21 Fictional Female Presidents in Film & Television
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The recent Red, White & Royal Blue movie features Uma Thurman, leaning into an interesting Southern accent, portraying President Ellen Claremont, the first female president in the United States. While the U.S. has never elected a woman president, Thurman's Ellen Claremont joins a long list of fictional female presidents in film and television.
The first Madame President appeared on screen in 1953, in the science fiction film Project Moon Base, wherein Ernestine Barrier portrays the president. It's not that substantive as a role, as Jackie Mansky notes in Smithsonian Magazine: "Barrier’s appearance seems to be written as more of a device to shock audiences; her gender is only revealed at the very end of the movie."
Throughout the decades, "most of the women who have made it into the Hollywood White House have made their way there not through election but through ascension," writes Lilly J. Goren in Women and the White House: Gender, Popular Culture, and Presidential Politics. Many fictional female presidents get their role through the deaths or resignations of male presidents.
Here, 21 fictional female presidents in movies and TV shows:
Uma Thurman as Ellen Claremont (Red, White & Royal Blue)
While Red, White & Royal Blue is first and foremost a love story, a subplot of reelection for President Ellen Claremont is in the background—the final scene even features election night, when Claremont declares, "Elections do matter because they give you a voice, and your voice is blended tonight with the voices of millions of Americans just like you: open hearted, fearless and alive to a bolder, brighter, braver future."
Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina Meyer (Veep)
Though the premise of Veep is that Selina Meyer is Vice President, in season three, she becomes president after the current President resigns. Then she looses a presidential race, and decides to run again in season seven. Basically, her character's fight to the presidency is an undercurrent of the entire show. It's a fantastic performance by Louis-Dreyfus, who won six Emmys for her portrayal of Selina.
Cherry Jones as Allison Taylor (24)
Over the course of 24, which follows federal agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), there are numerous presidents and presidential candidates, but in season seven, President Allison Taylor is elected. "She’s not Hillary," Jones said. "She has nothing to do with Hillary. She’s a combination of Eleanor Roosevelt, Golda Meier, and John Wayne. The day just gets harder and harder and harder. I have to keep girding my loins to survive."
Bellamy Young as Melody "Mellie" Grant (Scandal)
Mellie Grant begins Scandal as the First Lady, and over the course of the seasons, she divorces her husband, gets elected Senator, and eventually becomes the first female President of the United States. The last season follows her first year in the presidency, and Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) serves as her chief of staff.
Alfre Woodard as Constance Payton (State of Affairs)
State of Affairs ran for just one season, following CIA analyst Charleston (Katherine Heigl) who presents the daily briefing to President Constance Payton (Woodward). "With Constance Payton, I had the great challenge to figure out how we would have an African-American president following the first African-American president and have the first woman when we haven’t voted a woman into that office yet," Woodward said. "So I had to find a backstory, a real probability, a political reality, of how she got there."
Téa Leoni as Elizabeth McCord (Madam Secretary)
Though much of Madam Secretary focuses on Elizabeth McCord as the Secretary of State, in the final season, she becomes the first female president of the U.S. "If the name of the show had been Madam President, I wouldn’t have been interested," Leoni says. "The president decides between options that other guys bring; I wanted to be the person bringing the options. Being secretary of state was a fantastic way to show the negotiations and compromises and, most of all, the humanity behind those decisions."
Jodi Balfour as Ellen Wilson (For All Mankind)
In this Apple TV+ science fiction drama, Balfour plays an astronaut who becomes NASA administrator, senator, and later president. She's also a gay woman. "This fictional first female president is elected in our imagined world in 1992," Balfour explains. "That alone moves me. I suppose it doesn’t take much these days. But as a lifelong member of 'the second sex,' standing, sitting, acting in that Oval Office felt like conjuring a truer and more beautiful world, one that I trust a lot of us long for."
Christina Appelgate as Diane Steen (Mafia!)
Mafia!, also called Jane Austen's Mafia!, is a 1998 comedy film that spoofs the Godfather and other mafia films, and Christina Appelgate's character Diane Steen is president of the U.S. but gives up pursuing world peace after being woo'd by her ex-boyfriend Tony (Jay Mohr).
