Angela Nissel

Angela Nissel is author of the national best-selling comedic memoirs The Broke Diaries and Mixed. In addition to books, she is a co-executive producer and writer for NBC's medical sitcom Scrubs and executive producer of an in-development television project with Halle Berry and Vincent Cirricionne.

Angela was born a lower-middle class light-brown child in Philadelphia. She even stayed in that fair city for college, graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in medical anthropology. That degree led to a stellar career as a temp for the IRS, a "melter" in a metalworking shop, and as a "sleep apnea auditor" working the 12AM to 8AM shift at a local hospital.

She later started a dotcom, OkayPlayer.com, which is still alive and well, but she left it permanently to the care of its co-founder after The Broke Diaries was published. She decided to pursue writing full-time and finally ventured out of Philadelphia to Hollywood.

Upon arriving in Hollywood, she learned that just because someone's vanity plates read "PRDCR", doesn't mean he has the connections to make your book into a screenplay or even help you get a writing job.

Barely paying her rent through freelancing, she put a few possessions on Ebay for extra cash—the winning bidder of one item was a television executive who had read The Broke Diaries. She introduced Nissel to a television literary agent. This agent sent copies of The Broke Diaries to everyone hiring comedy writers and soon, Nissel had numerous job offers. She accepted a position as a staff writer on "Scrubs." She's been there for seven seasons and is currently one of the co-executive producers of the show.

This is the only job she's had where her medical anthropology degree comes in handy.