Janine Sherman Barrois is an award-winning writer and showrunner under an exclusive multi-year deal with Warner Bros. through her company, Folding Chair Productions, to create and develop new series. Barrois was an executive producer on all four seasons of Claws, the hit TNT dramedy starring Niecy Nash, and was the showrunner for the first three seasons. In addition, she was the co-showrunner and executive producer of Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam CJ Walker, the award-winning Netflix limited series starring Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer, and was the creator of the highly acclaimed OWN series The Kings of Napa, a drama about an influential family who runs one of the most prestigious Black-owned vineyards in the world. Currently, Janine is showrunning an Apple TV+ limited series, The Big Cigar, the amazing, hilarious, almost-too-good-to-be-true story of how Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton turned to his best friend in Hollywood, Bert Schneider, the producer behind Easy Rider, to help him elude a nationwide manhunt and escape to Cuba while being pursued into exile by the FBI. The show stars André Holland and is directed by Don Cheadle. Barrois and her production company also are executive producers of the Tribeca documentary, Hargrove, a vérité-style film chronicling the last year of trumpet legend Roy Hargrove’s life as he embarks on his final European summer tour.

Barrois made her directorial debut with French Fries, a short she wrote as part of Refinery29's Shatterbox Anthology series, in conjunction with TNT, and with support from the Women at Sundance program. French Fries went on to win the short film category at the famed Crested Butte Film Festival.   Previously, Barrois spent five years as an executive producer on the CBS hit series Criminal Minds. Prior to that, she was an executive producer on the Warner Bros. hit ER, where she worked on the show's final four seasons. Before ER, Barrois spent five seasons on Third Watch, rising from story editor to co-executive producer. She has also written on Eddie Murphy's The PJs, The Jamie Foxx Show, and Lush Life. Barrois is a graduate of the Warner Bros. Writers Workshop and attended Howard University. 

In 2021, Barrois won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Television miniseries for Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam CJ Walker. In 2018, Barrois won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for her episode of Claws entitled "Batshit" and was nominated the following year for another Claws episode. Before that, she won for Outstanding Writing in a Dramatic Series for an episode of Criminal Minds and has had countless other nominations and awards, including the prestigious Humanitas Award for her writing on ER. Additionally, Barrois is active in the WGA where she serves in their Mentoring Program as a judge for their Writer Access Project and on the committee for the showrunner training programs. As a leader, she continues to be an advocate and strive for the advancement of women and people of color in the entertainment industry.

She is also active in the contemporary art world and currently serves on the Hammer Museum’s Board of Advisors.