On February 21, 2024, the Writers Guild of America announced its Animation nominees. Four of the five names on that list wrote for The Simpsons. The fifth, Ariel Ladensohn, wrote “I Know What You Did Next Xmas” for the Hulu revival of Futurama. No major entertainment publication ran a profile on the nomination.
Ladensohn was born Molly Ariel Shepherd-Oppenheim. Her mother is Cybill Shepherd. That sentence is where most articles about her begin and, more often than not, where they end.
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Who Is Molly Ariel Shepherd-Oppenheim?
Molly Ariel Shepherd-Oppenheim was born on October 6, 1987, in Los Angeles, California. She is the daughter of actress Cybill Shepherd and chiropractor Bruce Oppenheim, and the twin sister of Cyrus Zachariah Shepherd-Oppenheim. After marrying Eliza Ladensohn in 2019, she began working professionally under the name Ariel Ladensohn. She is a television writer and producer whose credits include the Hulu revival of Futurama, Season 1 of Hazbin Hotel on Prime Video, Solar Opposites, and Fairfax.
Yale, Short Films, and Two Years Writing Children’s Television
She graduated from Yale University’s playwriting program around 2010 and returned to Los Angeles. Before any television credit, she wrote and directed two short films under her birth name.
“Fuck You from LA” came in 2015. She wrote, directed, and appeared in it. “Dear Sister” followed in 2018. That film featured her half-sister Clementine Ford in the cast, won at the Los Angeles Film Awards and the Top Shorts Film Festival, and received recognition at the New York Film Awards.
From 2018 through 2020, credited as Ariel Shepherd-Oppenheim, she wrote for My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Vampirina, and Clifford the Big Red Dog. Children’s animation is not a path people choose when they are trying to trade on a last name. It is a discipline that produces writers who know how to structure a story for twenty-two minutes with no room for slow scenes and no audience willing to wait. She was in her early thirties, writing television episodes on a production schedule, in rooms where her last name was not the point.
Solar Opposites and the Move Into Adult Animation
In 2020, she joined the Solar Opposites writing staff on Hulu as a staff writer. By the end of her second season, she held the executive story editor credit and had worked on 17 episodes. The episodes she wrote from that run include “The Rad Awesome Terrific Ray,” “The Apple Pencil Pro,” “The Earth Eraser,” and “A Very Solar Holiday Opposites Special.”
In 2022, she moved to Amazon’s Fairfax as a co-producer on eight episodes and wrote one episode, still filed under Ariel Shepherd-Oppenheim on the writing credit. The name transition to Ladensohn had happened in her personal life after the October 2019 marriage, but the credit update moved at a different pace across different productions.
Futurama: Supervising Producer, Three Written Episodes, and a WGA Nomination
When the Futurama revival launched on Hulu in July 2023, Ariel Ladensohn came on as part of a writing staff that mixed long-running franchise veterans with a small number of writers new to the show. Entertainment outlets covering the revival identified her as a “Solar Opposites writer.” That was already out of date.
She has written three episodes across the first three seasons back on air:
“I Know What You Did Next Xmas” Season 11, Episode 6 | August 28, 2023 Bender and Zoidberg travel through time and find themselves facing Robot Santa.
“Attack of the Clothes” Season 12, Episode 6 | September 2, 2024 Professor Farnsworth becomes a fast-fashion designer with predictably disastrous results. Co-written with Jeanette Lim.
“Fifty Shades of Green” Season 13, Episode 3 | September 15, 2025 Fry plans a romantic anniversary for Leela.
Her production role runs considerably wider than her writing credits. She holds supervising producer and producer credits across more than 30 episodes spanning Seasons 11 and 12.
The WGA nominated “I Know What You Did Next Xmas” for the 2024 Animation award. The full category that year: Carolyn Omine, Tim Long, Rob LaZebnik, and Loni Steele Sosthand, all from The Simpsons, plus Ladensohn from Futurama. Sosthand’s episode “Carl Carlson Rides Again” won. The nomination put her work alongside writers who have spent entire careers on one of the most covered animated series in television history. No entertainment outlet ran a feature on it.
Hazbin Hotel: Two Scripts and Prime Video’s Biggest Animated Debut
Vivienne Medrano created Hazbin Hotel and wrote six of Season 1’s eight episodes herself. She gave the other two to Ariel Ladensohn.
