People | Alumni Board

Iowa alumni have played a transformational role in Hollywood for decades, and the Iowa Writers' Room has been lucky to work with many of these talented and award-winning writers. Past instructors, mentors, and visitors to the Iowa Writers' Room include Mitch Burgess and Robin Green (The Sopranos, Blue Bloods), Dean Bakopoulos (Made for Love), Rick Cleveland (Six Feet Under), David Kajganich (The Terror, Bones and All, A Bigger Splash, Suspiria), Vinnie Wilhelm (Castle Rock), Lila Byock (The Watchmen, The Leftovers), Sam Shaw (Manhattan), Mark Lafferty (The Right Stuff, Halt and Catch Fire), Josh Parkinson (Eastbound and Down), and many more. 

Hawkeyes have captured our collective imagination and helped shape cultural conversations through their work. Our television-writing alumni have embraced this initiative and have guided the its development through an LA-based steering committee. These alumni contribute to the semester-long class and provide vital industry contacts for students interested in entering the entertainment industry. Their collective credits include: Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Manhattan, Blue Bloods, Castle Rock, Six Feet Under, West Wing, House of Cards, Mad Men, Girls, The Terror, Coach, Newhart, The Right Stuff, Gossip Girl and Northern Exposure.

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Iowa Writers' Room Alumni Board

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Lila Byock 

Iowa Writers' Room Alumni Board
Lila Byock earned an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and spent five years on the editorial staff of The New Yorker, before beginning a career in television. Her work on such shows as WATCHMEN, THE LEFTOVERS, CASTLE ROCK, and MANHATTAN has received numerous honors, including two Writers Guild of America awards and an Emmy. Lila has multiple television and feature projects in development. Along with her family, she divides her time between Los Angeles and her home state of Montana.
David Kajganich

David Kajganich 

Iowa Writers' Room Alumni Board
David Kajganich is an award-winning screenwriter and producer. His credits include the films TRUE STORY, starring James Franco and Jonah Hill; A BIGGER SPLASH, starring Ralph Fiennes; SUSPIRIA, starring Tilda Swinton and Dakota Johnson; as well as the limited series THE TERROR, starring Jared Harris, Ciarán Hinds, and Tobias Menzies. Most recently Kajganich wrote and produced BONES AND ALL (2022), his third collaboration with Italian director Luca Guadagnino. David is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. 
Mark Lafferty

Mark Lafferty

Iowa Writers' Room Alumni Board
Mark Lafferty is a writer and producer whose television credits include HALT AND CATCH FIRE (AMC), MANHATTAN (WGN), GENIUS: EINSTEIN (NatGeo), TALES FROM THE LOOP (Amazon), WHITE COLLAR (USA), and CASTLE ROCK (Hulu), for which he shared a Writer’s Guild of America award in 2019.He is currently adapting the John Frankenheimer film SECONDS for AMC. He created and served as showrunner on a television adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s THE RIGHT STUFF for National Geographic and Disney+.
Photo of Josh Parkinson

Josh Parkinson

Iowa Writers' Room Alumni Board
Adjunct Instructor
Josh Parkinson is a writer from Texas who received an M.A. in fiction from Johns Hopkins University. Over the last dozen years he has written feature originals or rewrites for Warner Bros., Sony, Universal, Paramount, and Media Rights Capital, as well as held TV staff-writing positions on the HBO comedy EASTBOUND AND DOWN and the AMC horror series THE TERROR. He has also during that time sold both hour-long drama and half-hour comedy pilots to NBC, CBS, AMC, USA, Showtime, and most recently, Peacock. He continues to live and work in Los Angeles.
sam shaw

Sam Shaw

Iowa Writers' Room Alumni Board
Biography Sam Shaw’s television credits include WGN America’s critically-acclaimed atomic bomb drama MANHATTAN (which he created, wrote, and executive produced), Showtime’s MASTERS OF SEX, and HULU’s CASTLE ROCK, among others. Prior to his work in TV, Shaw’s fiction and journalism appeared on THIS AMERICAN LIFE and in numerous publications and anthologies, including BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES, BEST AMERICAN NONREQUIRED READING, BEST AMERICAN SPORTS WRITING, and BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS. Shaw is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
vinnie w

Vinnie Wilhelm

Iowa Writers' Room Alumni Board
Vinnie Wilhelm is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Over the past decade, he has written for a number of acclaimed television shows, including MANHATTAN, THE TERROR, CASTLE ROCK, and PENNY DREADFUL. In addition to TV writing, Wilhelm is also the author of the story collection IN THE ABSENCE OF PREDATORS; his fiction has received fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts and the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center.