Bash Doran Signs Exclusive Overall Deal With Paramount Television Studios

Paramount Television Studios has signed TV writer and playwright Bash Doran to an exclusive overall deal, Deadline reported on 28 October 2026. An overall deal is a contract that keeps a writer creating new shows for one studio. Doran will develop and produce original scripted series through Pete's Uncle, the company she runs with Mallory Baysek.

The pair launched Pete's Uncle in 2022. Deadline also reported that the deal was negotiated before Paramount's merger with Warner Bros. Discovery closed.

Doran has had three green lights over the past year. A green light means a studio has decided to make something. Two of them were pilot pickups, meaning the studio ordered a first episode to be shot before deciding on more. The third was a different kind of order.

That third one is Fear Not, a six-episode limited series for Paramount+ starring Anne Hathaway. It is a straight-to-series order, which means no pilot was shot first. The show comes from MGM Television, and Baysek is co-producer.

The other two are both in development. Foster Dade received a pilot pickup at Hulu. How to Survive Without Me, a drama starring Ray Romano, Kaley Cuoco and Joshua Jackson, has moved further. HBO Max has given it a 15-episode series order, with Greg Berlanti running the show day to day and Doran as executive producer. Doran co-wrote the pilot with Berlanti. Warner Bros. Television produces it.

Doran's earlier work covers a wide range. She created and executive produced Traitors for Channel 4 and Netflix. She was a co-executive producer on Hulu's The Looming Tower and a consulting producer on Netflix's Beef. She also wrote for NBC's Smash, Showtime's Masters of Sex and HBO's Boardwalk Empire. On film, she co-wrote the Netflix title Outlaw King, starring Chris Pine.

Her next feature, Henry, stars Ralph Fiennes and is financed by StudioCanal. It is scheduled to shoot in 2026.

What sits under a deal like this is the work that follows. Each series means a writers' room, a cast, and a crew, and many of those jobs only exist once a show is ordered. An overall deal gives the studio a steady stream of new projects from one writer, though it does not guarantee that any of them will reach air.

Matt Thunell is president of Paramount Television Studios, the unit that now holds Doran's exclusive deal.