Richard Walter is an American author, educator, screenwriter, commentator, consultant and chairman of the University of California, Los Angeles graduate program in screenwriting. He has written several works, including the Essentials of Screenwriting, published in June 2010, and the novels Escape from Film School and Barry and the Persuasions. Other publications include 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 of the Big Three television networks. He has also written many informational, educational and corporate films, and is a 30-year member of the Writers Guild of America.
Walter 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. Walter is a pop culture critic and media pundit on entertainment history-related topics, such as anti-Americanism and Hollywood, screenwriting as a career,film production and politics. Walter is also a court authorized expert in intellectual property law, in particular plagiarism and copyright infringement.
His sister is the actress Jessica Walter.