Nemesis Showrunner Courtney A. Kemp Discusses Career Changes in 'Hot Knife'

      “It's quite amusing, really, because the position I desired more than anything else was yours,” says Courtney A. Kemp, the showrunner of Nemesis, during her conversation with MovieMaker about her television career.

      A decade before launching the prominent Starz series Power, Kemp worked as an assistant at GQ, freelancing on the side while aspiring to be the first Black editor-in-chief of Vogue.

      “I envisioned that as my future,” shares the Emmy-nominated writer, producer, and showrunner. “I really wanted to work for Entertainment Weekly, or a similar magazine. … So I began at Mademoiselle—do you remember that title from ages ago? After Mademoiselle, I moved to GQ… where I had the chance to write an article on interracial dating.”

      That article from 2001 not only earned Kemp a literary agent at ICM but also captured the interest of television producers Chris Alberghini and Michael Chessler, who sought to adapt the piece into a series. Although the show never materialized, it redirected the young writer's ambitions toward television, accelerating her journey in a notoriously tough industry.

      Through her experience of missing out on magazine jobs but succeeding in television, she developed a philosophy she shares with aspiring individuals: “When it’s meant for you, it’ll flow effortlessly. When it’s not, there’s nothing you can do.”

      If writing is your calling, Kemp believes you're among the fortunate few.

      “We can write our way out of challenges,” she states. “All it takes is a laptop and a dream, and you can indeed build a career from that. So, I returned to the drawing board and wrote what I enjoyed watching.”

      Nemesis premieres on Netflix this Thursday, featuring the psychological crime drama centered on two characters—Detective Isaiah Stiles, portrayed by Matthew Law, and heist mastermind Coltrane Wilder, played by Y’lan Noel. Kemp co-created the show alongside her fiancé, Tani Marole.

      “I consider myself very fortunate,” Kemp remarks, adding, “but the journey to get here was a bit rocky. After leaving GQ, I started writing the J Crew catalog. It wasn't a swift process.”

      She relocated to Los Angeles in June 2004 and two months later landed a staff position on The Bernie Mac Show: “I wrote a spec episode, and they hired me based on that, which was quite incredible,” she recalls. “I was very lucky.”

      However, that luck was short-lived, as Kemp was let go at the end of that season.

      “I’m not humorous,” she admits with humility. “Not in the way required to thrive in that type of setting. I simply didn’t fit in, and I was dismissed.”

      The dismissal from the FOX sitcom served as a wake-up call when her agent, Nancy Etz, inquired whether she wished to continue in comedy writing.

      “My answer was an emphatic ‘No.’ I didn’t even watch comedies. I was someone who enjoyed murder mysteries and violence,” she explains. “So, I wrote a spec script for CSI, and that led to a job on a show called In Justice, marking the beginning of my career in one-hour dramas, where I felt much happier.”

      Kemp also contributed to shows like Eli Stone, My Own Worst Enemy, and Happy Town. Yet, her experience on In Justice was particularly impactful because its creators, Robert and Michelle King, went on to create the acclaimed Emmy-winning series The Good Wife. Kemp served as a supervising producer on that show.

      “They appreciated my work,” she recalls. “They enjoyed collaborating with me when I was a novice writer on In Justice, so they reached out, and I interviewed with them and was hired.”

      She regards the Kings as mentors who imparted much of what she needed to know before heading her own show.

      “They were exceptional storytellers,” she explains. “I learned a great deal about creating structure and effectively utilizing actors so that you don’t exhaust your lead character in the storytelling—monitoring all the production elements often overlooked in narrative crafting.”

      Kemp soon began to confidently claim her space, both literally and figuratively. She had discussions with producer Mark Canton, who was interested in creating a music-driven show with 50 Cent. This aligned perfectly with an idea she had been secretly nurturing.

      “I wanted to create a Black Sopranos. I found that concept compelling,” she states. “Additionally, my father passed away that year in 2011, and I was searching for a way to write about him. All these elements converged during that time, leading me to decide to leave The Good Wife to focus on developing Power.”

      While working on the Power pilot, she also wrote and produced for CBS's Hawaii Five-0 and Beauty and the Beast. Power grew into a vast television universe, of which she continues to be an executive producer.

      However, this may not have come to fruition if she hadn’t been daring enough to pursue