Michele Palermo

MIDDLEHOOD’s creator, writer, director, and executive producer enjoys a career as varied, expansive and colorful as her life.

A published and award-winning playwright focused on telling women’s stories, Michele was recruited for television when a TV Exec saw the premiere production of her play Ladies in Waiting. Since then, she has written myriad pilots and episodes; developed series with Peter Horton; David E. Kelley; and The Mansion, an upstairs/downstairs dramedy set in a Governor’s mansion, for LIFETIME. Michele has written, produced, and directed two award-winning indie features, Ladies In Waiting (based on her play), and the mockumentary Unreel: A True Hollywood Story; in addition to the popular web series Chapin Circle.
Michele grew up between Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Rome, Italy; is fluent in Italian and French; holds a M.A. of International Communication from American University; and was once recruited by the CIA (big “no” to that!). She spent four years as Chief of Staff/Speechwriter for Virginia First Lady Lisa Collis (wife of former Virginia Governor and current Senator Mark R. Warner) and a year researching tomatoes and compost for the incomparable Martha Stewart.
Michele is incredibly honored to be an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University School of Film, where she teaches Writing for Television.

The series was developed with Larry Gilbert (Hell On Wheels, Rookie Blue) who produced the first season
alongside Lolly Howe (A Haunting In Cawdor, The Chameleon).

MIDDLEHOOD is executive-produced by Michele Palermo and Paul Prissel.