The long, long road to making Severance proved well worth it for Erickson. The scribe’s first series, starring Adam Scott and directed by Ben Stiller, gave Apple another reason to brag about its TV ventures when it premiered to a rapturous critical reception and went on to earn 14 Emmy nominations and a speedy renewal. The dystopian mystery about work-life balance gone horribly awry also made Erickson, who previously kept a low profile in Hollywood, a writer on almost everyone’s list.

My most embarrassing pitch involved …
“A tooth and the grille of a car and the human digestive system. That’s all I can legally say.”

In five years, I’ll probably be …
“Publicly begging some tech company not to release the Severance chip for real.”