About
Life Goals: Proving my 11th grade English teacher wrong.
The short version: As far back as I remember, I always wanted to be a gangster. Wait. Wrong intro. Very wrong intro. Here's the new one: As far back as I remember, I always wanted to be a WRITER. That's it. Much better.
This epiphany happened at age 6, just after watching Star Wars for the millionth time. My Mom told me that Luke Skywalker's words were written by someone else. I was blown away. “This is a job?! That people have!?!” I decided at that moment I wanted to be a writer. Maybe I could meet Princess Leia in real life.
After high school, I attended Emerson College in Boston. I chose Emerson not because my two favorite writers went there (Norman Lear and Richard Lagravenese), but because my parents thought I’d get mugged at NYU. After graduation, I moved to Los Angeles, and landed a job as a PA on the first season of Will and Grace. It was awesome. The show was controversial for its time, and a large part of my responsibilities included transporting the hate mail that was sent to the show. (Inexplicably, a lot of it was from Las Vegas.)
Soon after Will and Grace, I met Steve Koren. Steve is a writer who, at the time, was coming off Seinfeld and needed an assistant for a new pilot filming at NBC. He hired me, and the rest is history. Over the course of my nearly 20 years of employment with Steve, I’ve helped develop and pitched jokes for more than 15 network pilots and 30 movie scripts. I’ve worked on the films: Bruce Almighty, Click, A Thousand Words, Just Go With It, Jack & Jill, Grownups, and Pixels.
Earlier in this year, I made the professional decision to branch out. I’ve always been curious about the advertising world because my writing hero—the late, great John Hughes—was a copywriter during the 1970’s (he created the commercial of the man shaving his face with an American Express card). On a lark, I decided to take classes at The Book Shop, an advertising portfolio school in Los Angeles. I instantly fell in love with the process of coming up with ad copy. I learned that an advertisement can provide a powerful, meaningful message if it is designed with ingenuity and irreverence. After completing my courses with Book Shop, I entered my final project, a campaign called “Let’s Chill America,” into the running with the 2019 One Show. The project won a merit award, and so my decision to take this risk was reaffirmed.
So now we’re caught up to today. I know, the gangster story would have been better—trust me, I know. But I have to be honest. So where do we go from here? Simple. If you need an awesome copywriter for an advertising campaign or need help marketing or selling a product, try me. But if you need a ride to the airport, don’t try me. Try Lyft or the Flyaway.
Contact me at Billwritesgood@gmail.com
RESUME:
WRITER’S assistant 5/99-now
Universal Pictures, Dreamworks, Sony Pictures
Assistant to writer/producer Steve Koren. Duties include joke, story, and script pitches for the following movies: “Bruce Almighty,” “Click,” “Get Smart,” “I Love You Man,” “Grown Ups,” “A Thousand Words,” “Just Go With It,” “Jack and Jill,” “Pixels” and “Blended
WRITER 5/99-PRESENT
NBC Studios, Universal TV, CBS Studios
Television development for writer/producer Steve Koren. Duties include jokes, story and script pitches for 14 network pilots.
PROMO WRITER 5/99-PRESENT
Comedy Central/MTV/Sony Pictures
Wrote promo material used during the film promotion for the following movies: “Superstar,” “Bruce Almighty,” “Click,” “Grownups,” “Pixels” and “Blended.”
P.a. 6/98-5/99
NBC Studios, Three Sisters Entertainment
Production assistant on “Conrad Bloom” and “Will and Grace.”