Justin Noble interview: ‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’ showrunner
“Mindy [Kaling] and I met together on ‘Never Have I Ever,’ where we worked before this,” explains Justin Noble, the co-creator, co-executive producer and co-writer for “The Sex Lives of College Girls” on HBO Max. “Both of us have the same ethos towards comedy, which is cracking a story where there’s characters that have a lot of heart, and a community together, and then just filling it with as many jokes as we can fit. We both come from that network comedy mold, with Mindy from ‘The Mindy Project’ and ‘The Office,’ of course, and I did six years of ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine.’ We just like making easy, fun stories that people can laugh at.” We talked to Noble as part of our “Meet the Experts” TV showrunners panel. Watch our exclusive video interview above.
“The Sex Lives of College Girls” follows four college roommates as they arrive at New England’s prestigious Essex College. A bundle of contradictions and hormones, these girls are equal parts lovable and infuriating as they live out their new, free lives on campus. The series stars Pauline Chalamet as Kimberly, Amrit Kaur as Bela, Renee Rapp as Leighton and Alyah Chanelle Scott as Whitney.
“I am a borderline, stereotypical gay man writer whose friend group has always been the funniest women I can find,” Noble admits. “This show was very fun for me to get into, creatively, because I basically got to hire writers who resemble the friend groups that I would talk to at brunch. Hearing all of their stories about their sexual exploits in college would fuel the stories that we tell on this show. The most fun part of my day is when we’re in the writers’ room and it sort of becomes a borderline sex therapy session where someone will come back and be like, ‘I can’t believe I’m gonna tell this story, but..'”
In preparation for the series, Noble and Kaling also visited college campuses to get an idea of real issues students are dealing with today, both light and heavy. “That ended up being such a fantastic and wonderful learning experience,” he explains. “To hear what 20 and 21-year olds are dealing with right now and making sure we could create a show that would resonate for them.”
Noble’s previous credits include “Idiotsitter,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and “Never Have I Ever.”
