

More than ever, women are making strides in high-profile, behind-the-camera entertainment jobs, whether writing or directing or both. Comedian and actress Amy Schumer has been taking the world by storm with her top-notch writing and comedy, both of which will be seen in her upcoming film Trainwreck. Before her film pops up on the big screen, let's run down the list of talented women who've made their stamp in the writing game.

Nora Ephron is the queen of writing and directing romantic comedies. One of her best contributions came in the form of a little script called When Harry Met Sally. The amalgamation of incredible talent on- and offscreen transformed this movie into an instant classic. She went on to create a slew of films afterwards, but this script still stands out as her best work.

It’s one thing to put together a play to show off to the masses, but it's another feat entirely to turn that into a feature-length film. The leading ladies eventually have to face a lot of mistakes in their lives, which is brought to the forefront thanks to a party in Bachelorette. A charming cast of ladies shared the spotlight in what easily is one of the better female-driven movies in the past five years.

Abortion is a hot-button topic, one that makes people nervous at its mere mention. But writer-director Gillian Robespierre saw the challenge and embraced it through a heartfelt and slightly comical way with her movie Obvious Child. The romantic comedy caught the attention of many last year, paving the way to success not only for leading actress Jenny Slate but Robespierre's writer-director career.

Back in 2011 actress Kristen Wiig was riding high on the success of Saturday Night Live. Shortly before she left the show, Wiig teamed up with screenwriter Annie Mumolo to write the surprise hit film Bridesmaids. The charming romantic comedy brought many talented people in the spotlight and tons of laughs to audiences everywhere.

A cappella groups in college sound just as lame as being part of the high school marching band, but boy were audiences proven wrong about that when Pitch Perfect came out in theaters. Kay Cannon spun the nonfiction novel into a fictional, hilarious comedic romp that shows off some serious girl power. The surprise hit made quite the impact box office-wise, and its sequel, Pitch Perfect 2, kept the aca-train rolling strong with equally stellar reviews and revenue.

Tina Fey is one of this generation's queens of comedy. The writer-actress has displayed her talent on a number of entertainment platforms for years, bringing laugh-out-loud comedy to everyone around the world. So she took a crack at writing a feature script for a little film everyone now knows as Mean Girls. The hilarious modern-day classic is still a favorite of many after these years.

Juno is one of those romantic comedy-dramas that popped out of the film-festival circuit and captured everyone's attention, largely due to its sharp dialogue. The script was written by first-time screenwriter Diablo Cody, whose work stood out so much amongst the others in 2007 that she won an Oscar for her talent. 

At first glance The Heat comes off as a stereotypical buddy-cop comedy that doesn't have much going on below the surface. But with the combined talent of Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy, along with the clever script by Katie Dippold, The Heat became one of the biggest summer 2013 hits in the box office. Dippold weaves together a solid story mixed with suspense, action and great comedy.

Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg star in Celeste & Jesse Forever, a romantic drama that brings to light what happens when a relationship runs its course. It's a hard topic that everyone's dealt with at least in one point during their lives, but screenwriters Rashida Jones and Will McCormack handled the heartbreaking subject with class.

Who knew that a story about working at a phone-sex line could be hilarious, but screenwriters Lauren Miller and Katie Anne Naylon put a great one together containing a whole bunch of heart in For A Good Time, Call… It rocketed from Sundance to theaters nationwide.