Bill Lawrence Biography

William Van Duzer Lawrence IV (known as Bill Lawrence, born December 26, 1968) is an American screenwriter, producer, and director best known as the creator of Scrubs and co-creator of Cougar Town. Lawrence is married to the actress Christa Miller whom he cast in both television series; they have three children together. He has also co-created Spin City, of which he wrote several episodes, and Clone High, which ran for 13 episodes. He has written for many other shows including Friends, The Nanny, and Boy Meets World. Lawrence is related to William Van Duzer Lawrence.

Career

After graduating from the College of William & Mary where he studied English and also was a member of Kappa Alpha Order, Lawrence wrote for hit shows including Friends, Boy Meets World, and The Nanny and produced the animated series Clone High. He also served as the creator of the sitcom Spin City and Scrubs. He is now currently the co-creator, executive producer, writer and director of TBS's current comedy Cougar Town. He is also one of the producers of the rejected television pilot Nobody's Watching. In 2006-07 he was prepping the film Fletch Won (which is a prequel to the previous Fletch films), but after Scrubs star Zach Braff dropped out, Lawrence dropped out as well.

Lawrence has a small role playing himself in It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie in a scene with Miss Piggy along with several members of the Scrubs cast.

Lawrence has appeared in four episodes of Scrubs. He first appeared as an extra in the episode "My Missed Perception" at the end as one of the staff. Then in season 6 as another extra in the coffee shop in "Their Story", then as an offbeat justice of the peace in "My Soul On Fire (Part 2)". His final appearance comes at the end of "My Finale" as the janitor outside Sacred Heart that tears down the "Goodbye J.D." sign as J.D. is leaving.

Shows created

• Cougar Town (2009"present) (co-creator)
  • Produced by ABC Studios and penned by Lawrence and Kevin Biegel.
• Scrubs (2001"2010)
• Clone High (2002"2003) (co-creator)
• Spin City (1996"2002) (co-creator)
  • worked on show (1996"2000)

Lawrence's works

Lawrence has been active since 1993 writing for Friends. He went on to write for Champs, writing the episodes "The Loop and Live" and "Live and Let Breathe". He co-created the popular ABC television show Spin City which lasted for six seasons. He wrote episodes "Pilot", "The Apartment", "Bye Bye Love", "Paul Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", "The Paul Lassiter Story", "Goodbye (Part 2)", and co-wrote the series finale "A Friend in Need".

Then in 2001, he created Scrubs. He has written episodes "My First Day", "My Mentor", "My Nickname", "My Occurrence", "My Overkill", "My T.C.W.", "My Own American Girl", "My Catalyst", "My Changing Ways", "My Intern's Eyes", "My ABC's" and the season eight finale, "My Finale". He has also directed several episodes of the series, which include, "My Dream Job, "My Own American Girl", "My Best Friend's Wedding", "My Old Friend's New Friend, "My Intern's Eyes", "My Rite of Passage", "My Missed Perception", "My Transition", "My Turf War", "My Own Worst Enemy", "My Inconvenient Truth", "My Last Words", "My ABC's", "My Soul on Fire Parts 1 & 2", "My Finale", "Our First Day of School, as well as many uncredited rewrites.

In 2003, Lawrence created Clone High with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, it only lasted for thirteen episodes and wrote Escape to Beer Mountain: A Rope of Sand. His wife, Christa Miller, was cast in Clone High and voiced Cleopatra and several other minor characters.

In 2009, Lawrence co-created, wrote, produced and directed for the ABC sitcom Cougar Town which stars his wife Christa Miller as well as Courteney Cox who Lawrence wrote for on Friends and worked with during her appearances on Scrubs. Cox and her husband at the time David Arquette are also executive producers of the show. The show's fourth season will air in January 2013 on TBS. The show also stars Josh Hopkins, Busy Phillips, Dan Byrd, Brian Van Holt and Ian Gomez. Lawrence made a brief cameo as a policeman on the season three finale episode Into The Great Wide Open broadcast in 2012.

Lawrence credits the works of Franz Kafka and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. as having a large influence on his script writing.

Cameo Roles

Scrubs

• "Man attending divorce ceremony" - "My New Game"
• "Photographed Doctor" - "My Missed Perception"
• "Man Sitting on Couch" - "My Best Friend's Baby's Baby and My Baby's Baby"
• "Coffee House Customer" -"Their Story"
• "Man In Dr. Cox's Wave" - "My Identity Crisis"
• "Vaan" (Justice of the Peace) - "My Soul on Fire (Part 2)"
• "A Janitor" - "My Finale"

Cougar Town

• "Policeman" - "Into The Great Wide Open"
• "Only voice" - "You're Gonna Get It!"