Ethel Doherty (February 2, 1889 – August 12, 1974) was an American screenwriter, writer, and educator active primarily in the 1920s and 1930s.

She began working as a history teacher in Los Angeles public schools, but by night she busied herself writing scenarios and screenplays with her friend Louise Long, who she met while attending the University of Southern California.

[1][2] Frustrated with their lack of success at selling their stories, they taught themselves shorthand and stenography and got jobs at Paramount (then Famous Players–Lasky).

Doherty's first big picture was the screen adaptation of Zane Gray's The Vanishing American in 1925.

They worked steadily in film through the late 1930s before deciding to turn their interests to writing magazines and novels (including 1938's The Seeds of Time).