Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are writers who practise the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media such as films, television programs, comics or video games are based.

Screenwriting is a freelance profession. No education is required to become a professional screenwriter but good storytelling abilities are required. Screenwriters are not hired employees, they are contracted freelancers. Most, if not all, screenwriters start their careers writing on speculation (spec), meaning they write without being hired or paid for it. When such a script is sold, it is called a spec script. What separates a professional screenwriter from an amateur screenwriter is that professional screenwriters are usually represented by a talent agency. Also, professional screenwriters do not work for free often, an amateur will often work for free and are considered writers "in training". Spec scripts are usually penned by unknown professional screenwriters and amateur screenwriters. There are a legion of would-be screenwriters who attempt to enter the film industry but it often takes years of trial-and-error, failure, and gritty persistence to achieve success.

A writer is a person who produces literature or nonfiction, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, essays, articles, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images.

A writer's output sometimes contributes to the cultural content of a society, and a society may value his or her work as art.

Broadly, a writer is anyone who writes, especially one who writes professionally. The term writer is customarily used as a synonym of author, although the latter term has a somewhat broader meaning.

Max Landis (born August 3, 1985) is an American screenwriter.

The son of director John Landis and costume designer and historian Deborah Nadoolman Landis, Max Landis was born in Beverly Hills, California. A bad fit for conventional schooling, he left Beverly Hills High School for a therapeutic boarding school in New England, still graduating with a Beverly Hills High School degree. Since he started writing screenplays at 16, Landis has written 68.

Landis sold his first script at the age of 18, a collaboration with his father, director John Landis, on the Masters of Horror episode "Deer Woman." He would later be asked to return to the series in its second incarnation, Fear Itself, independently penning the episode "Something with Bite." He also wrote for Bluewater Productions' Return To Mysterious Island, a 2008 comic series.

While attending the University of Miami, Landis wrote numerous shorts which were produced by students in the school's film program. Upon leaving the university, Landis went on a "spec-selling streak," having three of his pitches optioned within six months. First, Landis sold Chronicle to producer John Davis and 20th Century Fox's Davis Entertainment. The Chronicle script was previously included on the Black List, an annual compendium of the year's best unproduced screenplays. A documentary-style movie about three Seattle teenagers that develop superpowers after encountering a strange substance in the woods, Chronicle was directed by Josh Trank. Landis has said that the film is not typical of other movies with superpowered characters.