Today’s Industry 101 Podcast episode comes from a writing workshop with John Wells recorded on April 17, 1993.

John discusses why he became a writer, humanistic writing, and gives his advice on writing characters, and the role of the writer’s thematic point of view when working on a script.

He is a producer, writer, and director who has produced over twelve thousand hours of television across his 30+ year career in entertainment.

John’s work includes series such as ER, The West Wing, Shameless, Maid, and The Pitt and films including August: Osage County, Burnt, and The Company Men.

His shows have received over 300 Emmy nominations with 60 Emmy wins and 5 Peabody Awards. He has been nominated for 7 Humanitas Prizes, and won in 2006 for an episode of The West Wing.

John previously served as President of the Writers Guild of America, West from 1999 to 2001 and from 2009 to 2011.

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Learn more about Humanitas’ Industry 101 event series on our website, humanitasprize.org.

Link to the full Humanitas Industry 101 resource collection here: www.humanitasprize.org/101-resource-page.

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Credits:

Host/Writer-Producer: Michelle Franke

Featuring: John Wells

Audio Editor-Producer: Campbell Moore

Writer-Producer: Daniel Plagens

Mixing/Mastering: Jeff Schoeny at Voxstop

Music: "We Don't Stop" and "Got to Be" by Mooveka

Music Licensing: Artlist.io