Jeffrey Stepakoff, a former Hollywood television writer and producer, will deliver a lecture titledThe Rise of the Writer in Hollywoodat 7 p.m. Feb. 19 (Tuesday) in the Browning Cinema of the DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Notre Dame.
Admission is free, but tickets are required and may be ordered in advance from the center box office at 574-631-2800.
Having spent nearly two decades working in Hollywood, Stepakoff will trace the history of scripted entertainment during the era of media consolidation.He will discuss how entertainment became a great American commodity, where the business is going, and what the Writers Guild strike meant for the industry.
Stepakoff has worked on seven primetime staffs and written for 14 different television series, including the Emmy-winningWonder YearsandDawsons Creek,for which he also was a co-executive producer.He developed and wrote major motion pictures, includingTarzan(1999) andBrother Bear(2003) for Disney.
In 2007, Stepakoff published the bookBillion Dollar Kiss: The Kiss that Saved Dawsons Creek and Other Adventures in TV Writing,a revealing account of his experiences in the television industry.
Stepakoff currently resides with his wife and two young daughters in Dunwoody, Ga., and has a professorship in film and television writing at Kennesaw State University.
The lecture is sponsored by the DeBartolo Center; the Browning Cinema; the Department of Film, Television and Theatre; and the Arts and Letters Learning Beyond the Classroom Program.
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