Jill Lorie Hurst
Story Producer – Guiding Light

Jill  was born and raised in the city of Detroit, the daughter of a CBS soap fan mom and a dad who loved New York. She attended Detroit public schools in the 60’s and 70’s, studied theatre at Wayne State University and moved to New York in 1982 with no particular plan in place. She enjoyed a ten year run as a waitress in the garment district, then took on a second job at the reception desk at EUE Screen Gems, the studio where  the soap opera Guiding Light was being taped.

After a couple of years at the front desk (during which time she met her husband Tony, then a stage manager – he used to push the button for the 4th floor “by accident” to say hello), GL exec producer Jill Phelps pulled her back to the production office where she toiled as a writers assistant for five years. During that time Paul Rauch joined the show as EP and (with the coaxing of some benevolent writers on the team) he partnered Jill with assistant producer David Kreizman to write a couple of sample scripts for the show.

Timing is everything and they were ready to write for air when the time came to replace a staff writer. Jill, chicken that she is, kept her assistant job and wrote part time, while smart (future head writer) Dave went home to write full time. When David and Jill’s mentor Nancy Williams Watt decided to leave GL, Jill was made script editor, a job she’s held on and off over the years depending on the needs of the writing team and executive producer.

She has also worked as a GL breakdown writer on three separate occasions and in May of 2007 was named Story Producer when the writing team was reorganized. 

Jill has been nominated with the GL writing team for both Writers Guild and Daytime Emmy Awards. In 2004, the GL team won the WGA Award and in 2007 they had a great time running down the aisle to pick up their Daytime Emmy. Jill lives in New York City with her husband Tony Hurst, an artist/photographer/carpenter, their dog Scout and cat Molly.