Lona Williams
Lona Williams | |
|---|---|
 Williams in 1992 | |
| Born | 1966 (age 57–58) United States |
| Occupation(s) | Producer, writer, actress |
| Years active | 1991-present |
Lona Willams (born 1966) is an American television producer, writer and actress.
Williams was raised in Rosemount, Minnesota,[1] where her father, Les, was a middle school math teacher.[citation needed] Williams participated in a number of beauty pageants as a child and was crowned Minnesota's Junior Miss in 1985,[citation needed] before becoming the runner up in the year's America's Junior Miss, winning a $10,000 scholarship.[1][2] She graduated from Rosemount High School shortly thereafter.[citation needed]
Williams attended the University of Minnesota and after taking a screen-writing course there, her teacher encouraged her to move to California to find work. After working as an assistant on one show, Jerry Belson helped her get a job as a writing assistant on The Simpsons.[1] She occasionally provided voices for the show, including that of Amber Dempsey, a single-episode character from "Lisa the Beauty Queen".[3] She noted: "I really was only a typist for the show. But by working on the script, I learned how the scripts were put together. I would go to work and type all day, and come home and work on my spec scripts for The Simpsons and Roseanne."[1]
Bruce Helford hired Williams as a writer on the short-lived Someone Like Me before in 1995 signing her up as a writer and producer on The Drew Carey Show. She stayed for three seasons and wrote the screenplay Dairy Queens which was retitled and released in 1999 as Drop Dead Gorgeous.[1][4] She also wrote the original script for the 2001 film Sugar & Spice.[5]
References
- ^ a b c d e Carey, Tim (1998-10-26). "Rosemount's Lona Williams Has Written Her Way to the Big Time With Scripts For Some of Television's Top Sitcoms and the News Movie, Dairy Queens.". St. Paul Pioneer Press. p. 1B.
- ^ Jim MacDonald (1985-06-22). "There She Is". The Orlando Sentinel. p. A2.
- ^ Richmond, Ray (1997). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to our Favorite Family. Harper Collins Publishers. p. 95. ISBN 0-00-638898-1.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Jeff Vice (1999-06-23). "Drop Dead Gorgeous". The Desert News. p. W03.
- ^ Roger Ebert (2001-01-26). "All the right moves - These cheerleaders are made of more than 'Sugar & Spice'". Chicago Sun-Times. p. 29.