48 American soap opera writers

Priscilla Kay Alden is an American television writer and the former head writer for the soap opera, The Young and the Restless.

Three-time Emmy-winning writer Sheri Anderson is responsible for helming over 3000 hours of network television. She has been involved in every aspect of the writing process including long-term storyline, daily episode breakdowns, dialogue writing and editing, audition scenes and supervision of the writing staff, as well as having final say in casting. She is recognized as one of the creative forces behind the high romance era of soap opera in the 1980s, the most popular in the genre’s history.

Bradley Phillip Bell is an American television writer and producer. Bell is an eight-time Daytime Emmy Award winner and is executive producer and head writer for The Bold and the Beautiful, an American soap opera.

Loreley "Lee" June Phillip Bell was an American talk show host and soap opera creator. During her career on Chicago television, she hosted over 10,000 programs and, early in her tenure, worked five shows a day, seven days a week. She went on to co-create two of American television's longest-running soap operas.

William Joseph Bell was an American screenwriter and television producer, best known as the creator of the soap operas Another World, The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful.

Mary Martha Byrne is an American actress, singer and television writer. She played the role of Lily Walsh Snyder on the soap opera As the World Turns from 1985 to 1989, then again from 1993 to 2008; as well as, from 2000 to 2003, Lily's twin sister, Rose D'Angelo. Byrne has also appeared in other stage, television and movie roles, including the title role in the 1983 film Anna to the Infinite Power. She is currently executive producer of the digital drama series Anacostia, where she has played the role of Alexis Jordan since 2011. Byrne has won three Daytime Emmy Awards for acting.

Marc Cherry is an American television writer and producer. He is best known for creating the ABC dramedy series Desperate Housewives.

Michael Conforti is an American television writer on the soap opera The Young and the Restless. He played Jeremy Rhodes on Edge of Night, and Wally Bacon on Guiding Light. Conforti later became a writer for the soap opera Guiding Light. He became a co-head writer for All My Children and Guiding Light. Conforti is currently a breakdown writer for the television show The Young and the Restless.

Judy Farrell is an American actress most noted for her role as Nurse Able on the television comedy series M*A*S*H. She performed small roles in several other television series, then later wrote 13 episodes for the soap opera Port Charles.

Alex Gansa is a screenwriter and producer best known as the creator, executive producer and showrunner of the Showtime series Homeland.

Earl Henry Hamner Jr. was an American television writer and producer, best known for his work in the 1970s and 1980s as the creator of two long-running series, The Waltons and Falcon Crest. As a novelist, he is best known for Spencer's Mountain, which was inspired by his own childhood and formed the basis for both the film of the same name and the television series The Waltons, for which he provided voice-over narration.

Hart Hanson is an American-born television writer and producer, as well as an author. His family moved to Canada when he was a child. He received a B.A. from the University of Toronto and a MFA from the University of British Columbia, where he taught briefly. He is the creator, executive producer, and writer of the TV series Bones.

Elizabeth Harrower Seabold was an American actress and television writer.

Allan Heinberg is an American film screenwriter, television writer and producer and comic book writer.

Jim Houghton, is an American actor and soap opera writer. He is best known as an original cast member of CBS prime time soap opera Knots Landing and played the role of Kenny Ward during seasons one through four (1979-1983).

Anne Hummert was the leading creator of daytime radio serials or soap opera dramas during the 1930s and 1940s, responsible for more than three dozen series.

Jason Katims is an American television writer, producer, and playwright. He is best known as the creator of several television series, including Relativity (1996), Roswell (1999–2002), Friday Night Lights (2006–2011), Parenthood (2010–2015), About a Boy (2014–2015) and Rise (2018).

Edward Lawrence Kitsis is an American television writer and producer, best known for his work with his writing partner Adam Horowitz on the popular ABC drama series Lost and Once Upon a Time.

Richard Timothy Kring is an American screenwriter and television producer, best known for his creation of the drama series Strange World, Crossing Jordan, Heroes, and Touch.

Jane Bethel Leslie was an American actress and screenwriter. In her career spanning half a century, she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Laurel Award in 1964, a Tony Award in 1986, and a CableACE Award in 1988.

Judy Lewis was an American actress, writer, producer, and therapist. She was the secret biological daughter of actors Loretta Young and Clark Gable.

Louis James Lipton was an American writer, lyricist, actor, and dean emeritus of the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University in New York City. He was the executive producer, writer, and host of the Bravo cable television series Inside the Actors Studio, which debuted in 1994. He retired from the show in 2018.

Joan McCall is an American screenwriter, producer, actress and religious minister.

Carol Mendelsohn is an American television producer, showrunner, and screenwriter, known for her work on the crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Jan Merlin was an American character actor, television writer, and author.

Carlton Errol Morse was a Louisiana-born producer/journalist best known for his creation of the radio serial One Man's Family, which debuted in 1932 and ran until 1959 as one of the most popular as well as long-running radio soap operas of the time. He also was responsible for the radio serial I Love a Mystery. A radio legend, he experimented with television and published three novels. Morse is considered by many to be one of the best radio scriptwriters.

Ryan Patrick Murphy is an American television writer, director, and producer. He is best known for creating and producing a number of television series, such as Popular (1999–2001), Nip/Tuck (2003–2010), Glee (2009–2015), American Horror Story (2011–present), Scream Queens (2015–2016), American Crime Story (2016-present), Pose (2018–2021), 9-1-1 (2018–present), The Politician (2019–present), 9-1-1: Lone Star (2020–present), Ratched (2020–present), and American Horror Stories (2021–present).

