Peter Nowalk (born September 12, 1978) is an American television writer and producer.
He is known as the creator of the legal thriller, ''
How to Get Away with Murder''.
Early life
Nowalk was raised in
Point Pleasant, New Jersey, and graduated from
Point Pleasant Borough High School in 1996. Speaking of his childhood, he has stated "I think my family's really nice, where I grew up was really pretty and nice, and I wanted to go to the dark side because my life wasn't dark. The TV shows I like are all twisted and dark."
Nowalk attended
Brown University in
Providence, Rhode Island, where he graduated in 2000 with a
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...
degree in American civilization.
He is openly gay.
Career
Nowalk co-wrote ''The Hollywood Assistants Handbook: 86 Rules for Aspiring Power Players'', published by
Workman Publishing Company in 2008. In the same year, Nowalk was hired as a writer for the
Shonda Rhimes medical drama series
''Private Practice''. After a few months, Nowalk began writing for Rhimes' ''
Grey's Anatomy
''Grey's Anatomy'' is an American medical drama television series focusing on the personal and professional lives of surgical internship (medicine), interns, residency (medicine), residents, and attending physician, attendings at the fictional ...
'' as recurring writer and later executive story editor and supervising producer. He is also co-executive producer of ''
Scandal
A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way a ...
''. Nowalk wrote "
Everything's Coming Up Mellie", the seventh episode of the third season of ''Scandal'' in 2013.
How to Get Away with Murder
Nowalk was the creator and executive producer of the
ABC drama series, ''How to Get Away with Murder'' produced by
Shondaland
Shondaland (stylized as ShondaLand from 2005 to 2016 and shondaland thereafter) is an American television production company founded by television writer and producer Shonda Rhimes. She founded it to be one of the production companies of her fir ...
.
The series pilot on September 25, 2014, set a record for DVR playback viewers with 6 million, surpassing the January 27, 2014, record of 5.6 million set by the pilot of ''
The Blacklist''.
Credits
* ''
Grey's Anatomy
''Grey's Anatomy'' is an American medical drama television series focusing on the personal and professional lives of surgical internship (medicine), interns, residency (medicine), residents, and attending physician, attendings at the fictional ...
'' (2008–2013, writer – 11 episodes, story editor – 40 episodes, supervising producer/producer - 69 episodes)
* ''
Scandal
A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way a ...
'' (2013–2018, co-executive producer, writer – episode "
Everything's Coming Up Mellie")
* ''
How to Get Away with Murder'' (2014–2020, executive producer, creator,
showrunner)
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nowalk, Peter
1978 births
Living people
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American screenwriters
21st-century people from New Jersey
American gay writers
American LGBTQ screenwriters
American male television writers
American showrunners
American thriller writers
Brown University alumni
LGBTQ people from New Jersey
People from Point Pleasant, New Jersey
Point Pleasant Borough High School alumni
Screenwriters from New Jersey
Television producers from New Jersey
Writers from Ocean County, New Jersey