Tina Fey

Bossypants is a direct route into Fey’s prose voice, bringing work, family and the business of comedy into the same comic frame. Pair it with her Fresh Air discussion of writing 30 Rock to understand how a recognisable voice can coexist with a writers’ room. She explicitly distinguishes scripts bearing her credit from scenes developed collectively. Choose her for brisk changes of emphasis and self-questioning commentary, and resist assigning every line she performs to her alone: the collaboration is part of the writing story.