Richard Walter is a celebrated storytelling guru, movie industry expert, and longtime chairman of UCLA’s legendary graduate program in screenwriting. A screenwriter and published novelist, his latest book, Essentials of Screenwriting, is available in stores now. His previous published works include the novels Escape from Film School and Barry and the Persuasions and screenwriting books The Whole Picture: Strategies for Screenwriting Success in the New Hollywood and Screenwriting: The Art, Craft and Business of Film and Television Writing.

He has written numerous feature assignments for the major studios and has sold material to all three networks. He has also written many informational, educational and corporate films. Richard lectures on screenwriting and storytelling throughout North America and the world. He has conducted master classes in London, Paris, Jerusalem, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, Beijing and Hong Kong.

Students from Richard’s screenwriting program at UCLA have written more than ten projects for Steven Spielberg alone, plus dozens of other Hollywood blockbusters and prestigious indie productions, including two recent Oscar winners for best screenplay: Milk and Sideways.

Richard is a widely viewed pop culture critic and media pundit who has appeared multiple times on The Today Show, The O’Reilly Factor, Hardball, ABC Primetime, Scarborough Country, CBS News Nightwatch, NPR, KABC-Talk Radio and numerous independent television and radio stations. More than a hundred newspaper and magazine articles have described his work and the program he directs at UCLA.

In addition to his stature in the media and academic world as a writer of substantial professional experience, Richard is also a leading expert witness in intellectual property litigation.

For more information and to order the new Essentials of Screenwriting, visit www.richardwalter.com

Escape From Film School tells the sprightly tale of a young man who makes it in Hollywood without ever leaving film school.

When Stuart arrives in California in the Sixties, he is fleeing the draft and he quite literally stumbles into USC's film school. Within a few weeks he is living out of his car and making student films with stolen equipment. Within a few years he is rubbing elbows with a young Mike Ovitz and other characters pulled straight from the pages of Variety.

Blessed with a biting wit and a jaundiced eye, Stuart is a keen observer of the machinations, power plays, and absurdities of the movie biz. His account of his own circuitous progress -- and that of his beautiful and ambitious wife, Veronica; his beautiful and ambitious girlfriend, Ginger; and his loyal daughter, Rainbeaux -- also offers an incisive and satirical look at this bizarre, yet fascinating world. Like The Player, it is a dead-on, often hilarious and occasionally poignant tale about survival and redemption in Hollywood.