Emily Skopov (born 1966) is an American screenwriter and politician.

Personal life

Skopov was born in 1966 in New York, and is of Jewish descent. She was raised in

Rockland County Rockland County is the southernmost county on the west side of the Hudson River in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. It is about from the Bronx at their closest points. The county's population, as of t ...

. Skopov earned an undergraduate degree in English literature from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, and planned to become an English professor or lawyer. She committed to writing only after attending the

UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (UCLA TFT), is one of the 12 schools within the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) located in Los Angeles, California. Its creation was groundbreaking in that it was the first time a leadi ...

. In 2010, Skopov moved to

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, Pennsylvania, from

El Segundo, California El Segundo ( , ; ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located on Santa Monica Bay, it was incorporated on January 18, 1917, and is part of the South Bay Cities Council of Governments. The population was 16,731 as of th ...

, then settled in Marshall Township with her husband Todd Normane and two children. Skopov is the founder of the non-profit organization No Crayon Left Behind. The organization was established in 2011, soon after Skopov began collecting discarded crayons from restaurants and distributing them to places where they would be used, such as homeless shelters, daycares, and preschools.

Film and television

Skopov worked on several television shows including ''

The Client Client(s) or The Client may refer to: * Client (business) * Client (computing), hardware or software that accesses a remote service on another computer * Customer or client, a recipient of goods or services in return for monetary or other valuabl ...

'', '' Xena: Warrior Princess'', '' Pacific Blue'', ''

Crisis Center ''Crisis Center'' is an American drama television series that aired on NBC from February 28 until April 4, 1997. Premise The series revolve around a crisis center in San Francisco where they deal with suicidal callers, hostage situations and mot ...

'', and '' Andromeda''. She left the crew of ''

Farscape ''Farscape'' is an Australian-American science fiction television series, produced originally for the Nine Network. It premiered in the US on Sci-Fi Channel's SciFi Friday, 19 March 1999, at 8:00 pm EST as their anchor series. The series was c ...

'' after six months, to focus on raising her daughter. Skopov began work on the 2006 film '' Novel Romance'', which she directed and cowrote, shortly before her son was born.

Political career

2018 election

Skopov sought the

District 28 A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

seat in the

Pennsylvania House of Representatives The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts. It ...

as a

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

candidate in 2018. During her campaign, Skopov criticized incumbent legislator

Mike Turzai Michael Coyne Turzai (born August 2, 1959) is an American politician and former Republican Party (United States), Republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives who served as Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, S ...

for mounting several unsuccessful bids for higher electoral office. Turzai retained the seat, in the closest contest since he was first elected in 2001.

2020 election

In August 2019, Skopov began her second campaign for the state legislature. Turzai announced his retirement from politics, then resigned his seat before the 2020 general election, and Skopov faced Republican candidate

Rob Mercuri Rob Mercuri (born c. 1982) is an American politician. He has served as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives since 2021, representing District 28. Early life and career Mercuri was raised in West Deer Township, and attended Dee ...

. Skopov positioned herself as a

moderate Democrat New Democrats, also known as centrist Democrats, Clinton Democrats, or moderate Democrats, are a centrist ideological faction within the Democratic Party in the United States. As the Third Way faction of the party, they are seen as cultura ...

. Skopov was defeated in the general election. Following her defeat and the Democrats' failure to flip the state legislature, Skopov wrote on Twitter that she had been “a casualty/collateral damage of this offensively poor messaging,” referring to the Democratic Party's inability to defend moderate Democrats in swing districts against

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

attempts to inaccurately tag them with positions of supporting "

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

" and "

defunding the police "Defund the police" is a slogan that supports removing funds from police departments and reallocating them to non-policing forms of public safety and community support, such as social services, youth services, housing, education, healthcare and ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Skopov, Emily 1966 births Living people Pennsylvania Democrats Politicians from Pittsburgh Screenwriters from New York (state) Screenwriters from Pennsylvania Screenwriters from California American women film directors American women screenwriters Columbia University alumni UCLA Film School alumni Film directors from California Film directors from Pennsylvania Film directors from New York (state) People from El Segundo, California Writers from Pittsburgh 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century American politicians Women in Pennsylvania politics 21st-century American women writers Jewish American people in Pennsylvania politics Jewish American screenwriters 20th-century American women writers People from Rockland County, New York 21st-century American Jews American nonprofit chief executives American nonprofit executives