Tom Kapinos

That rare entity that finds success almost immediately upon arriving in Hollywood, Tom Kapinos was a fledgling scribe when he dropped out of the New York University graduate program in dramatic writing, headed to the West Coast and almost immediately landed a behind-the-scenes role on the 1998 WB teen drama "Dawson's Creek." Starting out as a creative consultant and fledgling writer for the show in 1999, Kapinos went on to become an executive producer. Admittedly a tough experience, in later interviews he referred to it as, "like going to a TV grad school and learning how to run a television show." When "Dawson's Creek" ended its run in 2003, Kapinos spent the ensuing years working on a script based on his experiences as someone with goals of becoming a screenwriter with artistic vision and instead finding success down a pop culture path that didn't reflect his creative sensibilities. What started out as a long-form film idea that stalled at 60 pages wound up becoming the pilot for the 2007 Showtime dramedy "Californication." But rather than have the main character pen scripts, Kapinos had David Duchovny's Hank Moody be a New York novelist whose book was turned into a lightweight romantic comedy. Unlike the happily married father of three that Kapinos is, Moody is a philandering, boozy reprobate whose outspokenness and sexual escapades have made him a much-loved anti-hero.