Will Scheffer | |
---|---|
Born | September 21, 1969 |
Education | State University of New York, Purchase (BFA) |
Occupation(s) | Producer, Playwright |
Notable work | Big Love , Getting On |
Spouse | Mark V. Olsen |
Will Scheffer is an American playwright, and was co-creator and executive producer of the television series Big Love and the American remake of Getting On with longtime life partner Mark V. Olsen. He is President and CEO of Anima Sola Productions, which he founded with Olsen in 1992 to create television and film content.
His writing credits include Big Love: In the Beginning, Ellis Island,[ citation needed ] Duck Town , Easter , In the Gloaming , The Pact , Citizen Baines , and Getting On . [1]
Scheffer's father, Ben, was a Holocaust survivor, [2] who emigrated from the Netherlands through Ellis Island in 1941. His mother, Sandra, was the daughter of Jews who fled Russia in 1916. [3]
Scheffer attended State University of New York at Purchase where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honors in Theater.[ citation needed ]
In 1997, Scheffer received the Variety magazine "One of the Rising Writers to Watch" award. He has also taught and lectured at Bernard M. Baruch College, Lewis and Clark College and School of Visual Arts, Manhattan, New York City.
Scheffer is openly gay; he and Olsen have been married to each other since the early 1990s. [4] [5] About their collaborative process, Scheffer said: "Mark and I talk everything through but don't actually write together. We take turns on drafts, passing them back and forth for multiple revisions. Sometimes I'll write the first draft and he'll revise and sometimes he'll write the first draft. On set it's looser and we'll have to revise together but we prefer to actually write in our own space. The 'fantasy' image of having desks facing each other and tossing lines back and forth doesn't work for us." [6]
Terrence McNally was an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. Described as "the bard of American theater" and "one of the greatest contemporary playwrights the theater world has yet produced," McNally was the recipient of five Tony Awards. He won the Tony Award for Best Play for Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class and the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ragtime, and received the 2019 Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1996, and he also received the Dramatists Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 and the Lucille Lortel Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2018, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the highest recognition of artistic merit in the United States. His other accolades included an Emmy Award, two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, four Drama Desk Awards, two Lucille Lortel Awards, two Obie Awards, and three Hull-Warriner Awards.
Big Love is an American drama television series created by Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer that aired on HBO from 2006 to 2011. It stars Bill Paxton as the patriarch of a fundamentalist Mormon family in contemporary Utah that practices polygamy, with Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloë Sevigny, and Ginnifer Goodwin portraying his wives. The series charts the family's life in and out of the public sphere in their Salt Lake City suburb, as well as their associations with a fundamentalist compound in the area. It features key supporting performances from Amanda Seyfried, Grace Zabriskie, Daveigh Chase, Matt Ross, Mary Kay Place, Bruce Dern, Melora Walters, and Harry Dean Stanton.
Mark V. Olsen is an American television producer and screenwriter. He was the co-creator and executive producer of the HBO series Big Love and Getting On along with his writing partner and husband Will Scheffer. In 2007, Olsen and Scheffer won a TV Writers Guild of America Award for the pilot episode of Big Love.
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is an American playwright, screenwriter, and comic book writer best known for his work for Marvel Comics and for the television series Glee (2011–2014), Big Love (2009–2011), Riverdale (2017–2023), Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018–2020) and Pretty Little Liars (2022–present). He is chief creative officer of Archie Comics.
"Pilot" is the series premiere of the American drama television series Big Love. The episode was written by series creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer, and directed by Rodrigo García. It originally aired on HBO on March 12, 2006.
"Viagra Blue" is the second episode of the American drama television series Big Love. The episode was written by series creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer, and directed by Charles McDougall. It originally aired on HBO on March 19, 2006.
"Home Invasion" is the third episode of the American drama television series Big Love. The episode was written by series creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer, and directed by Charles McDougall. It originally aired on HBO on March 26, 2006.
"Eclipse" is the fourth episode of the American drama television series Big Love. The episode was written by consulting producer David Manson and series creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer from a story by Manson, and directed by Michael Spiller. It originally aired on HBO on April 2, 2006.
"Affair" is the fifth episode of the American drama television series Big Love. The episode was written by co-executive producer Alexa Junge and series creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer from a story by Junge, and directed by Alan Taylor. It originally aired on HBO on April 9, 2006.
"Easter" is the eighth episode of the American drama television series Big Love. The episode was written by series creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer, and directed by Steve Shill. It originally aired on HBO on April 30, 2006.
"The Ceremony" is the twelfth episode and first season finale of the American drama television series Big Love. The episode was written by series creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer, and directed by Julian Farino. It originally aired on HBO on June 4, 2006.
"The Writing on the Wall" is the second episode of the second season of the American drama television series Big Love. It is the fourteenth overall episode of the series and was written by series creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer, and directed by Sarah Pia Anderson. It originally aired on HBO on June 18, 2007.
"Block Party" is the first episode of the third season of the American drama television series Big Love. It is the 25th overall episode of the series and was written by series creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer, and directed by Dan Attias. It originally aired on HBO on January 18, 2009.
"Empire" is the second episode of the third season of the American drama television series Big Love. It is the 26th overall episode of the series and was written by co-producer Dustin Lance Black and series creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer from a story by Black, and directed by Jim McKay. It originally aired on HBO on January 25, 2009.
"On Trial" is the fourth episode of the third season of the American drama television series Big Love. It is the 28th overall episode of the series and was written by series creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer, and directed by executive producer David Knoller. It originally aired on HBO on February 8, 2009.
"Free at Last" is the first episode of the fourth season of the American drama television series Big Love. It is the 35th overall episode of the series and was written by series creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer, and directed by producer Dan Attias. It originally aired on HBO on January 10, 2010.
"Winter" is the first episode of the fifth season of the American drama television series Big Love. It is the 44th overall episode of the series and was written by series creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer, and directed by David Petrarca. It originally aired on HBO on January 16, 2011.
"D.I.V.O.R.C.E." is the sixth episode of the fifth season of the American drama television series Big Love. It is the 49th overall episode of the series and was written by series creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer, and directed by Howard Deutch. It originally aired on HBO on February 20, 2011.
"When Men and Mountains Meet" is the series finale of the American drama television series Big Love. It is the tenth episode of the fifth season and the 53rd overall episode of the series. The episode was written by series creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer, and directed by Dan Attias. It originally aired on HBO on March 20, 2011.