Enlightened is an American comedy-drama television series that premiered on HBO on October 10, 2011. The series was created by Mike White, who wrote every episode, and Laura Dern. As signaled by its tagline "About a woman on the verge of a nervous breakthrough", Enlightened follows the story of Amy Jellicoe (Dern), a self-destructive executive, who, after the implosion of her professional life and a subsequent philosophical awakening in rehabilitation, tries to get her life back together.