5 Screenwriters You Need to Know: Part VI

By Terris Ko · March 31, 2015

Here are five more writers that have made a meaningful impact on both film and television writing; if you don’t know them yet, it’s time to track down their work and get acquainted.

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Photo: NPR

5. Ryan Murphy

The creator of anthology-style horror series American Horror Story, which took the refreshing approach of changing up its storyline and cast of characters from season to season, Ryan Murphy has not pigeon-holed himself as a genre writer-producer, with credits ranging from social commentary (Nip Tuck) to hip musical comedy (Glee) to romantic drama (Eat, Pray, Love). Now, those worlds are beginning to collide with Murphy’s new show Scream Queens, a comedy horror series that’s been labeled American Horror Story meets Glee.

4. David Benioff

It’s almost as if David Benioff’s feature writing credits were all building blocks in preparation for Benioff to co-create the adaptation of Game of Thrones, the epic period piece (Troy) featuring characters (some superhuman) looking for answers to their origins in order to fight for their futures (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), and haunted characters on either side of guilt and betrayal (The Kite Runner), not to mention infighting and distrust amongst family members (Brothers).

3. Julian Fellowes

(Gosford Park – Oscar, Vanity Fair, The Young Victoria)

Julian Fellowes single-handedly made Masterpiece Theater relevant again with period (soap) drama Downton Abbey, but Downton is only the latest take on English class and family politics from Fellowes, who also wrote Gosford Park (for which he won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen), Vanity Fair, and The Young Victoria.

Next, Fellowes continues in television, this time taking a look across the pond at the American aristocracy in The Gilded Age.

2. Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz

According to them, Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz met in an online chatroom argument over Star Trek vs. Babylon 5 – fighting on the same side. The virtual team-up led to a meeting in person, to a friendship, to a long-standing collaboration that has taken them to writers rooms for Andromeda, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Fringe.

Following assignments on X-Men: First Class (which revived a franchise on its last legs) and Thor (which helped form a solid foundation for Phase One of the Marvel Cinematic Universe), Miller and Stentz have been linked to any number of high profile projects, including big screen adaptations of Power Rangers and The Fall Guy, Top Gun 2, and the companion TV series to the upcoming Terminator: Genisys.

1. Alan Ball

HBO is often closely associated with helping to give way to the current golden age of television by providing shows like The Sopranos and The Wire an open platform to do something different. Among those groundbreaking HBO shows was Six Feet Under, a family drama created by Alan Ball on the heels of his Oscar win for American Beauty. According to Ball, HBO’s notes on his first draft included: “it feels a little safe,” which allowed Ball “free range to go a little deeper, go a little darker, go a little more complicated.”

Ball later helped kick off the latest wave of interest in vampires by creating True Blood, where he re-imagined sexual socio-politics through the prism of a world where vampires come out of hiding.