Geena Davis as Mackenzie "Mac" Allen (Commander in Chief)
Another one-season drama, Commander in Chief follows President Mackenzie Allen, who becomes president after the sitting president dies. It follows her administration and family. In 2006, while promoting the show, Davis said, "The first female president will rock Washington. It will be equally stunning and noteworthy when finally an independent is president."
Elizabeth Marvel as Elizabeth Keane (Homeland)
In the season six finale of Homeland, Elizabeth Keane, a senator from New York, is elected president. Season seven sees her as president, before she's forced to step down.
"At this moment, at what is happening in our world, it’s a great honor to play a female president. I also really appreciated that they did not just paint her as this noble virtuous hero. She was a survivor. She was a very complicated individual that they created," Marvel said in 2018. "The altruistic virtuosic politician really doesn't exist. I appreciate that they really dug into her complexity and that it wasn’t just a two-dimensional hero."
Meryl Streep as Janie Orlean (Don't Look Up)
In the Netflix satire Don't Look Up, Streep portrays President Janie Orlean, who doesn't want to believe that there's a comet headed to the earth. She was apparently based on both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Robin Wright as Claire Hale Underwood (House of Cards)
In the final season of House of Cards, Claire Underwood succeeds her husband Frank (Kevin Spacey) as president. The storyline neatly wrapped up the political thriller's power-hungry schemes—though this specific plot point was only rewritten after Spacey exited the show.
Polly Bergen as Leslie McCloud (Kisses for My President)
A female president is played for laughs in this 1964 comedy, when her husband Thad (Fred MacMurray) has to navigate being the president's husband (he is less than enthused about his wife's job). Ultimately, Leslie gets pregnant and resigns. Womp womp.
Lynda Carter as Olivia Marsdin (Supergirl)
Wonder Woman herself as the president! In Supergirl, Carter plays President Olivia Marsdin, but (spoilers) is revealed to be an alien and has to resign. "I used Hillary to prepare," Carter said in a 2016 interview. "I saw the way she can be warm and funny and inviting and serious."
Marcia Cross as Claire Haas (Quantico)
Quantico's Claire Haas is a villain in season one when she is just a senator. A former FBI agent, she soon becomes Vice President, then President in season two, but is ultimately forced to resign.
Sela Ward as Elizabeth Lanford (Independence Day: Resurgence)
In the sci-fi film Independence Day: Resurgence, the 2016 sequel to Independence Day (1996), Ward plays the first female president, who lost her family in the first alien invasion. In the movie (sorry, spoiler) she, too, gets killed in an alien invasion. Bummer!
Tess Romero and Gina Rodrgiuez as Elena Cañero-Reed (Diary of a Future President)
This Disney+ series, executive produced by Rodriguez, is the story of Elena before she becomes president. In flash-forwards, we see Elena as president, and but the plot centers on her at 13 years old.
Unfortunately, Diary of a Future President was removed from Disney+ earlier this year. We'll update this if it becomes available to stream again.
Diane Lane as Jennifer Brown (Y: The Last Man)
Y: The Last Man, based on the comics of the same name, is set after a cataclysmic event kills every mammal with a Y chromosome, except a young man named Yorick Brown. Because of the presidential line of succession, Brown's mom, the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee is quickly made Speaker of the House, and becomes president.
Unfortunately, Y: The Last Man was removed from Hulu earlier this year. We'll update this if it becomes available to stream again.
Patricia Wettig as Caroline Reynolds (Prison Break)
Another presidential villain is Prison Break's Caroline Reynolds, who starts as Vice President and is involved with the conspiracy. She eventually poisons and kills the President, becoming President, but doesn't really appear in season two (Wettig was cast on another show), and her character eventually resigns.
Patty Duke as Julia Mansfield (Hail to the Chief)
This 1985 sitcom, which ran for just one season, centers on a female president, President Julia Mansfield, who balances her job with her family. It was canceled after just seven episodes.
Unfortunately, Hail to the Chief is not streaming at the current moment.
Natalie Portman as Taffy Dale (Mars Attacks!)
Near the end of Mars Attacks!, a 1996 science fiction film, the First Family and much of the government is killed in an alien attack—leaving First Daughter Taffy Dale (Portman) as President. Just go with it.
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