Jess Oppenheimer was a radio and television writer, producer, and director, best known as the creator, producer and head writer of the TV series I Love Lucy.

Oppenheimer was a comedy writer on Fred Astaire's radio program, a gag writer for Jack Benny, and a comedy writer for The Chase and Sanborn Hour with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, The Rudy Vallee Program, and The Baby Snooks Show starring Fanny Brice. 

His stint as producer, director and head writer of Lucille Ball's radio sitcom, My Favorite Husband, marked the beginning of Oppenheimer's collaboration with writers Madelyn Pugh Davis and Bob Carroll Jr. When CBS agreed to produce I Love Lucy, Ball insisted on Oppenheimer to head up the project. He remained as producer and head writer of the series for five seasons, writing the pilot and 153 episodes with Pugh Davis and Carroll (joined in the fall of 1955 by writers Bob Schiller and Bob Weiskopf).  

Oppenheimer is the winner of two Emmy Awards and five Emmy nominations, a Sylvania Award, and the Writers' Guild of America's Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Achievement.