Don Payne (writer)

Payne was born William Donald Payne on May 5, 1964, in Wilmington, North Carolina. He attended New Hanover High School, graduating in 1982; he had been class president. then transferred to and graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he also received a Master of Fine Arts degree in screenwriting. Payne later taught the course. ==Career==

Early career He began his career as a writer for several sitcoms together with his writing partner at the time, John Frink. These sitcoms were short-lived and Payne has deemed them as failures. Further work Payne and Frink joined the writing staff of the animated sitcom The Simpsons in 1998; their first script was the season twelve episode "Insane Clown Poppy", which aired in 2000. Payne shared (with the show's other producers) four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program for his work on The Simpsons and won the Paul Selvin Award from the Writers Guild of America for writing the 2005 episode "Fraudcast News". He and Frink had been nominated for a WGA Award for Animation in 2003, for the episode "The Bart Wants What It Wants". Payne wrote or co-wrote 16 episodes of the show and worked as a producer on over 100; he wrote two final episodes, "White Christmas Blues" and "Labor Pains", which aired posthumously. ==Personal life and death==

Payne had two sons and a daughter with his wife Julie. The Simpsons showrunner Al Jean stated: "Don was a wonderful writer and an even more wonderful man. He was beloved in the ‘Simpsons’ community and his untimely passing is terrible news to us all." The film Thor: The Dark World, which he co-wrote, is dedicated to his memory, as is his final episode of The Simpsons, "White Christmas Blues". ==Writing credits ==

Television • "Treehouse of Horror XI"(2000) (segment "Scary Tales Can Come True") • "Insane Clown Poppy" (2000) • "Bye Bye Nerdie" (2001) • "Simpsons Tall Tales" (2001) • "Treehouse of Horror XII" (2001) (segment "House of Whacks") • "The Bart Wants What It Wants" (2002) • "The Great Louse Detective" (2002) • "Old Yeller Belly" (2003) • "The Wandering Juvie" (2004) • "Fraudcast News" (2004) • "Thank God It's Doomsday" (2005) • "Simpsons Christmas Stories" (2005) • "Little Big Girl" (2007) • "Love, Springfieldian Style" (2008) • "Take My Life, Please" (2009) • "Thursdays with Abie" (2010) • "Labor Pains" (2013) (aired posthumously) • "White Christmas Blues" (2013) (aired posthumously) Film • My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006) • Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) • Thor (2011) • Thor: The Dark World (2013) ==References==