About me
Virgil Williams is an Oscar-nominated screenwriter who most recently adapted August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson for Netflix, which will be released in November of this year. He co-wrote the script with Malcolm Washington, who is also making his feature-film directorial debut. Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington, Danielle Deadwyler, Corey Hawkins, and Ray Fisher starred. Denzel Washington and Todd Black produced. Virgil previously adapted Pulitzer Prize winner Dana Canedy’s best-selling memoir A Journal for Jordan, which was directed by Denzel Washington and starred Michael B. Jordan. Virgil's first big-screen adaptation, Netflix’s Mudbound, netted him Oscar, Critics Choice, Writers Guild, NAACP Image and USC Scripter Award nominations alongside co-writer and director Dee Rees for their extraordinary work adapting Hillary Jordan’s novel. The screenplay was awarded the Humanitas Prize for feature film drama. Williams also executive-produced the film which starred Carey Mulligan, Mary J. Blige, Rob Morgan, Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell, and Garrett Hedlund. The critically acclaimed film was named the ‘Best Film of 2017’ by The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post and has received numerous awards and accolades. Next up for Williams is a small-screen adaptation of S.A. Cosby’s bestselling novel, Blacktop Wasteland, for Peacock. A trailblazing Afro-Latinx voice in Hollywood for nearly two decades, Virgil is a veteran television writer and producer, whose extensive credits include the groundbreaking, Emmy-winning dramas ER and 24; Fox’s The Chicago Code; as well as six seasons on CBS’s long-running drama, Criminal Minds. Williams was born and raised in Chicago, and his scripts often draw from his experiences growing up as a bi-racial kid in a city with a notoriously long history of racial tension. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California.