Lona Williams | |
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![]() Williams in 1992 | |
Born | [1] Rosemount, Minnesota, U.S. [1] | September 26, 1966
Occupation(s) | Producer, writer, actress |
Years active | 1991–present |
Lona Williams (born September 26, 1966) is an American television producer, writer, and actress.
Williams was raised in Rosemount, Minnesota, [2] [3] [4] where her father, Les, was a middle school math teacher.[ citation needed ] Williams participated in a number of beauty pageants as a child and was crowned Minnesota's Junior Miss in 1985, [5] before becoming the runner up in the year's America's Junior Miss, winning a $10,000 scholarship. [6] [2] [5] She graduated from Rosemount High School shortly thereafter.[ citation needed ]
Williams attended the University of Minnesota and after she took a screen-writing course there, her teacher encouraged her to move to California to find work.
After working as an assistant on one show, Jerry Belson at The Tracey Ullman Show , helped her get a job as a writing assistant on The Simpsons . [2] She occasionally provided voices for the show, including that of Amber Dempsey, a single-episode character from "Lisa the Beauty Queen". [7] She noted: "I really was only a typist for the show. But by working on the script, I learned how the scripts were put together. I would go to work and type all day, and come home and work on my spec scripts for The Simpsons and Roseanne ." [2]
Bruce Helford hired Williams as a writer on the short-lived Someone Like Me before in 1995 signing her up as a writer and producer on The Drew Carey Show . She stayed for three seasons and wrote the screenplay Dairy Queens which was retitled and released in 1999 as Drop Dead Gorgeous . [2] [8] She also wrote the original script for the 2001 film Sugar & Spice (on which she is credited under the pseudonym Mandy Nelson). [9] [10] She co-wrote the script of Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse .
Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
1999 | Drop Dead Gorgeous | Also actor and executive producer |
2001 | Sugar & Spice | written under pseudonym Mandy Nelson |
2004 | Shark Tale | Additional dialogue |
2015 | Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse | Story |
Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
1994 | Hardball | 2 episodes |
1995 | Bless This House | Episode: "If It Ain't Broke, Break It" |
1995–1999 | The Drew Carey Show | 7 episodes; also producer and story editor |
2002 | In My Opinion | Television film |
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