Greg Berlanti Reflects on Major Legacy, Uplifting Diverse Storytellers and Stories He Fought to Get on the Air
variety.comEmily Longeretta It’s nearly impossible to turn on the TV and not see at least one of Greg Berlanti’s shows airing. In fact, over the past few years, Berlanti Productions has had as many as 20 shows on the air at one time — a record-breaking number for a producer and creator.
So, it’s no wonder he’s receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on May 23. Still, he never imagined this type of success.After growing up in rural New York, he attended Northwestern University and thought about a career in theater, but wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. “I knew I liked storytelling.
In college, I quickly realized that I wasn’t a tenth of the actor as some of my compatriots. I’ve always had a great deal of admiration for actors because I knew I couldn’t do it,” he tells Variety. “I always loved television, but it’s more of a retroactive thing where you kind of look back and go, ‘Well, that makes sense.’” He graduated college in 1994 and four years later, landed his first Hollywood job, at age 26, working in Kevin Williamson’s “Dawson’s Creek” writers’ room.“It wasn’t until my very first day I walked into a writers’ room — and I called everybody I could at the end of that day.
It was on ‘Dawson’s Creek.’ The first year on ‘Dawson’s,’ I barely said anything in the room and if I was gonna say anything, I called Julie Plec the night before, like, ‘This is what I think I’m going to say tomorrow,’” Berlanti recalls. “I remember going into that writers’ room and then afterward, go into my office and thinking, this is really the combination of all the things that I love about this business.
Read more on variety.com
