Douglas Scott Hessler, Ph.D.

Douglas Scott Hessler, an award-winning, internationally known screenwriter will teach screenwriting at Hollins Summer Screenwriting and Film Studies, a program closely associated with its nationally ranked creative writing program. Among the many writers who have graduated from the program are Pulitzer Prize winners Annie Dillard and Henry Taylor and novelists Madison Smartt Bell and Tama Janowitz.

Hessler's teaching focuses on fundamental elements of dramatic film writing, story structure, character development, thematic conflict and story vision. He uses recent film clips as examples. Hessler's own screenplays created numerous television movies and feature films, winning awards at the New York Film Festival, the Houston FilmFest and the Munich Film Festival.

Based in Los Angeles, Hessler has traveled extensively with extended residences in New York, Tokyo, Cologne and Berlin. As a Hollywood studio executive, he managed numerous feature films for Disney's Touchstone Pictures and Cannon Films. Hessler is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, Maryland Institute College of Art and The American Film Institute. He has held visiting lecture appointments at Oita University (Japan), SchreibenSchule (Cologne), Trinity College, UCLA and most recently at Shepherd University.