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

* ''

'' (2008–2013, writer – 11 episodes, story editor – 40 episodes, supervising producer/producer - 69 episodes) * ''

'' (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