Williams began working in television as a writer for
24, for which he wrote a single episode during the first season in 2002. He was then hired as a story editor for the show's second season and reprised his role as a writer for the third season, contributing one more episode. In total, he scripted four episodes of the show. Later, in 2005, Williams became a co-producer and writer for
ER during its twelfth season. He wrote two episodes for the twelfth season, "Two Ships" and "Strange Bedfellows". Williams was then promoted to producer and writer for the thirteenth season and wrote two more episodes, "Jigsaw" and "From Here to Paternity". For the fourteenth season, he was promoted to supervising producer, during which he wrote three episodes: "Gravity", "Believe the Unseen", and "Tandem Repeats". He remained a supervising producer for the fifteenth and final season and wrote two more episodes entitled "Oh, Brother" and "Separation Anxiety". In 2011, Williams joined the writer staff of
Criminal Minds, for which he wrote ten episodes and worked as a co-executive producer. In 2016, actor
Thomas Gibson allegedly kicked Williams in the shin during the production of an episode in which Gibson was directing, leading to Gibson's removal from the production. In 2017, Williams signed a deal with Universal Television. After co-writing the film
Mudbound—adapted from the
novel of the same name by
Hillary Jordan—with director
Dee Rees, the two received a nomination for the
Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2017. In 2024, Williams co-wrote the
Netflix film
The Piano Lesson with its
debut director, Malcolm Washington. Williams credits
Denzel Washington with providing him significant mentorship and encouragement during their work on a television show that never left development and the 2021 film
A Journal for Jordan. == Filmography ==