Lewis R. Hunter is an American screenwriter

Screenwriter

Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

, author and educator and is chairman Emeritus and Professor of Screenwriting at the UCLA Department of Film and Television

UCLA School of Theater Film and Television

The UCLA School of Theatre, Film, and Television , is one of the twelve schools within UCLA. It is located in Los Angeles, California, USA, and is unique in that it combines all three of these aspects into a single school. The graduate programs are usually ranking within the top 3 nationally,...

. He is recognized as one of the best screenwriting teachers in the United States.

His former students and advocates include such people as Adrienne Parks, Allison Anders

Allison Anders

Allison Anders is an American film and television director. Anders has directed many independent films, on which she frequently collaborates with fellow UCLA film school graduate Kurt Voss.-Biography:...

, David Koepp

David Koepp

-Career:As a writer, Koepp has worked on such blockbuster Hollywood films as Jurassic Park, Mission Impossible, and Spider-Man. Koepp had a cameo as the "Unlucky Bastard" in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, in which he was serving as Writer and Second Unit Director.His work as a director has not had...

, Mike Werb

Mike Werb

Mike Werb is an American screenwriter, whose writing credits include Face/Off, The Mask and the story for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.A Los Angeles native, Werb attended Stanford. He is a UCLA Film School graduate....

, Sacha Gervasi

Sacha Gervasi

-Early life and career in screen-writing:Born Alexander Gervasi in London in 1966, Gervasi was educated at Westminster School, and then read modern history at King's College London...

, Dan Pyne, David Titcher

David Titcher

David N. Titcher is a screenwriter. His credits include:*The Librarian: Quest for the Spear*The Curse of King Tut's Tomb*The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines*Around the World in 80 Days*Morgan Stewart's Coming Home...

, Diane Saltzberg, Michael Colleary

Michael Colleary

Michael Colleary is an American screenwriter, film producer and television writer. His writing credits include Face/Off, Firehouse Dog, The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents and the story for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider....

, Don Mancini

Don Mancini

Don Mancini is an American screenwriter, producer, and film director. Mancini is best known for creating the character of Chucky, and writing all of the films in the Child's Play series. Mancini was also the executive producer of Bride of Chucky, and he directed the latest entry in the series;...

, Kathy Stumpe, Darren Star

Darren Star

Darren Bennett Star is an American producer, director and writer for film and television. He is best known for creating the hit TV shows Melrose Place, Beverly Hills, 90210 and Sex and the City.-Career:...

, Alexander Payne

Alexander Payne

Alexander Payne, born Alexander Constantine Papadopoulos is an American film director and screenwriter. His films are noted for their dark humor and satirical depictions of contemporary American society.- Early life :...

 and Tom Shadyac

Tom Shadyac

Thomas Peter "Tom" Shadyac is an American comedian, director, screenwriter, and producer. Shadyac, who was the youngest joke-writer ever for comedian Bob Hope, is widely known for writing and directing the films Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Nutty Professor, Liar Liar, Bruce Almighty, and the...

. Other students include Chuck Loch, Paige Macdonald, Robert Wolfe

Robert Wolfe

Robert Wolfe is a former military Cpt. who fought in both Germany and Japan, as a commander of a recon team and anti-landmine platoon, he was hit in the head twice and afterwards become an archivist...

, Joel Schumacher

Joel Schumacher

Joel T. Schumacher is an American film director, screenwriter and producer.-Early life:Schumacher was born in New York City, the son of Marian and Francis Schumacher. His mother was a Swedish Jew, and his father was a Baptist from Knoxville, Tennessee, who died when Joel was four years old...

, Megan Steinbeck, Robert Roy Poole, Lon Diamond, Laurie Hutlzer, Pamela Gray, William Missouri Downs

William Missouri Downs

William Missouri Downs, also known as Bill Downs, originally from Bay City, Michigan, is an American playwright, director and author.Downs earned his Bachelor's degree at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, his MFA in acting at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his second...

, Robin Russin, Brad Silberling

Brad Silberling

Bradley Mitchell Silberling is an American television and film director. He is married to the actress Amy Brenneman, who he met on the set of NYPD Blue and with whom he has two children, Charlotte Tucker and Bodhi Russell...

, Greg Widen, and many others. Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg

Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...

 has called Hunter "the best screenwriting teacher going".

Hunter lives in the small town of Superior, Nebraska

Superior, Nebraska

Superior is a city in Nuckolls County, Nebraska, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 1,957.Superior bills itself as the "Victorian Capital of Nebraska", and holds an annual Victorian Festival...

 where he teaches seminars for aspiring screenwriters. Every winter, Hunter returns to UCLA to teach his Screenwriting 434 course to graduate students in the screenwriting MFA program, the modern form of which he helped create. In 1998, nine of the ten top-grossing films were written by graduates of UCLA's screenwriting MFA program. His bestselling book on screenwriting is entitled Screenwriting 434.

A native of Nebraska

Nebraska

Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....

, Hunter has a bachelors degree and honorary doctorate from Nebraska Wesleyan University

Nebraska Wesleyan University

Nebraska Wesleyan University is a private, coeducational university located in Lincoln, Nebraska. It was founded in 1887 by Nebraska Methodists. As of 2007, it has 1,600 full-time students and 300 faculty and staff. The school teaches in the tradition of a liberal arts college education....

 (where he was a member of Phi Kappa Tau

Phi Kappa Tau

Phi Kappa Tau is a U.S. national collegiate fraternity.-History:Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity was founded in the Union Literary Society Hall of Miami University's Old Main Building in Oxford, Ohio on March 17, 1906...

 fraternity) and has masters degrees from Northwestern University

Northwestern University

Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

 and UCLA.

Hunter helped to found the American Screenwriters Association and has been inducted into its Hall of Fame.

External links

• Lew Hunter's website