--- title: CW Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Show Writer on Creative Soulmates description: Show writer Aline Brosh McKenna discusses the joys of her creative partnership with actress Rachel Bloom. canonical: https://time.com/4293182/cw-crazy-ex-girlfriend-writer-creative-partnership/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-18T16:09:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:02:15.153Z og:title: How to Find Your Creative Soulmate og:description: From the woman behind 'The Devil Wears Prada' and 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' og:url: https://time.com/4293182/cw-crazy-ex-girlfriend-writer-creative-partnership/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt60b402d9883e7898/69888f51e20a870b49a906fa/brosh-mckenna-rachel-bloom.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Brosh-McKenna-rachel-bloom og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How to Find Your Creative Soulmate twitter:description: From the woman behind 'The Devil Wears Prada' and 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt60b402d9883e7898/69888f51e20a870b49a906fa/brosh-mckenna-rachel-bloom.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How the Woman Behind _The Devil Wears Prada_, _27 Dresses_ and _Crazy Ex-Girlfriend_ Found Her Creative Soul Mate by [Jessie Van Amburg](https://time.com/author/jessie-van-amburg/) ## Jessie Van Amburg Apr 18, 2016 4:09 PM UTC  Actress Rachel Bloom, winner of Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy (L) and screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna, pose in the press room during the 73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 10, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California. Actress Rachel Bloom, winner of Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy (L) and screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna, pose in the press room during the 73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 10, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California.Mark Davis—Getty Images by [Jessie Van Amburg](https://time.com/author/jessie-van-amburg/) ## Jessie Van Amburg Apr 18, 2016 4:09 PM UTC Before she was cowriting the musical comedy show _Crazy Ex-Girlfriend_, Aline Brosh McKenna had already cut her teeth working on some big movie hits (she’s one of the creative geniuses responsible for _The Devil Wears Prada_ and _27 Dresses_ _)_. But after discovering comedian [Rachel Bloom](http://time.com/4068058/rachel-bloom-crazy-ex-girlfriend/) on YouTube, McKenna made the jump from big to small screen. Bloom, who she describes as her “work wife-sister-daughter-friend,” now stars and cowrites the show with McKenna. Bloom earned a Golden Globe in 2016 for her performance on the show. Motto talked with McKenna about the power of finding your creative soul mate and what the partnership with Bloom has done for both of their careers. **Motto: How did you and Bloom come together to start making** **_Crazy Ex-Girlfriend_** **?** **McKenna:** It all started because I was writing movies and I saw Rachel’s work. I just wanted to meet her and see if I could help. … I had been toying with the “crazy ex-girlfriend” idea for a long time, and as we were talking, it just struck me that the part suited her really well—her characters have this manic intensity. … We hit it off right away. We talked about \[the show\] for months and months before we even pitched it. **What is it like working with Bloom?**I believe that you can find soul mates anywhere, at any age. I’ve had writing partners, producers and a number of really close collaborations—but not one like this. We ended up writing 900 pages of material for the show. It’s productive and intense. …We have developed twin speak—we’re basically like tree elves gibbering in our own language. No one makes me laugh harder. I basically ran away with a younger lady! **How have your different experiences influenced your work together?**We are exactly 20 years apart. We have different creative backgrounds and don’t take similar approaches to things. I’m from a long-form writing, big-picture background, and she’s from more short-form stuff. You can see that in the show. It’s fun to be able to draw from two different generations of background. It’s “our” voice and a pretty distinct meshing of storytelling. A lot of the humor comes from her, and that’s a side I had never expressed before. **_Read more:_** _‘_[_I Went From Being Kicked Out of College to Co-Producing_ ](http://motto.time.com/4259180/orange-new-black-producer-college)[Orange Is The New Black’](http://motto.time.com/4259180/orange-new-black-producer-college) **Do you think it’s important for older women to mentor younger women?**Mentoring sounds like a thing you do to be a nice person, but the truth is, I have found joy and pleasure in working with people older than me and younger than me. One of the great things in life is finding people you can collaborate with. I spend so much solitary time writing screenplays that it’s great getting out there and working with other people. I don’t think of \[mentoring\] as a public service. We got a TV show out of it, so that’s been pretty good! _This interview has been edited and condensed._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4293182/cw-crazy-ex-girlfriend-writer-creative-partnership/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4293182/cw-crazy-ex-girlfriend-writer-creative-partnership/"},"headline":"How the Woman Behind The Devil Wears Prada, 27 Dresses and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Found Her Creative Soul Mate","datePublished":"2016-04-18T16:09:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:02:15.153Z","description":"'We hit it off right away'","url":"https://time.com/4293182/cw-crazy-ex-girlfriend-writer-creative-partnership/","keywords":["motto","Television","Career & Workplace"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt60b402d9883e7898/69888f51e20a870b49a906fa/brosh-mckenna-rachel-bloom.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jessie Van Amburg","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jessie-van-amburg/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt60b402d9883e7898/69888f51e20a870b49a906fa/brosh-mckenna-rachel-bloom.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Brosh-McKenna-rachel-bloom","caption":"Actress Rachel Bloom, winner of Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy (L) and screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna, pose in the press room during the 73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Janu","creditText":"Mark Davis—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4293182/cw-crazy-ex-girlfriend-writer-creative-partnership/","name":"How the Woman Behind The Devil Wears Prada, 27 Dresses and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Found Her Creative Soul Mate"}}]}] ```