Cleveland native Sonja Warfield, daughter of Paul Warfield, joins HBO’s ‘The Gilded Age’ as writer, producer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Growing up in Beachwood as a debutante with a flair for history, Sonja Warfield was well aware of Cleveland’s Millionaire’s Row.

Now the television writer and author — best known for her work on the Emmy Award-winning NBC sitcom “Will & Grace” and BET’s hit comedy “The Game” — gets to write about 19th-century titans of industry as co-writer/co-executive producer of HBO’s “The Gilded Age.”

The original drama returns for its eight-episode second season Sunday, Oct. 29, on HBO with streaming on Max. It stars Copley native Carrie Coon.

Often seeing films as a teenager at the old Village Theater in Woodmere, the Laurel School class of 1988 graduate, daughter of former Cleveland Browns and NFL Hall of Fame father Paul Warfield, now gets to combine her love of writing and history working on “The Gilded Age” with creator Julian Fellowes (“Downton Abbey”).

We recently caught up Warfield to discuss memories of growing up in Northeast Ohio, this season of “The Gilded Age” and the possibility of a “Downton Abbey” crossover.

Hello, Sonja. Congrats on “The Gilded Age.” Let’s begin talking about your interest in television and film writing.

My dad was a big film buff. At a young age, I was watching “The Godfather” and all of these films, but Cleveland was far away from the film industry that I had no idea that people wrote. I’d watch “Happy Days,” but I thought The Fonz thought of it all. Then my dad also did the games for Ohio State. I would travel with him as a teenager and sit in the director’s truck. But it wasn’t until I started doing college visits that I knew that I wanted to do behind-the-scenes type of things, although at USC I was in an improv troupe. Then after I graduated I did go the acting route, but the problem was I would be auditioning for these soap operas and it was so poorly written it was ridiculous. I would always say, “Oh my gosh I can write better than this,’ but you can’t do that in an audition. I just thought I could do better.

Regarding “The Gilded Age,” what intrigued you about the drama set in the late 19th century?

Going to Laurel, we had sort of that classical education. We had a Winged Victory statue in our hallways and we read all of those Jane Austin and Edith Wharton novels. When I was growing up, I was really fascinated with the Cleveland Historical Society. I would always visit there on my own. I sort of always had this fascination with that time period. Then when (“The Gilded Age”) came along, the writing was just wonderful and so much fun. There were so many layers and the characters were so complex and interesting that I was really drawn to that world. I already had an affinity for it. Then the fact that there was a Black elite family portrayed in the 1880s, which is something we never see on television and film because when Black characters are depicted in that time period it’s usually in relation to enslavement. There were flourishing Black communities across the United States, so I thought this is fantastic that we’re seeing this.

Are there other connections you feel to the world of “The Gilded Age?”

It was interesting because I kind of related to the classical debutante part of it and the Black elite part of it. So it was just a really good fit. I’ve always been a fan of Julian’s work. When I had the opportunity to even just meet with Julian Fellowes, of course, I jumped at it. We shoot some of the show in Albany because there’s an area that hasn’t been touched. There’s no urban renewal. There are all of those old homes that you see in Cleveland and Shaker Heights that I’m familiar with. We were driving through Albany and I said, ‘Oh, Julian, this looks like my old neighborhood.’ I went to school with people who had ballrooms in their homes just because that’s how the houses were built back then. Also, I’m familiar with Newport. I was married to somebody from Rhode Island. I spent a lot of time there. This show oddly kind of checked a lot of boxes for me that I think perhaps by looking at me you wouldn’t know that I had all of this in common with it, but I do.

Finally, considering Fellowes is known for his popular “Downton Abbey” franchise, could a crossover with “The Gilded Age” be in the works?

It would be great, but everybody is waiting for that. We’ll see what happens. Maybe if we get a season 3.