Wilson Shaw

Growing up in a small town in the Deep South gnarled by its gothic shadows, Wilson was highly influenced by a grandmother who instilled the arts, a father who drank far too much, a radiant mother who was miserable and a homelife that often felt like a chaotic John Cassavetes battle royale between two troubled parents. What lies beneath the surface drives everything he writes; people who bury something — grief, guilt, the past, their true nature—until circumstance forces reckoning. He writes thrillers with psychological edge and dramas with dry humor and emotional bite.

Wilson is a New York–trained actor and longtime SAG member with a conservatory MFA. Though he walked away from acting more than a decade ago, years in other writers' scripts as an actor honed his instinct for what can't be faked as a screenwriter: dialogue that lives, characters built from what lies beneath, structure that tautly propels story forward, and an understanding of what directors and actors need on set.

Off duty, Wilson watches movies, reads, or hikes Virginia Hunt Country's rolling hills, where he lives with his wife, cat, and dog.