| Lona Williams | |
|---|---|
 Williams in 1992 | |
| Born | (1966-09-26) September 26, 1966 (age 58) Rosemount, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Producer, writer, actress |
| Years active | 1991–present |
Lona Williams (born September 26, 1966) is an American television producer, writer, and actress.
Early life and education
Williams was raised in Rosemount, Minnesota, where her father, Les, was a middle school math teacher. Williams participated in a number of beauty pageants as a child and was crowned Minnesota's Junior Miss in 1985, before becoming the runner up in the year's America's Junior Miss, winning a $10,000 scholarship. She graduated from Rosemount High School shortly thereafter.
Williams attended the University of Minnesota and after she took a screen-writing course there, her teacher encouraged her to move to California to find work.
Career
After working as an assistant on one show, Jerry Belson at The Tracey Ullman Show, helped her get a job as a writing assistant on The Simpsons. She occasionally provided voices for the show, including that of Amber Dempsey, a single-episode character from "Lisa the Beauty Queen". She noted: "I really was only a typist for the show. But by working on the script, I learned how the scripts were put together. I would go to work and type all day, and come home and work on my spec scripts for The Simpsons and Roseanne."
Bruce Helford hired Williams as a writer on the short-lived Someone Like Me before in 1995 signing her up as a writer and producer on The Drew Carey Show. She stayed for three seasons and wrote the screenplay Dairy Queens which was retitled and released in 1999 as Drop Dead Gorgeous. She also wrote the original script for the 2001 film Sugar & Spice (on which she is credited under the pseudonym Mandy Nelson). She co-wrote the script of Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse.
Filmography
Writing
Film
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Drop Dead Gorgeous | Also actor and executive producer |
| 2001 | Sugar & Spice | written under pseudonym Mandy Nelson |
| 2004 | Shark Tale | Additional dialogue |
| 2015 | Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse | Story |
Television
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Hardball | 2 episodes |
| 1995 | Bless This House | Episode: "If It Ain't Broke, Break It" |
| 1995–1999 | The Drew Carey Show | 7 episodes; also producer and story editor |
| 2002 | In My Opinion | Television film |
References
- ^ Birth reference results from FamilySearch.org
- ^ Carey, Tim (October 26, 1998). "Rosemount's Lona Williams Has Written Her Way to the Big Time With Scripts For Some of Television's Top Sitcoms and the News Movie, Dairy Queens.". St. Paul Pioneer Press. p. 1B.
- "Loretta Williams, 70". Alexandria Echo Press. September 11, 2009. Retrieved December 23, 2022.
- "Loretta Williams Nov. 10, 1938 - Sept. 6, 2009". West Central Tribune. September 9, 2009. Retrieved December 23, 2022.
- ^ "America's Junior Miss 1985- Texas' Valerie Lowrance". YouTube. September 14, 2018. Archived from the original on December 14, 2021.
- "1985 'Junior Miss' Chosen". AP NEWS. Retrieved December 23, 2022.
- Groening, Matt (1997). Richmond, Ray; Coffman, Antonia (eds.). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family (1st ed.). New York: HarperPerennial. ISBN 978-0-06-095252-5. LCCN 98141857. OCLC 37796735. OL 433519M.. p. 95.
- Jeff Vice (June 23, 1999). "Drop Dead Gorgeous". Deseret News. p. W03.
- Roger Ebert (January 26, 2001). "All the right moves – These cheerleaders are made of more than 'Sugar & Spice'". Chicago Sun-Times. p. 29.
- Louis Peitzman (July 22, 2014). ""Jesus Loves Winners": How "Drop Dead Gorgeous" Found Cult Success As A Flop". BuzzFeed.