Directory Profile
Richard Whitley
Adjunct Associate Professor
Affiliated Divisions:
John Wells Division of Writing for Screen & Television
Richard Whitley’s first job in Hollywood was playing a mutant in a Roger Corman movie. His mutant skills were so impressive B-movie legend Corman hired him to co-write the cult classic ROCK ‘n ROLL HIGH SCHOOL. This lead to writing screenplays for Tri-Star, Universal, Warner Bros., Tri-Star, United Artists, MGM, ABC Films, 20th Century Fox and FOX 2000, as well as scripts for producers Joel Silver and Stuart Cornfeld and directors Joe Dante, John Landis, Amy Heckerling and Joel Schumacher.
In television, Richard has written on the dramas, Space: Above & Beyond, Millennium, Roswell, The Others, Canterbury's Law, ABC’s Emmy nominated Homefront, the Emmy winning SYFY miniseries Taken, as well as writing pilots for CBS, Showtime and NBC/Dreamworks. He’s also written on Roseanne, Arli$$, The Daily Show and was a writer/producer on Michael Moore’s Emmy nominated TV Nation. He’s written articles for the WGA’s Written By, contributed to National Lampoon magazine and has written episodes of Disney’s highly acclaimed animated series’ Recess and Lloyd in Space and the Hub Channel’s Pound Puppies. He also spent one Christmas with the Ramones and is more than happy to talk about it.
He currently has a holiday screenplay with Brian Cox attached to play Santa Claus.
Richard has taught screenwriting at UCLA Extension and hour long TV drama writing at Columbia College’s Semester in L.A. He teaches Screenwriting at the School of Cinematic Arts.