Christian McLaughlin (born September 29, 1967 in

Houlton, Maine Houlton is a town in Aroostook County, Maine, on the Canada–United States border. As of the 2020 census, the town's population was 6,055. It is perhaps best known for being at the northern terminus of Interstate 95 and as the birthplace of Sam ...

) is a television writer, producer, and author. McLaughlin is a graduate of Radio-Television-Film at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. He gained notoriety in his early twenties with the publication of his novels, ''Glamourpuss'' and ''Sex Toys of the Gods''.

Television credits

McLaughlin worked as a script writer on: *''

The Parent 'Hood ''The Parent 'Hood'' is an American sitcom television series that aired on The WB from January 18, 1995, to July 25, 1999. The series starred Robert Townsend and Suzzanne Douglas. Originally to be titled ''Father Knows Nothing'' (a parody of th ...

'' *''

Clueless ''Clueless'' is a 1995 American coming-of-age teen comedy film written and directed by Amy Heckerling. It stars Alicia Silverstone with supporting roles by Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy and Paul Rudd. It was produced by Scott Rudin and Robert La ...

'' *'' The Crew'' *'' Married... with Children'' *'' Grown Ups'' *''

The Bold and the Beautiful ''The Bold and the Beautiful'' (often referred to as ''B&B'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. It premiered on March 23, 1987, as a sister show to the Bells' other soap opera ''The Yo ...

'' *'' Brandy & Mr. Whiskers'' *''

Drawn Together ''Drawn Together'' is an American adult animation, adult animated sitcom created by Dave Jeser and Matt Silverstein and premiered on Comedy Central on October 27, 2004. The series is a parody of ''The Surreal Life'' and follows the misadventures ...

'' *''

The Suite Life of Zack & Cody ''The Suite Life of Zack & Cody'' is an American sitcom created by Danny Kallis and Jim Geoghan. The series aired on Disney Channel from March 18, 2005, to September 1, 2008. The series was nominated for an Emmy Award three times and was also ...

'' *''

Desperate Housewives ''Desperate Housewives'' is an American comedy-drama soap opera television series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Marc Cherry, Cherry Productions. It aired for eight seasons on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from Octobe ...

'' *'' Hot Properties'' *''

The Young and the Restless ''The Young and the Restless'' (often abbreviated as ''Y&R'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in fictional Genoa City (not the real-life similarly-named Genoa City, Wi ...

'' *'' Jessie'' *'' Corn & Peg'' He served as a creative consultant for the 2004

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

reality special ''

Seriously, Dude, I'm Gay ''Seriously, Dude, I'm Gay'' is an unaired American reality television Television special, special planned for broadcast by the Fox Broadcasting Company (Fox). A two-hour special was set to premiere on June 7, 2004, although the special was abru ...

'' but the special was pulled from the schedule before airing following complaints from media watchdog

GLAAD GLAAD (), an acronym of Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals ...

. McLaughlin responded to the criticism, saying, "It's unfortunate that a group as well-intentioned as GLAAD is going to set themselves up as censors and judge what other people should be allowed to air or see."

Career

He met his writing partner,

Valerie Ahern Valerie Ahern is an American television screenwriter and producer. She has written episodes for a number of television series since 1995 including ''The Young and the Restless'' (July 27, 2007 – November 29, 2007; April 4, 2008 – July 7, 2008) ...

, at the

, and started writing sitcom spec scripts together a year later. Together, they created and produced MTV's Emmy nominated

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

Spyder Games ''Spyder Games'' was an American television series that was broadcast on MTV from June 18 to September 20, 2001. MTV's second and last foray into the soap opera format following the run of the anthology series ''Undressed'', the series was origi ...

'' (originally called ''Spyder Web'') after being approached by Drew Tappon at MTV Series Development; they are currently working with

Maverick Television Maverick Television is a television and media production company. Notable Maverick programmes include the health brand ''Embarrassing Bodies'', the make-over shows '' 10 Years Younger'' and ''How to Look Good Naked'', and the documentary seri ...

to create the first all-LGBT serial, ''San Rafael'', for MTV's new gay channel,

Logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...

. According to Logo, ''San Rafael'' is about "the unexpected schemes and twists in the intertwined lives of a group of LGBT friends and foes living in the same apartment complex." ('' The Advocate'')

David Holman David Holman is a former television producer and executive who worked in New York and Los Angeles. In his six years working for Jim Henson and the Muppets, he helped launch the original ''The Muppet Show'' in 1975, and worked on ''Sesame Street'' ...

, then a production executive at

Columbia Pictures Television Columbia Pictures Television, Inc. (abbreviated as CPT) was launched on May 6, 1974, by Columbia Pictures as an American television production and distribution studio. It is the second name of the Columbia Pictures television division Screen Gem ...

, helped McLaughlin land an internship job at ''

'' in 1989. His supervisor was Michael Minnis, then a

script coordinator A script coordinator is a role in the production of a film or television series. The script coordinator is responsible for producing each draft of the script and annotating it for ease of use for the production team. On a television series the scri ...

and writers' assistant. His internship included script synopsis of ''Y&R'' episodes and extras casting. In 2014, McLaughlin's award-winning satirical play (with

Stan Zimmerman Stan Zimmerman is an American television producer, director and screenwriter. Zimmerman has written for many television series including ''The Golden Girls'', ''Roseanne'' and ''Gilmore Girls'' and the 1996 feature film ''A Very Brady Sequel''. Zi ...

) ''Meet & Greet'' was the breakout hit of the Hollywood Fringe Festival and ran for five months. The duo’s next stage comedy, ''Knife To The Heart'', was performed in May 2018 at the Dorie Theater @ The Complex starring

Andrea Bowen Andrea Bowen is an American actress and singer. She began her career appearing on Broadway musicals, including ''Les Misérables'' and ''The Sound of Music''. In 2004, she began playing the role of Julie Mayer on the ABC comedy-drama series ''Des ...

and

Josh Zuckerman Joshua Ryan Zuckerman (born April 1, 1985) is an American actor. He is known for playing Mark Cullin in the science fiction TV series ''Kyle XY'', Eddie Orlofsky in ''Desperate Housewives'' and Nate Marlowe in the comedy series ''Significant Moth ...

Personal life

McLaughlin is openly gay.

References

External links

*
San Rafael Article
{{DEFAULTSORT:McLaughlin, Christian 1967 births Living people American soap opera writers American television producers American male screenwriters Moody College of Communication alumni Daytime Emmy Award winners American gay writers Soap opera producers People from Houlton, Maine American male television writers Screenwriters from Maine 21st-century LGBT people