Kevin Williamson

**Kevin Meade Williamson** is an American screenwriter, filmmaker, and actor. He is the creator, showrunner, writer and executive producer. of CBS All Access' *Tell Me A Story*.

## Biography

Williamson was born on March 14, 1965 in New Bern, North Carolina to Faye and Wade Williamson, a fisherman. He spent his adolescence near Corpus Christi, Texas, in Aransas Pass, Texas. Williamson's family returned to North Carolina, where he finished out high school. He went on to attend the East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, where he received a BFA in Theatre Arts. After graduation, he moved to New York City to pursue a career in acting. In 1990, he was cast on the soap opera *Another World*, his television debut. He moved to Los Angeles the following year where he landed a number of small roles, including *In Living Color* and *Hard Run*. He wrote his first script, *Killing Mrs. Tingle* (later retitled *Teaching Mrs. Tingle*) while taking classes on screenwriting at UCLA. It was later bought by a production company in 1995 and unfortunately shelved.

Having watched the March 9, 1994, episode of the newsmagazine *Turning Point* on Danny Rolling, a serial killer in Gainesville, Florida, who preyed on college students, Williamson became inspired to write a horror movie script, originally titled *Scary Movie*. In the spring of 1995, Miramax bought the script for $400,000 for their new Dimension Films label. Directed by Wes Craven, the film was renamed *Scream*, and released in the United States on December 20, 1996. It became a commercial blockbuster, ultimately drawing $173 million in ticket sales worldwide. He also wrote the 1997 American slasher film *I Know What You Did Last Summer*, based on a 1973 novel of the same name by Lois Duncan. While the film spawned two sequels, Williams had no involvement in either.

Following the success of *Scream*, Paul Stupin, an executive at Columbia TriStar Television, was convinced Williamson should create a television series for his company. The series came to be known as *Dawson's Creek*, a teen drama about the fictional lives of a close-knit group of friends beginning in high school and continuing into college. The series lasted from 1998 to 2003. Though they had their struggles in getting the series on air as it was initially rejected by FOX network, Williamson and Stupin struck a deal with The WB. With that, Dawson's Creek premiered on January 20, 1998, and was an immediate hit that helped launch the network. In 1999, Williamson left the show to focus on other pursuits, though he later returned to pen the two-part series finale in 2003.

Throughout his career, Williamson experienced a number of failures, such as several show cancellation, including *Wasteland*, *Glory Days*, and *Palm Springs* (later retitled to *Hidden Palms*). However, in 2009, he began developing a new TV series for The CW entitled *The Vampire Diaries*, which was adapted from a novel series of the same name by L.J. Smith. The series premiered on September 10, 2009, and was an instant domestic and international hit for the network. Williamson also developed *The Secret Circle*, another series for the CW, which was from another book series of Vampire Diaries writer, L. J. Smith. However, this too was eventually cancelled. Since then, he has worked on several projects, such as *Scream 4*, *The Following* and *Time After Time*.

## Credits

### Season 1

* "Chapter 1: Hope"
* "Chapter 2: Loss"
* "Chapter 3: Greed"
* "Chapter 4: Rage"
* "Chapter 5: Madness"
* "Chapter 6: Guilt"
* "Chapter 7: Betrayal"
* "Chapter 8: Truth"
* "Chapter 9: Deception"
* "Chapter 10: Forgiveness"

## External Links

* Kevin Williamson at the Internet Movie Database
* Follow Kevin Williamson (@kevwilliamson) on Twitter
* Follow Kevin Williamson (@kevwilliamson) on Instagram

## References

1. ↑ CBS All Access Orders ‘Tell Me A Story’ Dark Fairytale Thriller Series From Kevin Williamson & Kapital Entertainment - Deadline