Agnes Nixon was an American television writer and producer, and the creator of the ABC soap operas One Life to Live, All My Children, and Loving.

Martha Mills Noxon is an American television and film writer, director, and producer. She is best known for her work as a screenwriter and executive producer on the supernatural drama series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003). She was also executive producer, writer, and creator of the Bravo comedy-drama series Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce (2015–18) and the Lifetime drama series UnREAL (2015–18). She was an executive producer of the CBS medical drama series Code Black (2015–17).

Monica Owusu-Breen is an American television producer and screenwriter.

Irna Phillips was an American scriptwriter, screenwriter, casting agent and actress. She is best remembered for pioneering a format of the daytime soap opera in the United States geared specifically toward women. Phillips created, produced, and wrote several radio and television daytime serials throughout her career, including Guiding Light, As the World Turns, and Another World. She was also a mentor to several other pioneers of the American daytime soap opera, including Agnes Nixon and William J. Bell.

Matt Reeves is an American filmmaker, director, producer and screenwriter. He first gained recognition for the WB drama series Felicity (1998–2002), which he co-developed with J.J. Abrams. Reeves came to widespread attention for directing the hit monster film Cloverfield (2008), going on to helm the romantic horror film Let Me In (2010) and the critically acclaimed science fiction sequels Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017). He directed the upcoming superhero film The Batman (2022), which stars Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne / Batman.

Donald Paul Roos is an American screenwriter and film director.

Jean Rouverol was an American author, actress and screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios in the 1950s.

Diane Ruggiero-Wright is an American television writer and producer. Her credits include That's Life, Veronica Mars, Free Agents, Dirty Sexy Money, Big Shots, the Mythological X remake The Ex List and iZombie, which she co-created with Rob Thomas. With Thomas, she also co-wrote the script for the Veronica Mars film.

Nick Santora is a writer and producer born in Queens, New York. He won the Best Screenplay of the Competition in the New York City Independent International Film Festival. He has also written and/or produced The Sopranos, The Guardian, Law & Order, Prison Break, Lie to Me, Scorpion and he created and executive produced Beauty and the Geek. Nick also co-wrote/created/executive produced the television series Breakout Kings. He served as executive producer and developer of Scorpion from 2014 to 2018 with 4 seasons.

Mark Schwahn is an American former screenwriter, director, and producer. He is best known as the creator of the WB/CW teen drama series One Tree Hill. His career largely ended in 2018 following several sexual harassment accusations.

Joshua Ian Schwartz is an American screenwriter and television producer. Schwartz is best known for creating and executive producing the Fox teen drama series The O.C. which ran for 4 seasons. Schwartz is also known for developing The CW's series Gossip Girl based on the book of the same name and for co-creating NBC's action-comedy-spy series, Chuck.

Joshua Ray Senter is an American screenwriter best known for his work on the television series Desperate Housewives.

Henry Slesar was an American author, playwright, and copywriter. He is famous for his use of irony and twist endings. After reading Slesar's "M Is for the Many" in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock bought it for adaptation and they began many successful collaborations. Slesar wrote hundreds of scripts for television series and soap operas, leading TV Guide to call him "the writer with the largest audience in America."

Elizabeth Snyder is an American television soap opera writer. She turned down the position of co-Head Writer of One Life to Live in November 2012. That position was accepted by Thom Racina.

Darren Star is an American writer, director and producer of film and television. He is best known for creating the television series Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990–2000), Melrose Place (1992–1999), Sex and the City (1998–2004), Younger (2015–2021) and Emily in Paris (2020–present).

Robert James Thomas is an American author, producer, director and screenwriter. He created the television series Veronica Mars, and co-created 90210 (2008–2013), Party Down (2009–2010), and iZombie (2015–2019).

Glynn Russell Turman is an American actor, writer, director, and producer. Turman is known for his roles as Lew Miles on the prime-time soap opera Peyton Place (1968–1969), high school student Leroy "Preach" Jackson in the 1975 coming-of-age film Cooley High, math professor and retired Army colonel Bradford Taylor on the NBC sitcom A Different World (1988–93), and Baltimore mayor Clarence Royce on the HBO drama series The Wire. He also portrayed Jeremiah Kaan on the Showtime series House of Lies.

Irving Vendig was an American soap opera writer best known for creating The Edge of Night.

Matthew Hoffman Weiner is an American writer, producer, director, actor and author, best known as the creator of the television series Mad Men and The Romanoffs. He is also noted for his work as a writer and executive producer on The Sopranos and for his work as a writer on Becker. He wrote, directed and produced the comedy-drama film Are You Here in 2013, marking his filmmaking debut. He published his first novel Heather, the Totality in 2017.

Michael Christopher White is an American writer, actor and producer for television and film, and reality television show contestant. He has won numerous awards, including the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award for the 2000 film Chuck & Buck, which he wrote and starred in. He has written the screenplays for films such as School of Rock (2003) and Nacho Libre (2006) and has directed several films that he has written, such as Brad's Status (2017). He was the co-creator, executive producer, writer, director and actor on the HBO series Enlightened. White is also known for his appearances on reality television, competing on two seasons of The Amazing Race and later becoming a contestant and runner-up on Survivor. He created, wrote, and directed the 2021 HBO satire comedy miniseries The White Lotus.

Kevin Meade Williamson is an American screenwriter, director, and producer. He is known for creating the WB teen drama series Dawson's Creek (1998–2003), the CW supernatural drama series The Vampire Diaries (2009–2017), the Fox crime thriller series The Following (2013–2015), the CBS crime drama series Stalker (2014–2015), and the CBS All Access thriller series Tell Me a Story (2018–2020).