Neil Landau is an American screenwriter,

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

, producer, and director. His film and television credits include the teen comedy ''

Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead ''Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead'' is a 1991 American coming-of-age dark comedy film directed by Stephen Herek, written by Neil Landau and Tara Ison, and starring Christina Applegate, Joanna Cassidy, Keith Coogan, John Getz, and Josh Ch ...

'', ''

Melrose Place ''Melrose Place'' is an American prime-time television soap opera that aired on Fox from July 8, 1992, to May 24, 1999, for seven seasons. The show follows the lives of a group of young adults living in an apartment complex in West Hollywood, ...

'', ''

The Magnificent Seven ''The Magnificent Seven'' is a 1960 American Western film directed by John Sturges. The screenplay, credited to William Roberts, is a remake – in an Old West-style – of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 Japanese film '' Seven Samurai'' (itself init ...

'', '' Doogie Howser, M.D.'', ''

The Secret World of Alex Mack ''The Secret World of Alex Mack'' is an American science fiction television series that aired on Nickelodeon from October 8, 1994, to January 15, 1998. The series was co-created by Ken Lipman and Thomas W. Lynch and was produced by Lynch Entertain ...

'' and MTV's ''

Undressed ''Undressed'' is an American anthology series that aired on MTV from July 26, 1999, to September 5, 2002. The series was created and executive produced by British director Roland Joffé. Synopsis The series follows the relationships (both rom ...

''. Neil has also worked internationally as both co-head-writer and executive script consultant on television and film projects for

Sony Pictures Television International Sony Pictures Television Inc. (abbreviated as SPT) is an American television production and distribution studio. Based at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, California, it is a division of Sony Entertainment's unit Sony Pictures ...

(in Russia),

Freemantle Media Fremantle Limited (), formerly FremantleMedia, is a British Multinational corporation, multinational television production company, production and distribution (marketing), distribution company based in London. The company was founded as Pear ...

(in Australia), and Intereconomia (in Spain).

Career

He has developed numerous one-hour drama TV pilots for several studios and networks including

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

, Touchstone,

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

ABC Family American cable television, cable and satellite television network Freeform (TV channel), Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through four different owners and six different name changes dur ...

, and Lifetime, and has written movies for

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...

, and

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

. He rewrote ''

Tad, The Lost Explorer ''Tad, the Lost Explorer'' (Spanish: ''Las aventuras de Tadeo Jones'', ) is a 2012 Spanish animated adventure comedy film directed by Enrique Gato. The film is a spinoff of Gato's 2004 short film, '' Tadeo Jones'' and its sequel '' Tadeo Jones an ...

'', an animated feature based on the popular “ Tadeo Jones” comic books for El Toro and Paramount. He would then help write both of the film's sequels' English versions. He also worked as executive script consultant on the El Toro-produced film '' Lope'', which was short-listed for an Academy Award as Best Foreign Film. He acted as executive script consultant for the El Toro/

film "Bruc, the Manhunt" in 2010. Neil recently served as Executive Vice-President of Scripted Development for Amedia Film Group located in Moscow (Russia), working with writers, creative producers, story editors, and studio executives, guiding a slate of original projects including feature films, animation, miniseries, made-for-television movies, one-hour drama series, situation comedies, soap operas, and historical docudramas.

Teaching

Neil teaches in the MFA in Screenwriting and Producing Programs at both

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

School of Film & Television and

USC School of Cinematic Arts The USC School of Cinematic Arts is an academic unit of the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles. With a history that dates to the first years of Sound film, talkies, the school descends from America's first ...

. He is also a faculty advisor in the MFA in Writing Program at

Goddard College Goddard College was a Private college, private college with three locations in the United States: Plainfield, Vermont; Port Townsend, Washington; and Seattle. The college offered undergraduate and graduate degree programs. With predecessor ins ...

. He has authored several books on film and television. His first book, ''101 Things I Learned in Film School'' (Grand Central Publishing), was published in May 2010. He is also a contributor to the anthology ''WriteNow! Screenwriting'' (Tarcher/Penguin); published in September 2010. He then wrote ''The Screenwriter's Roadmap'' in 2012, followed by ''The TV Showrunner’s Roadmap'' in 2014. This was followed by ''TV Outside the Box'' in 2016, and ''TV Writing On Demand: Creating Great Content in the Digital Era'' in 2018.

Writing credits

Feature film

Television

Directing

*''The Fred Astaire Complex''

Theatre

*''Johnny on the Spot'' (2002)

Awards and nominations

*The Fred Astaire Complex: Grand Prize by the ''California Media Association'' *Etcetera and Intentions: Best Play-L.A. Valley College One-Act Play Festival

Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (Bank of America) (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in ...

Award for Drama Excellence *UCLA: Outstanding Instructor of the Year 1994

References

External links

*
Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Landau, Neil Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) American male screenwriters American soap opera writers Daytime Emmy Award winners American male television writers Screenwriting instructors American soap opera producers Writers of books about writing fiction