Perhaps the screenwriter most identified with teenage horror and hormones in the 1990s, Kevin Williamson has risen swiftly through the screenwriting ranks, thanks to both the phenomenal success of the Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer series and Dawson's Creek, his hit series for the WB Network. Williamson's scripts tend to be notable for their deft blend of irony, humorous genre knowledge, and self-conscious intelligence, qualities that the screenwriter has essentially made his copyright.
A native of North Carolina, Williamson initially studied film and theater at East Carolina University, moving to Los Angeles to try and break in as an actor. This effort led to little more than bit parts so he turned his attention instead to writing and directing, first striking a deal for Killing Mrs. Tingle, a film that he would eventually direct in 1999 under the revised title of Teaching Mrs. Tingle. The sale of his second work, the script for Scream (1996), followed quickly, and the huge success of the film, as well as its sequel, duly established Williamson as one of Hollywood's newest forces to be reckoned with. In 1997, the same year that Scream 2 was released, the screenwriter further whetted the growing appetite for teen horror films with his script for I Know What You Did Last Summer. Like Scream, it was another self-referential slasher flick that featured some of Hollywood's more photogenic young performers, and, also like Scream, it proved to be incredibly popular.
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