When Season 1 launched on Prime Video on January 19, 2024, it recorded the largest global debut for a new animated series on the platform at that time.
The two episodes Ladensohn wrote:
“Scrambled Eggs” Season 1, Episode 3 | January 19, 2024 The hotel runs a trust exercise for its guests while a meeting of Hell’s overlords surfaces a conflict that cuts deeper than the exercise.
“Hello Rosie!” Season 1, Episode 7 | February 2, 2024 The penultimate episode of Season 1. Charlie and Alastor travel to Cannibal Town to seek help from Rosie while the hotel prepares for the extermination ahead.
Hazbin Hotel has since been renewed through Season 5, confirmed as the show’s final season. Season 2 premiered October 29, 2025.
Marriage and Life Outside the Writers Room
She married Eliza Ladensohn on October 26, 2019, at Stone Eagle Golf Club in Palm Desert, California. The two were introduced in 2010 by Clementine Ford, Ariel’s half-sister, shortly before Ariel finished at Yale. The couple have one child together.
Eliza Ladensohn is a Wharton School of Business graduate who founded Sloane and Tate in 2008, a women’s intimates line manufactured in Los Angeles using Supima cotton. The brand appeared in Vogue, was carried at Barneys, and was worn by Miley Cyrus in a Rolling Stone shoot.
Cybill Shepherd: The Context Behind the Name
Cybill Shepherd is one of the most recognizable American actresses of the last five decades. Her credits include Moonlighting, Taxi Driver, and The L Word. She has been a vocal LGBTQ+ advocate for years, a commitment rooted in part in the life of her late sister, Gladys Terry Shepherd, who was gay and never felt safe coming out publicly.
On March 27, 2022, Shepherd attended the 94th Academy Awards with Ariel beside her. Getty Images ran the photographs within the hour. Every caption named both women. Not one mentioned that the woman standing in the frame was a supervising producer on the Hulu revival of one of American animation’s most enduring franchises.
The Record, as It Stands
Her writing credits run across three seasons of the Futurama revival, two scripts from Hazbin Hotel’s record-setting Season 1, a Writers Guild of America nomination earned competing against four Simpsons veterans, and a supervising producer role covering more than 30 episodes of Hulu programming. Molly Ariel Shepherd-Oppenheim has been a working television writer and producer for the better part of a decade. Most profiles of her still open with someone else.
Some Quick Facts About Molly Ariel Shepherd-Oppenheim
- Full Name: Molly Ariel Shepherd-Oppenheim
- Professional Name: Ariel Ladensohn
- Born: October 6, 1987, Los Angeles, California
- Parents: Cybill Shepherd (actress), Bruce Oppenheim (chiropractor)
- Twin Brother: Cyrus Zachariah Shepherd-Oppenheim
- Half-Sister: Clementine Ford (actress)
- Education: Yale University, Playwriting
- Known For: Futurama (Hulu), Hazbin Hotel (Prime Video), Solar Opposites (Hulu)
- Married: Eliza Ladensohn, October 26, 2019
Common Questions
Is Molly Ariel Shepherd-Oppenheim Cybill Shepherd’s daughter?
Yes. She is the daughter of actress Cybill Shepherd and chiropractor Bruce Oppenheim. She was born on October 6, 1987, in Los Angeles, and is the twin sister of Cyrus Zachariah Shepherd-Oppenheim.
What has Ariel Ladensohn written?
She is a television writer and producer. Her credits include three written episodes and a supervising producer role on the Hulu revival of Futurama, two Season 1 episodes of Hazbin Hotel on Prime Video, 17 episodes as staff writer and executive story editor on Solar Opposites, and one written episode of Fairfax on Amazon.
Was Ariel Ladensohn nominated for a WGA Award?
Yes. She was nominated for the 2024 Writers Guild of America Award in the Animation category for “I Know What You Did Next Xmas,” an episode she wrote for the Futurama revival on Hulu. The award went to Loni Steele Sosthand for “Carl Carlson Rides Again” from The Simpsons.
Why does Ariel Ladensohn have a different last name than Cybill Shepherd?
She was born Molly Ariel Shepherd-Oppenheim, the daughter of Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Oppenheim. After marrying fashion photographer Eliza Ladensohn in October 2019, she took her wife’s surname and has used Ariel Ladensohn professionally since then.
